Later this week, “Independence Day: Resurgence” will likely deliver the biggest alien invasion spectacle in what is turning out to be the year of the alien. In addition to the return of “The X-Files,” we also got “The 5th Wave,” which is perhaps a simpler and smaller tale than we’ll get from “IDR,” although it also has some nice effects.
My biggest worry with this film was that it gave away four of the five waves in the trailer, but that’s not really a problem, because the movie itself works through those waves pretty quickly, too. The Others – who arrive by simply parking their spaceships over major cities, exactly like “Independence Day” — take a smart, methodical approach to wiping out humans: first with an EMP, then by drowning the coastal cities, then by unleashing a plague, and then by using infiltrators to pick off the survivors. As we get into the meat of the film, the fifth wave is coming, and the survivors must fight back.
Based on Rick Yancey’s young adult novel, “The 5th Wave” is perfectly serviceable as a “My First Alien Invasion Movie.” Except for having A-list actors and top-notch special effects, one F-bomb from Chloe Grace Moretz’s Cassie and a spot or two of violence, it could be a Disney Channel movie. This film is in the same vein as the “Hunger Games,” “Divergent” and “Maze Runner” series. It’s a sci-fi dystopia that works as a franchise for a young star while featuring some good lessons about society and human nature.
The pacing is a bit slow, the dour script could’ve benefitted from more humor, and you’ll see most of the twists coming. Still, “The 5th Wave” is slick and enjoyable, with nice shots of tidal waves sweeping away cities and earthquakes cracking the ground open, without getting too far removed from the characters’ points of view. One downside to the presentation is that the cinematography gets too dark during the forest trek scenes. (Spoilers follow.)
As is always the case in this genre, the youngsters are the stars. Cassie loses her mom to the plague, and her dad (“Office Space’s” Ron Livingston) to an unfortunate shootout when the military and refugees have a misunderstanding. She treks through the Ohio woods hoping to find her kid brother, Sam (Zackary Arthur), at an army base 80 miles away. After getting shot in the leg – either by a random jerk or by an Other (they can take on the appearance of people they kill, a la “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), she’s rescued by a young man, Evan (Alex Roe), who might provide love-triangle competition with Cassie’s high school crush, Ben (Nick Robinson, one of the kids in “Jurassic World”).
That provides the intimate portion of the film. Meanwhile, the blockbustery portion comes at the base, where in “Ender’s Game” fashion, Ben, Sam and other young people – including the hard-ass Goth-makeup-wearing Ringer (“It Follows’ “ Maika Monroe, who will face an invasion again in “IDR”) – undergo training to face the fifth wave. (Even bigger spoilers follow.)
I saw the big twist coming from a mile away. In a line that made me laugh out loud, Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber) calmly announces to assembled refugees that the Others have the ability to appear as humans. Then Sergeant Reznik (Maria Bello) is weirdly gruff with the draftees as she teaches them how to use special lenses to spot aliens. Like most of the YA SF genre, “The Fifth Wave” has an important message about how you shouldn’t trust authority just because it’s the authority; it works even with the idea that the military is tricking the kids, but the film simplifies the message even more by revealing that the military has been taken over by Others. They’re using the kids, outfitted with trackers, to kill the adult survivors, who will show up as “aliens” through the special goggles.
Logistically, it seems like the Others could’ve just killed all their young human draftees rather than putting them through training, and then taken to the field themselves to finish off the survivors. But I’ll let it slide since we don’t really know how many survivors are out there, so maybe it is easier to use cheap, brainwashed labor. And maybe more answers are coming down the road, along with an explanation of why these aliens “need” Earth in particular. At any rate, suffice it to say that the Others will likely regret not killing Cassie and company when they had a chance, because the sequels are likely coming (“The Infinite Sea” and “The Last Star” complete Yancey’s trilogy).
In the YA SF genre, you could do both better (the layered “Divergent” and “Insurgent”) and worse (the boring “Maze Runner”). Moretz is a likable – if rather joyless — lead, her co-stars have some spark, and Schreiber provides an air of legitimacy while Bello has fun chewing scenery. I won’t be lining up for the sequels, but for youngsters just delving into this genre, “The 5th Wave” is a smart entry point.