I got the chance to watch The 5th Wave early from Penguin Teen Australia and Dymocks.
First, I want to say that I have not read the books. So I went into the movie blind – I knew things that happened because I did a little research, but other than that I didn’t know all too much.
I liked The 5th Wave. I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate. It was a pretty okay movie. I really didn’t know what to expect, nevertheless I wanted more. It rather lacked and I was just waiting for something to really happen and it didn’t happen until the last 15 minutes or so of the movie.
The 5th Wave, directed by J Blakeson adapted from Rick Yancey’s novel The 5th Wave, with the screen adaptation by Akiva Goldsman, Susannah Grant, and Jeff Pinkner.
The movie follows Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) as she tries to get back to her brother Sam (Zackary Arthur) after 4 waves of alien turmoil have hit the earth. As the 5th wave is looming on everyone’s head, Cassie teams up with Evan Walker (Alex Roe) who may be her final hope – if she can trust him.
The start of The 5th Wave reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, a girl running in the woods. The way that the camera angles were shot, the fast movement. It seemed familiar – until she had her gun hoisted in her arms. That was what shot me out of reality.
It starts off with the running scene in the forests and then flashes back to when it all started. The day before the first wave. Cassie is behaving like a normal teenager with a cup of beer in her hand instead of Gun. This is where we first meet Ben Parrish (Nick Robinson), Cassie long time crush. The scene was “very awkward teenager”.
As the movie goes through the waves – many people die including some close to Cassie, on the other hand it all happened quite fast that it was hard to process what was happening.
There are quite a few graphics used in these scenes and well, I was disappointed. They kind of fell flat for me. I thought they were going to be so much better, however at parts it really did look fake.
The was also far too many close up camera angles that put the character right there in front of your face. Over time it was starting to get annoying, when they could have gone back a few steps.
The acting was pretty okay. When working with younger cast members it’s really hard to get it perfect. But I thought that all the side characters were done well. Zackary Arthur was a cute little Sammy. While Moretz highlighted her sheer determination as Cassie to get back her little brother back.
However, let’s talk about the bear. Sammy’s little bear. It is going to get Cassie killed. I don’t know why she doesn’t keep it in her backpack or strapped around her or something. Why was she carrying it a lot of the time? Put it in your backpack and you won’t drop it.
The romance – oh the cheese. The romance was cheesy it was making me cringe so much. It wasn’t even the chemistry between Moretz and Roe. It was the lines and the looks – I just wanted to turn away. Hopefully in the next movie, they get rid of the cheese.
I did like humour though. It might not have meant to be funny, nonetheless there were scenes that you couldn’t help, but laugh at. It was those really teenager scenes. Where everything is awkward and weird, it felt like it was like real teenagers.
Overall The 5th Wave was full of laughs, cheesy romance and a little bit of action. I do wish that there was a little more action. The graphics could have been done better, however, the acting of the younger cast member’s stood out. I hope that the second movie can do better.
The 5th Wave is out in the cinemas now in Australia. 22nd of January in the USA and UK
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