The 5th Wave

This review may contain spoilers!

This dystopian film resembles what I imagine Falling Skies or the War Of The Worlds would be like if it had been made by Disney Channel. I would give The 5th Wave a 4/10.

This film has some great cinematography, the shots are huge and hectic which really aids in ramping up the action sequences as well as enhancing the threat level. The special effects are pretty good for what they are, the plane crashing and the destruction of the military base look really good. The score for this film suits the blockbuster tone, the incredible work with the booming and intense noises makes the survival and fight scenes all the better.

Chloe Grace Moretz, who played Cassie Sullivan, was a great protagonist for this film; I liked how intense her reactions were to the traumatic events in this film it really made her performance stand out.

However the best performance came from Liev Schreiber, who played Colonel Vosch.What we get in Schreiber is the type of quiet but intimidating antagonist this film demanded, someone you were truly menaced by. I liked how he played up the genuine kind soldier aspect of his role early in the film, his speech to the kids really was one of the best scenes of the film. However his best moment was when he revealed that he was an alien to Robinson while calmly promising to kill him. It was such a gentle yet dangerous performance.

This film is indicative of everything wrong with the bad young adult novel to film adaptations, in that romance or youthful characters are placed in higher importance than engaging plot. There is a romance subplot between two of the film's protagonists that comes out of nowhere and makes you cringe from the weak writing. This film has a great opening scene but then immediately drops the ball with a long and ragged out half an hour of exposition and backstory, this completely messes up the film's pacing for the worst. As the plot progresses the audience is assaulted with a predictable or implausible plotline while slowly being drowned in some of the most basic dialogue I have heard in a while. The editing for this film started off strongly but became a bit tiresome as the film progressed, what really let it down were the fade to black transitions that happened after every scene.

Gabriela Lopez, who played Lizbeth, really should have had a few more scenes in the backstory if they wanted us to care for her role; in saying that it was probably for the best as she really lacked chemistry with Moretz. Nick Robinson, who played Ben Parish, is a really weak protagonist; you don't much care for his storyline about leading a group of child soldiers into combat. Ron Livingston, who played Oliver Sullivan, was underutilised in the flashbacks so his chemistry with Moretz and Arthur was downplayed; his acting was rather stiff so you didn't find much of his dialogue very convincing. Maggie Siff, who played Lisa Sullivan, was perhaps the most underutilised of all in the characters in the flashbacks; she never connected with the other characters in her family so you didn't care when she died. Zackary Arthur, who played Sam Sullivan, wasn't a great child actor; he acted more as a plot point than a character within the film. Maria Bello, who played Sergeant Reznik, gave a very over the top performance; she was a weak antagonist and actress in this film. Maika Monroe, who played Ringer, had one of the few well written characters of the film; however her dialogue delivery and wooden performance made her character hard to watch. Alex Roe, who played Evan Walker, was introduced to give us the awkward and artificial romance subplot of the film; Moretz had no chemistry with him and his wooden line delivery was annoying.