Review of The 5th Wave (2016) by Chris O — 20 Mar 2016

"The 5th Wave" is an absolute train wreck, supplied with sloppy exposition and little character development, and although it makes an attempt at an interesting story, it doesn't stray from the fact that this film was poorly executed.

"The 5th Wave" follows the story of an alien invasion that takes place through 5 primary waves. Each wave supplies an immediate threat to the human race in an attempt to completely wipe them from extinction. As we follow the story of a young girl named Cassie and her quest to find her brother, we are forced to sit through nearly two hours of boring, meaningless crap.

To start, this movie bored me in every way possible and executed very poorly. It has the potential to be an interesting and emotionally gripping story about hope and humanity, but it really was none of that. The story was very bland with no real originality or style to it, and I won't be able to tell this movie apart from any other young adult sci-fi flick.

They tell the story through awful exposition and lazy ways. They hold your hand throughout the process and don't realize that the audience is smart enough to decipher details on their own. Constantly, characters are blatantly stating a puzzling fact or an irrelevant plot line as a way to let us, the viewers, understand what's happening. It could've been done in a more interesting and unique way, rather than lazily throwing it out there.

This movie truly had awful pacing, and it makes you want to yell at the screen. The first half of the movie was completely rushed throughout, and the first 4 waves managed to last for about 30 minutes. In fact, those waves were far more interesting than the second and third act, but they were unable to straighten out their priorities. There are many scenes that are either way too short, way too long, cliche, uninteresting, or unoriginal. There was not one scene where I could not find something wrong, and I truly have an abundance of scorn and hate toward the story and its pacing.

The characters are severely underdeveloped, as people we don't give a rats ass about are constantly dying throughout, and the filmmakers honestly expect us to care about them. There was not one character that I actually felt attached to, and they all could've died in the end and I would've felt nothing. I'm a very emotional person when it comes to films, and if done right, you can make me cry plenty of times, but not once did I get goosebumps when a character kicked the bucket. No one had an interesting backstory, and the acting didn't help either.

Speaking of the acting, most of the performances in the movie were flat or pale, but Chloe Grace Moretz actually put on a great performance. She didn't just fill her role, but she was able to show a perfect amount of emotion and discipline. I don't care about her character, but her as an actress made me love her even more. No one else is worth talking about so I'll stop there before anyone else's feelings get hurt.

This movie is filled with cliche, unoriginal moments around every turn, and stupidity hides in every lingering shot. I sat there in shock at how boring and predictable this film was, and there was no real attempt to make a genuinely smart adaptation.

The graphics and action scenes aren't mind blowing by any means, and don't stand out enough to persuade you to watch this film. They aren't awful by any means, and you can be ever so slightly entertained when watching it go down, but it didn't make this a good film or anything.

In the end, I had a choice. I could either study for my tests, or watch this monstrosity. I chose to watch this film, and I sorely regret it. It had the potential to be something good, and even started out with a strong opening, but "The 5th Wave" falls short on many, many levels.