La quinta ola

Saw 'The 5th Wave' because the concept was a good one, there was interest in how survival, alien invasion and teenage romance would work together and because there is talent in the cast. Was determined not to let my apprehension, as to whether 'The 5th Wave' would execute its good concept well (having seen so many potential wastes recently), get the better of me.

It is a shame that after genuinely wanting to like it, not with the intention to hate it or want to, that 'The 5th Wave' was yet another potential waste, executing its good idea very ordinarily. Not one of the worst cases but one of the most infuriating ones, not irredeemably awful but the cons outweigh the pros and the cons are hardly big in size. It is not that it didn't try, to me it tried too hard, executing its elements underwhelmingly and they just don't go together.

There are a few good things. Chloe Grace Moretz gives it everything, a very committed performance and comes off well compared to everything else. In fact, a good deal of the cast are game.

Production design has some atmosphere and while the effects are variable a few are above so-so, credit is due for not overusing and abusing them that it became a CGI-fest. The start does intrigue.

Conversely, the camera work and editing were wanting, being far too drab and hasty-looking rather than dynamic. Other effects are artificial-looking. The direction showed someone not at ease with the material and one finding it difficult to control it. While Moretz and the lead cast are game, the children are inept.

The dialogue is clunky and excessively cheesy, particularly in the teenage/romantic scenes. It was the story execution that was particularly underwhelming about 'The 5th Wave'. There was not enough at stake for the survival/end-of-the-world element to work, it was too predictable, a lot could be seen from a mile away, and urgency and tension were missing. The alien-invasion parts suffered from a lack of thrills, no suspense and less than menacing villains. The teenage/romantic elements are just awkward and bog the film down, placed inappropriately at times too.

On top of neither element being executed well, they don't go well together, coming over as a muddled jumble of tones and cobbled together storytelling, with every recycled, fatigued cliché imaginable with nothing new done with either. The twists were obvious and didn't really feel like twists, the big one not excepted. The characters were generally bland with their development at best sketchy. The ending is sheer nonsense and impossible to take seriously. Also have felt that open-ended ones hinting at a follow-up are rather risky in case that falls through, watching 'The 5th Wave' did nothing to change my mind on this.

In conclusion, not awful but there are a lot of issues here. 3/10 Bethany Cox

How many of these young adult fiction books are there? Over the past few years we've had a plethora of books made into movies like The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Divergent and Twilight along with their sequels. As long as they make money at the box office, Hollywood shall continue to make them. Another adaptation in the long line of young adult fiction is The 5th Wave which starts off promisingly but then becomes another generic teenage film with a romance subplot and unconvincing action scenes.

Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz) is just a normal teenage girl living happily in Ohio with her father (Ron Livingston), mother (Maggie Siff) and brother, Sam (Zackary Arthur). Their lives change when aliens invade Earth. The aliens inflict wave after wave of attack: the 1st wave refers to electromagnetic pulses being disabled resulting in a loss of communication and transportation; the 2nd wave is a flurry of natural disasters; the 3rd wave is an airborne deadly virus transmitted by birds; the 4th wave is the alien species inhabiting humans like parasites; the 5th wave is alien domination. The adults are separated from the children and the US army led by Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) is taking control of the situation, placing children in quarantine so they can assist in fighting the alien species. Cassie finds herself isolated from her peers and must fight her own battles.

The plot is tense and exciting but that's just for the first half an hour. Once the children have been separated from the adults, things become a bit stale. It doesn't help when there's sizable plot holes throughout the movie. The story then drifts off into a romantic subplot which was just as boring as the Twilight series. When the children are trained to fight the aliens, there's a sense that all excitement has dissipated. If the focus was on Cassie fighting her own battles and trying to find her brother then it would have made for a more exciting movie.

The director is J Blakeson and this is his second directorial effort after The Disappearance of Alice Creed in 2009. It might be another seven years until he is employed again for he has some learning to do. Some of those close-up shots of the actors with their foreheads not in the frame were annoying and several of the fight scenes were difficult to see as they were filmed in natural lighting at night!

Chloe Grace Moretz is developing into a terrific actress if she hasn't reached that level already. She is convincing as the teenager who must make her own decisions when her family is no longer around to support her. The two actors who play her love interests, Nick Robinson and Alex Roe, are both devilishly handsome but their roles could be played by any young, unknown Hollywood heartthrob. Liev Schreiber adds integrity to the production and can always be relied upon to hold the fort in the acting stakes.

There are quite a few clever ideas in this film but the execution could have been much better. If you're a fan of young adult fiction, you won't be too disappointed but for people who have seen many movies, there's nothing new which will cause you to leap for joy. The story sticks pretty much to the generic formula and doesn't reach any great heights. http://mlaimlai2.wix.com/magical-movie-review

The reason to watch this is for Cassie's performance. The reason not to watch it is the rest of the movie. It starts promising. An alien ship orbiting and people wondering what is all that about. A massive EMP wipes out all electrical connections (Wave 1). A flood (Wave 2). Bird Flu (Wave 3). The aliens are depopulating the planet. The few survivors who were immune to the bird flu gather and the military shows up to take them to a military base. Through luck, Cassie misses getting on the bus. By then it becomes very predictable. Cassie still intends to reunite with her brother, who was on the bus, and that is the rest of the story.

Rating it a 7 because it totally kept my attention. However, this could have been a 9. The first 30 minutes are really good. They really should have kept down that serious adult track. Unfortunately it became a teen movie. It's like running a marathon and gassing out after mile 8. They should have kept it adult level, but rather it got a little cheesy making it a kid-level PG-ish feel. All that being said, there was still enough to keep my attention to finish up and I didn't regret my 2-hour investment.

So this basically reminded me of Red Dawn. But I enjoyed it more. For me, Chloe carried the film. And they mix it up enough with action, adventure, and romance. To keep you entertained long enough.

I'm glad they didn't drag out the movie, but disappointed they aren't going to make the other 2 films related to the other books.