Review: We Couldn’t Survive The 5th Wave

Action, romance, and angst are to be expected in Young Adult movies these days and The 5th Wave does not disappoint. Starring Chloe Grace Moretz, Nick Robinson and Alex Roe, this movie is based off the popular book series by Rick Yancey. A young girl named Cassie (Moretz) gets separated from her brother after an alien group called, “The Others” begin attacking Earth. Scared, yet determine, it is now up to Cassie, her friend Ben (Robinson) , and love interest, Evan (Roe) to find her brother before the 5th Wave is complete.

The 5th Wave sounds like it could be good, on paper (it is a bestselling book), but unfortunately it falls right into the YA movie trap. Instead of focusing on the main plot of the movie: Cassie saving her brother, director J Blakeson instead focuses on the romantic aspect of the movie. Because of this, the movie becomes extremely predictable, corny and even laughable at some points. Many times throughout the film, I found myself with deja vu because certain scenes seemed so familiar and they are, as you’ve seen them in other YA films.

Chloe does a decent job with what she has been given to work with, but her supporting cast gives little to no support. Many of the characters were mainly used as plot pieces rather than developmental pieces to help propel the story along. Relationships and dialogues between characters also felt a bit too rushed at points.

Personally, this movie is aimed towards the 11-14 years old crowd. However, no matter your age or
devotion to the series I would not recommend seeing it in theaters. Wait until it comes out on DVD or
On Demand and rent it. It is not worth spending money on to see.

Grade: D