‘The 5th Wave’ Theatrical Review

Let’s take from this review’s namesake, The 5th Wave, and go through the movie five ways. 1) Story, 2) Clichés, 3) Acting , 4) Cute Boys, and 5) Aliens.

First, the story. The movie is based on a book by Rick Yancey and though I haven’t read the book, I might have to. I am a big proponent of “the book is better than the movie” and I thought the story was really enjoyable.

Our main character is Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz), a teenage girl trying to live through five waves of an alien species’ attack on Earth. The first wave knocked out all electricity, the second involved floods and tidal waves, the third wiped out most humans using a modified Avian flu, and the fourth has the aliens invading many human’s brains. Cassie’s little brother Sam (Zackary Arthur), is taken by the army while she is left behind and is on a mission to get him back.

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It makes for a pretty exciting storyline. There are some predictable twists, but there was one that I didn’t entirely see coming: I was expecting it to go right, but it went left. It kept my attention throughout without wavering so this first “wave” of the movie is not so bad. Oh, and they set it up for a sequel which I am totally on board with.

Second, the clichés, and there are many. This movie has every cliché known to young adult novels thrown in there: annoying love triangle, a scary, but tough goth girl, the sweet yet strong girl protagonist who will do anything for her family. No, I swear I didn’t watch Hunger Games again. 

Honestly though, I groaned and grumbled at the screen when a scene became too cliché and sappy, but it didn’t make me hate it. The second wave, though worse than the first, didn’t ruin everything.

As I am telling you my review in waves, it’s expected for things to get worse, just as the events do in the movie. Well sorry folks, in the third wave of my review, things are looking better! Why didn’t I mind the clichés so much? Because the actors handled it beautifully. Chloe Grace Moretz is really growing as an actress and I’m excited to see where her career takes her. 

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Liev Schreiber plays an army Colonel and definitely gives the best performance, but it’s Liev Schreiber! He’s great! He was a level above everyone else, but the kids were very strong as well. Hollywood has a saying that you should never work with animals or kids (supposedly it’s a nightmare). Behind the scenes may have been a different story, but these kids held their own acting-wise, and there were a lot of kids in this movie.

The only performance that felt lacking for me was that of Alex Roe who played one of the love triangle, Evan Walker. Sir, your face is very pretty, but if it could make a different facial expression, I would appreciate it. He could have a good reason for not showing a lot of feelings, but I’ll leave that in spoiler territory.

Now on to the fourth wave, which is just devastating. Devastatingly gorgeous that is. If there is one good reason to see this movie in the theaters it’s to see those very beautiful faces very large. I stated that the fourth wave is cute boys, but truthfully it’s everyone, and there’s no escape. This movie is a CW show brought to the theaters and I am not complaining. Much like in the movie though, the fourth wave doesn’t last very long and we move on to the fifth.

Aliens. Did you imagine the History Channel guy meme too? Great. 

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So many young adult novels are made into movies. We have battled wizards, vampires, werewolves, dictatorships, and even other humans. Now it’s the aliens turn. So is this a new way to spin an old story or does it have something more to say? 

Aliens have been popular in movies since the 1950s. People became obsessed with sci-fi, space, and the future. We were slowly beginning space exploration and wondering if we were alone. The 5th Wave reminds me a lot of The Day the Earth Stood Still and War of the Worlds combined. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, an alien lands on earth and warns humans to not make atomic weapons or the aliens will wipe us out. In War of the Worlds, aliens have come to make the Earth their new home.

Both of these ideas come into play in The 5th Wave. The aliens have come to inhabit Earth, but they need to kill off the humans first. They claim humans are just as bad as them because they have been killing off species for centuries. I like this idea and would love if it could be deepened in the second movie. Without that underlying plot line, it’s just another female-led young adult novel-turned-movie as story makers keep playing “antagonist roulette.”

While I enjoyed the movie, it didn’t completely thrill me. You don’t need to see it in the theaters. Like a good book, wait until you can get it home, curl up under a blanket, and enjoy the attempt at total human annihilation.

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