Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a typical 16-year-old girl who has life pretty easy. She loves her little brother Sammy (Zackary Arthur) more than anything in the world. One day she wakes up and her whole world has turned upside down. A series of aliens known as "the Others" has attacked planet earth and are trying to get rid of all of humanity in order to take the earth for themselves.
The Others want to get rid of the human race with five waves. The first wave is a forever lasting power outage. The second wave is an enormous earthquake with a gigantic tsunami which wipes out many people. The third wave is a disease that spreads everywhere and very few people survive it and not many are immune. There are very few survivors.
The fourth wave is when the Others disguise themselves to look just like humans and move among the humans. The people can trust no one because they have no idea who is human and their very existence is threatened.
Cassie forms an alliance with a young man named Evan Walker (Alex Roe) who is determined to help her find her brother. Fighting for their lives, the fifth wave comes which is a fight between the survivors and the Others. The future of humanity is dependent on the humans outliving the Others.
This movie has such cool special effects that look so realistic. My favorite scene is when the second wave comes with its massive earthquake and wave because it made me feel like I was there experiencing this, which would be absolutely terrifying!
My favorite character is definitely Evan Walker! He is a very determined, hardworking, independent, brave and strong person. I love the way he plays this role because he is super believable and you can really tell that he cares about Cassie.
The message of this film is to never give up hope. As Cassie says, "It's our hope that makes us human."
I give The 5th Wave 4 out of 5 stars because it is pretty predictable, but overall this move is entertaining and enjoyable. I recommend this movie for ages 12-18 because it definitely has its scary moments.
If you are a sci-fi fan and love special effects, then definitely come see this film in theaters January 22!
Reviewed by Lainey A., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 13.
There are dozens of films with aliens caring less about how humans go extinct, just that they do. From weapons of mass destruction to giant armies, this movie is about an alien race attempting to take over the Earth, in an efficient, dramatic, and action packed story.
The 5th Wave is an action film with gun shots, earthquakes and more. However, the story is very dramatic and there is some romance between main characters. The romance is displayed between actors more as if it was meant to be funny instead of sweet or sincere.
The action begins when a strange object appears in the sky, a massive object. No one, not even NASA can get in contact with it. Then, a mass EMP hits the Earth and makes any electronic device 100% useless, like planes, cars, phones, computers and anything else that runs off of a battery of sorts. This is the first of five waves. What follows is worst and worst. The second wave is an extremely powerful earthquake that causes tsunamis that destroys all coastal cities, islands, ships and anything else close to the water. The third wave is a disease and by the fourth wave, very few humans are left. The story follows Cassie (Chloe Moretz) and her family as they attempt to survive and also, fight back. If you want to find out what happens in the 4th and 5th wave, you have to watch the film.
Of course with aliens, explosions, tsunamis and more, there is an expectation of special effects and viewers will not be disappointed. The first ten minutes of the film shows the first three waves and it sends chills down your back seeing sky shots of destroyed cities and diseases spreading everywhere, to the point where you just stare in surprise. The acting is perfect for each role. Nick Robinson (Ben Parish) plays a depressed, quiet teenager and he does it amazingly well. The cinematography, with large aerial shots, is beautiful and then there are the script and the directing.
This is where the disappointment kicks in. Director J. Blakeson does not do the story justice. So many times, the actors are doing things that are cringe worthy and, as a result, many people in the theater laugh at the 100% serious scenes because of this. The acting is good. The entire cast really excels in portraying their roles. Although the directing isn't great. The screenplay is worse. On many occasions in the film you question where they got something or how did they know the main characters need saving. Even the back story is sloppy with massive story errors. For example, in one scene a character is rescuing another character. The savior says that he has the character's gun, but in the scene where they show the rescuing, he is carrying the character with both hands. The romance is extremely cheesy which may have been on purpose to give it a comedic effect. But either way, it doesn't work well with the serious, dramatic plot. Additionally, there is some confusion about what audience this is geared for. If young adults and teens are the targeted audience, then there are a lot of inappropriate scenes.
My favorite scenes are the first three waves not just because they are extremely important to the story, but because each second is dramatic with amazing special effects and spectacular camera work. It almost seems like they concentrated all their skill on those ten minutes, because they were the smoothest part of the film. The scene involves a major earthquake, a disease epidemic and of course, the mass blackout from an EMP.
Reviewed by Gerry O., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic, age 13
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