5th Wave dragged down by poor writing, directing
SCI-FI FLOP: Acclaimed novel features laughable scenes and juvenile dialogue
The poster for the latest alien disaster movie asks the simple question, in capital letters for emphasis: “CAN WE SURVIVE THE 5TH WAVE?”
The resounding answer is also simple and emphatic: “HELL, NO!”
This American movie is wretchedly written and badly directed and edited. Despite being handsome on occasion — especially in woodland sequences with dappled sunlight — it is not just about a disaster on Planet Earth, it is a disaster for Planet Hollywood. The awkward leap from page to screen has been clumsily handled.
Even the movie’s young star — Chloe Grace Moretz as feisty heroine Cassie Sullivan — is weighed down with stupidly juvenile dialogue. Even worse, she is forced to cast smouldering, but embarrassing glances over the bodies of her leading men, Nick Robinson as Ben Parish (a.k.a. Zombie) and Alex Roe as the mysterious Evan Walker. One scene, with Walker bathing topless in a lake and Moretz sneaking longing looks at his six-pack torso, is laughable.
Even with her best efforts, that robs Moretz of her opportunity to compete in the same dystopian, feminist, heroine league as Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games series. Instead, Moretz is locked in a third-rate imitation game. Far more interesting is the dynamic of demented femme heroine Ringer, played with gusto by Maika Monroe. She needs more screen time.
Like The Hunger Games, The 5th Wave is intended as a young adult franchise designed to appeal beyond its core audience. Rick Yancey’s first 5th Wave novel, in an intended trilogy, was published to great acclaim in 2013. Book 2, The Infinite Sea, followed in 2014. The Last Star is set for release on May 24. The 5th Wave clearly ends on an open-ended basis with the “promise” of sequels. Whether or not they are actually filmed may depend on box office results.
Fans of the first novel might and should be bitter over the odd changes to the storyline and especially to the way English director J Blakeson has watered down the violence and the consequences of the actions of both the flawed heroes and the relentless evildoers. The movie is a sanitized, nearly bloodless version of an alien apocalypse initiated by the unemotional cruelty of The Others and the chaotic response of humanity.
Discredit goes to the three waves of credited screenwriters — Jeff Pinkner, Oscar-winning wordsmith Akiva Goldsman and Oscar-nominated veteran Susannah Grant. Blakeson added to the misery by directing in such a “naive” manner that every major plot point and “surprise” twist in the action is obvious, regardless of whether or not you have read Yancey’s book.
Chief among those problems are the cases of the military commander and his sidekick played by Liev Schreiber and Maria Bello. But fussing about that is secondary. The biggest problem is surviving The 5th Wave as a movie.