She flees and now she begins her quest to find Sam. She learns that the in the 5th wave, the aliens have assumed the human form and she witnesses the military executing the civilians in the camp including her father. They transfer the children first but Cassie misses the bus where Sam is. Out of the blue, the army comes to the camp to transfer the survivors to a military base. The teenager Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) moves with her family to the countryside, but when her mother Lisa (Maggie Siff) dies, her father Oliver (Ron Livingston) decides to go to a refugee camp with Cassie and her young brother Sam (Zackary Arthur). The aliens drain the energy and create diseases and natural disasters. When Earth is attacked by aliens, there is a sequence of waves of destruction to annihilate the population. Any sequels are unlikely but they set up the Scooby gang by the end. As a young adult movie, they could never get dark enough for it to be convincing. Once it's done in detail, questions start arising. The child soldier idea only works in the abstract. The movie and the continuing franchise depend on it. The time could be better spent trying to sell the chemistry between Evan and Cassie.
I'm glad the kids figure out the obvious lie. The child soldier side is less convincing and less compelling. Once the movie splits in two, it becomes boring and unengaging. Meanwhile, Sam is indoctrinated into a military squad of young people led by Ben Parish (Nick Robinson). The military massacres everybody else but Cassie escapes. Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) claims the fourth wave is parasites infesting humans and taking over. Her little brother Sam leaves on the bus. They are told to evacuate by the military. Cassie and her family join a group of refugees. The third is a deadly modified avian flu. They unleash four devastating attacks to destroy humanity. 3/10 Bethany CoxĬassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) is a normal high school girl when aliens arrive on Earth.
In conclusion, not awful but there are a lot of issues here. 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. The ending is sheer nonsense and impossible to take seriously. The characters were generally bland with their development at best sketchy. The twists were obvious and didn't really feel like twists, the big one not excepted. 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 teenage/romantic elements are just awkward and bog the film down, placed inappropriately at times too. The alien-invasion parts suffered from a lack of thrills, no suspense and less than menacing villains. 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. It was the story execution that was particularly underwhelming about 'The 5th Wave'. The dialogue is clunky and excessively cheesy, particularly in the teenage/romantic scenes. While Moretz and the lead cast are game, the children are inept. The direction showed someone not at ease with the material and one finding it difficult to control it. Conversely, the camera work and editing were wanting, being far too drab and hasty-looking rather than dynamic. 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.
In fact, a good deal of the cast are game. Chloe Grace Moretz gives it everything, a very committed performance and comes off well compared to everything else. 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. 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 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. 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. 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.