Movie Review: The 5th Wave

A lot of film trends can be found in Hollywood nowadays but films set in dystopian societies that are based on young adult novels are something else. First, you had The Hunger Games in 2012 setting the standard for these films. Next, and both coming out in 2014, were Divergent and The Maze Runner to add to the trend. Both very similar films, even though The Maze Runner was a bit more original. This dystopian trend continues in 2016 with the new film The 5th Wave.

Based on the novel written by Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave follows teenager Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz), who is living a normal teenage life in Ohio until aliens, or the “Others,” take over the planet and kill most of the human population through a series of attacks. The few humans that are left live in refugee camps in Ohio until an army colonel named Vosch (Liev Schreiber) takes the few children at the camp to start an army and fight off the aliens.

I’ve always liked The 5th Wave star Chloe Grace Moretz, and her future is going to be interesting. From the upcoming Neighbors 2 and now this series, which is supposed to be trilogy, she has a lot going for her given her current filmography. She plays a dry main character with a lack of depth in The 5th Wave but she does her usual good work and some pretty decent action scenes to make up for her bad character. Remembered for his role in Jurassic World last year, actor Ben Robinson plays jock character Ben Parish. Parish eventually turns out to be one of the leaders in his army squad and as much as Moretz, Robinson makes this character work despite being another character without depth.

Along the way, Cassie is separated from the camp and eventually goes on this big quest through her dystopian society to rescue her brother Sam (Zackary Arthur). Eventually, she is attacked by the Others but is saved at the same time by civilian Evan Walker (Alex Roe). The film tries to give us this romantic relationship between them which brings up some real awkward scenes and the chemistry between them is lacking. It’s a relationship you can just tell the filmmakers plan to add more to if we do get sequels to this. Even more so, the Walker character is a real struggle in the film’s third act and a lot goes unexplained about him.

Even more of an issue, while still a highlight, are the Aliens. They give us a twist midway through that’s pretty predictable but adds such originality to the dystopian genre, it’s forgivable. The alien villains provide good action scenes with earthquakes and tsunamis, but how are they launching these attacks is the bigger question? How did they make the big alien ships? Sure, they explained briefly why they want to take over earth, but it’s still very vague. There are so many questions that don’t get resolved.

The element that’s going to be forgotten in The 5th Wave is the atmosphere. Shot in Georgia, you have some nice wilderness scenery. The army base seems such like a good set location even if it is a little too much for the society we are in. Even more so, the refugee camp has a nice vibe that makes you wish the story provided more coverage of it.

The 5th Wave has its moments but it feels like the same old material. As much as Divergent and The Maze Runner, I won’t remember much of The 5th Wave, nor did I like it as much as other dystopian films, but I can still say The 5th Wave has enough in it to make it above average.

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Alexander Wolff

Alexander Wolff started writing film reviews at a young age and continues to do so in his college days on a daily basis. A critic for numerous websites and a member of the film press. Famous for living right by 8 Mile, Alexander spends many weekends in Toledo, Ohio as a huge supporter of Toledo Walleye hockey and Toledo sports.

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