Caffeinated Clint
I don’t know that the Owls that pop up occasionally in J Blakeson’s film adaptation of Rick Yancey young adult novel ‘’The 5th Wave’’ are supposed to have any kind of meaning but as a motif for the product itself they’re a good fit. While the audience will be wide-eyed, curious and mostly intrigued by what’s going on – and occasionally might even let out a hoot! (likely when its fresh-from-the-gym male lead strips his tee off) – they’ll likely also remain unmoved.
A post-apocalyptic world – without Facebook. The children that remain our last hope. The everyday teenage girl forced to step up and play heroine. The band of rebels forced to band together to defeat the corrupt, mysterious leader. The training camp that turns mush into muscle. The lass who has eyes for two guys. The esteemed thesps playing second-fiddle villains. Got it? (Yep, “The 5Th Wave” is a Mockingjay short of being a full-blown continuation of that other tween-targeted franchise, but at the same time, so are the dozen other films in the sub-genre that have helped sell Maltesers over the past couple of years.)
A strange spaceship has arrived, sitting atop of the skyline ready to make its move. When they do, the earthlings below scatter or go splat. Teenager Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz) accompanies her father (Ron Livingston in a rather thankless role) and younger brother (Zackary Arthur) to a survivor’s camp – before the army turns up and splits the kids up from their parents. As it turns out, Cassie ends up split up from everyone – and soon finds herself unaided but armed, as she stalks the forest en route to save her brother.
Later, Cassie teams with an all-too helpful and handy young stranger (Alex Roe) who opens the teenager’s eyes to what’s really going on.
Much like “The Hunger Games” – and for that matter, “Twilight”, “The Mortal Instruments”, “Tomorrow When The War Began” and “Beautiful Creatures” – the bulk of the appeal of “The 5Th Wave” lies within it’s attractive, intriguing and well-cast female lead. She may be best remembered for her role as a rogue kick-butt superhero (Hit-Girl from the “Kick-Ass” films) but yet when young Cassie is forced to toughen up and play both protector and savior, you believe her. Sure, she learns how to shoot a gun conveniently quickly, and she also seems to be able to combat any and all emotional scarring (no time for tears here, kids!), but Moretz – definitely one of the best young actresses around at the moment – has a tendency to make you not only believe but barrack. Much like Liev Schreiber, who adds gravitas to the film as the film’s shadowy authority figure, helping silver up some relatively bronze material, Moretz adds a heavy doorstop to a relatively thinly-built opening that swings in and out a little too much.
The libretto – by Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner – suggests that there’s a compelling adventure within the pages of the books “Wave” is based upon, but the trio of writers’ sloppiness in connecting the dots and making sure crosses off all the pivotal moments in the tale will likely needle more cackles than commendation. So, yes, while the script seems to have been written by a bag of pop rocks, with some bits popping (the invasion scenes are well-done and there’s some terrifically-choreographed action scenes) and others completely fizzing (a slow-mo up-and-down-the-bod shot of the shirtless kid? Way to vitiate the art),one can’t see many literature-loving teen girls calling the clunkiness police –they’ll be too preoccupied with the tonsured abs, treacly love triangles and Moretz’s plucky, spunky insta-hero. And in all honesty, there’s no crime committed in the script for “5th Wave” that scribes of some of the other YA-adaptations still aren’t serving hard time for.
The target audience wants to have a good time, they don’t care about factual imprecisions and slovenly scripting, and entertainment-wise, this thing does deliver. In fact, it’s more entertaining than the last couple of “Hunger Games” movies combined (If I wanted to watch guns and policymaking in the same frame I’d microfiche up an old cover story on Charlton Heston) – and you don’t have to sit through the sluggish speeches to get to the good stuff.
For what it is, a light, teen-targeted adventure movie that features a fun apocalyptic tale anchored by a reasonably intriguing band of characters – led by Moretz’s plucky Cassie, ‘’The 5th Wave’’ makes enough of a splash to keep the sub-genre above-water a little longer.
