Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz) must survive in a
world besieged
by an alien invasion which comes in waves.
The first wave is loss of power, the second wave is disaster, the third
wave is disease, and now the fifth wave is about to begin as Cassie travels to
reunite with her kid brother. The US
military has recruited kids in their fight to kill the aliens known as the
Others.
THE 5TH WAVE
is a solid alien invasion thriller with Chloe Grace Moretz delivering a solid
and fragile performance as Cassie, but Maika Monroe steals every scene she is
in as the character Ringer (which makes me wish THE 5th WAVE
was all from Ringer’s POV). Even though
the film starts not at the beginning, but thankfully the events told in
flashback don’t ruin the plot. I hope
they make the sequel soon which I hear is from Ringer’s POV, but I think
Columbia pictures will probably want the movie be based on Cassie’s POV. I
love about almost every movie Chloe is in,
but Maika just plays just a badass character that she gives Chloe a run for her
money when it comes to character performance.
The actor who has the thankless performance is Liev Schreiber who plays
the generic military figure of authority who is more than meets the eye. So
probably the only big complaint with the
movie are the alien bad guys are pretty faceless and the movie could have spent
a little more time developing many of the characters instead of it just being
Cassie’s journey mixed in with knowing a little bit about the other characters
including Ben (aka Zombie), Ringer, and Cassie’s little brother. Movie
adaptations of Young Adult novels are
big business as every movie studio is looking for the next HUNGER GAMES or
Harry Potter success. Hopefully there
is a sequel to THE 5TH WAVE as it
is at least entertaining enough for one watch whether you go see it in theaters
or wait to rent it on digital, DVD, or
blu-ray
This review is ©1-28-2016
David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments
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