The 5th Wave (2016)

Genre

Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Director

J Blakeson

Country

USA

Cast

Chloë Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson, Ron Livingston, Maggie Siff, Alex Roe, Maria Bello, Maika Monroe, Liev Schreiber, Zackary Arthur, Tony Revolori, Talitha Bateman, Gabriela Lopez, Bailey Anne Borders

Storyline

Four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth in ruin. Against a backdrop of fear and distrust, Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) is on the run, desperately trying to save her younger brother (Zackary Arthur). As she prepares for the inevitable and lethal fifth wave, Cassie teams up with a young man (Alex Roe) who may become her final hope - if she can only trust him.

Opinion

In "Clouds of Sils Maria" there's a scene in which the characters played by Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart are watching a ridiculous science fiction blockbuster starring the character played by Chloë Grace Moretz. Well, "The 5th Wave" unwittingly resembles that awful film within the film, and is nothing more than just another young adult post-apocalyptic film. Because these days we don't have enough of those *cough* The Hunger Games *cough* The Divergent Series *cough* The Maze Runner *cough*

The story is very flat and predictable, and I was like "Hello? Is any plot twist home?" most of the time. The beginning isn't even that terrible - ordinary people living their lives until something attacks the Earth and everyone panics - but the original aliens-invasion idea and its inevitable dystopian future does not work on any level.

The film also gets very non interesting when the story decides to focus on a soppy teen romance that slightly looks like "Twilight", and that turns the film more into an action/romance/fantasy thing rather than a Sci-Fi flick.

And since I'm talking about Sci-Fi, the film fails on the entire technological line, completely lacking in special effects. In some cases you can spot a few, but they are so bad you can't really call them special effects. I know that most blockbusters suck, but at least they usually have amusing special effects.

Still there's something so impossible than may help the film fall in the science fiction genre: Cassie's hair always looks so clean and perfectly curled, even after living in the woods for days, and her nail polish mysteriously disappears. I doubt aliens removed it in her sleep.

After all it looks like this was just another teen dystopian flick with no purpose other than to give Chloë Grace Moretz - which is decent, though looks like she doesn't want to be there - a lead role as the badass girl.