The 5th Wave

RATING: D+

One of the more recent trend surges in film has been the book-to-movie adaptions of various young adult series; most of them dystopian, with Hunger Games, Maze Runner and Divergent leading the way. This one, however, could hardly be considered dystopian at all; if anything, it's a little more like I Am Number Four in that it's a young adult series about aliens, even if the plots are quite different. Unfortunately, just like that other series, the film adaptions might be doomed to defeat after the first one. 

The 5th Wave revolves around a group of aliens that attack Earth via different "waves" or styles of attack in order to exterminate the humans. The first wave? Worldwide EMP. The second wave? Literal waves. The third wave? Ebola rip-off. Fourth wave? Taking over human's bodies, apparently. The fifth wave? Remains yet to be seen. 

This one girl named Cassie is the protagonist, and she doesn't really get involved in the conflict until the fourth wave when the Army starts training the kids to fight back and she and her little brother Sam are accidentally separated. On her own, she is forced to go after him, though she is joined by a mysterious stranger named Evan whose intentions are somewhat unclear. 

The 5th Wave actually has a very interesting idea, revolving around aliens wiping us out via a step-by-step process. The plot twist that reveals what the 5th wave actually is is pretty genius (even if you're able to see it coming before it's actually revealed). I'm sure the book is probably quite a bit better, but unfortunately, there's a lot of nonsense to sit through in the movie. 

For starters, the acting is quite lackluster; although that may have more to do with the script, or lack thereof. The direction, despite a couple decent set pieces and camera shots, is quite sloppy and some parts of the film don't make much sense as well (though I'm sure they're explained in the book). You're left asking random questions like, "How in the world do the soldiers get the Army vehicles and school buses working after the EMP?" and "Why would soldiers or anyone, for that matter, train kids that aren't even teenagers to go into the field, since they should still have plenty of forces otherwise?" 

The 5th Wave is a quite a mess; which is unfortunate, because it has a pretty interesting basic story/idea surrounding it. You get the feeling that this could've been a much better movie had they gotten the right people working on it. But this particular series didn't have that kind of luck, and it looks like it won't survive long enough to become an actual "series."