But anyways, Cassie (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) is apparently a very different gal, which she explains in long, voiceover detail. You see, the world was a normal place, what with all the teen parties and petty high school arguments. Then, all of the sudden, a giant spacecraft shows up out of nowhere and hovers over Ohio. That’s when a bunch of people are wiped out by the first three “waves” of attacks by these alien visitors. First, all electronics cease to work. Second, large bodies of water destroy the cities nearest to them. Third, a virus sweeps the world killing millions.
Cassie’s mother is killed by the virus, so she joins her father (Ron Livingston) and little brother Sammy (Zackary Arthur) as they gather with the other survivors and await government help. When it arrives, led by Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) and Sergeant Reznik (Maria Bello), they announce that the 4th wave is that the aliens have been taking over human bodies. The army’s idea of combating this is to kill surviving adults and recruit children as soldiers to fight the body-snatching “Others.”
Cassie is able to escape all the army commotion and happens upon a quiet, out-of-the-way farm being run by a guy named Evan (Alex Roe). Cassie and Evan don’t get along at first, partly because Cassie still likes a guy from school named Ben (Nick Robinson) who is one of the army’s top recruits, but they end up working together in an effort to avoid being killed by the rogue Others on their way to being reunited with little Sammy.
Geez, that was a lot of exposition to try to get across in a hurry, and that’s kind of the way the movie operates too. The screenplay by Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman, and Jeff Pinkner was based on a teen novel by Rick Yancey, which is planned to be the first in a trilogy. There’s a lot going on in the movie, more in the way of introduction to the setting of the apocalyptic world and the important characters we’re supposed to care about than in actually telling a start-to-finish story. Basically, this is an exciting two hours with lots happening throughout which all amounts to very little.
Not that that matters, of course. What narrative is present is flimsy and contrived, full of moments that I guess are supposed to surprise us but which are obvious from the get-go (Don’t cast Liev Schreiber as a villain if you want us to think he’s a good guy! You people keeping doing it and I’m not falling for it!), but young people don’t care what’s going on in their end of the world adventures so long as everybody in it is pretty and perpetually looking like they’re about to do a magazine photoshoot. Miss Moretz, whose performances I have liked in the past, is a little too wide-eyed and dopey for a girl who’s supposed to be believably efficient at alien-killing. And her character is written with rather disappointing judgment. When she first meets Evan, she gets very upset that he read her diary and stole her gun, and then lied about it, but then he takes his shirt off and all is forgiven.
I am poking a bit of fun at how silly much of The 5th Wave is, but it really does meet all the expectations and standards a movie like this requires. The characters are empty-headed but likable and the action sequences are largely exciting, especially those featuring large-scale destruction towards the beginning. Director J Blakeson helms the project with brisk pace and impressive visuals, which is all that’s essentially required for the picture to be successful with its Saturday matinee market.
That being said, it is nevertheless very silly and inconsequential, enough to not get a free pass from me. When there are so many post-apocalyptic action series to choose from, one can do better with The Hunger Games movies or the first Maze Runner entry. The 5th Wave works well enough in its own way, but don’t expect it to hold up next to others like it.
C
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