I should mention first that I have not read the 2013 book by Rick Yancey on which this film is based. This is a review of the film on its own merits and not a judge of how successful a screen adaptation it is…
It did not bode well that my local Vue cinema pulled The 5th Wave after just ten days, so I set off to the Odeon with some trepidation.
It is hard to know where to start when reviewing a film where a huge alien vessel is suspended above the earth. We’ve been there so many times before. But it’s OK, if you were concerned that this film would be yet another sci-fi fight for survival against seemingly invincible aliens, wreaking havoc upon the people of earth, do not worry. It is so much less than that. This movie is a Disney Channel-style teenage romance triangle with the impending end of the world as we know it going on somewhere in the background.
The Young Adult book category has produced some excellent screen adaptations in recent years such as the sparkling Twilight saga and most recently the brilliant Hunger Games trilogy/quadrilogy. One of the reasons these were such strong films is that they were not obviously aimed at a particular age group. These films were story-driven and faithful to the original books, this resulted in great movies with wide appeal. Unfortunately this is where The 5th Wave comes unstuck almost right from the start.
‘Peww peww’ – Actor Nick Robinson firing a gun in some woods while Chloe Moretz vacantly looks into the distance.
After what is by any standards a very good opening sequence where we meet our 16-year-old protagonist Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz), we are then plunged deep into Teensville USA with all the associated high-school preoccupations and clichés. But now cheerleader rehearsals for the girls have been replaced by soccer practice while the boys, of course, are on the football field. Here we find our heartthrob, star football-player and rebel without any cause whatsoever, Ben Parish (Nick Robinson). Cassie likes him. Her best friend Lizbeth has a crush on him too. We meet Cassie’s family; mom, dad, kid brother Sam plus teddy bear and then the disasters begin.
The aliens unleash the first four ‘waves’ and lots of people die – weirdly Cassie keeps a journal while all this is going on! She meets the supernaturally strong Evan Walker (Alex Roe) and then sets out to try and find her brother from whom she got separated earlier on. I’m not going to say much more about the plot as the story does actually contain one twist, albeit entirely predictable.
The backdrop and battleground for mankind’s fight against the nasty aliens is the autumnal forests of Ohio – in fact if you love trees you’ll love this film. There are loads of them; filmed from below looking upwards, from the top looking downwards, from the side. Seriously there are huge tracts of the movie filmed in the woods, with Cassie mainly crying while running and stumbling through dead leaves. That this is so noticeable is a symptom of the film lacking a coherent focus or balance between the two main story strands.
The special effects in the film, particularly those depicting the second wave, are unconvincing. Also it was often hard to distinguish what was going on during the film’s night-time sequences and I did wonder if this was more of a cinema issue. However I have since noted that others have mentioned this.
There are some superb actors in this film. Ron Livingston is wonderful as Cassie’s dad. I’ve always rated Maria Bello (Sergeant Reznik), however lacklustre direction and a poor script wasted great talent. I’ve got to give a mention to Maika Monroe as Ringer whose performance lifted the movie right at the time when it badly needed it, but overall the film lacked heart or warmth. As a result most of the characterisation was superficial so I struggled to care what happened to anyone.
Chloe Grace Moretz who plays Cassie may well be a major talent but it’s hard to realise, given the tools she had to work with. Aside from the script’s shortcomings the director (J Blakeson) had obviously told her to play it ‘nice’. There was no point at which Cassie screamed to the world, “No more Mr Nice Guy” and unleashed her anger for all the bad things that had happened to her. She stayed ‘nice’ whatever happened and you could almost see her mouthing the word, “Sorry” every time someone got killed.
There are some magnificent films out there at the moment as we hit the awards season, but this is a below average film that has missed the mark by taking aim and misfiring at such a specific target audience.
4/10
Author – Simon, Norwich store
