As
“The Hunger Games” ends, “Divergent” franchises continue
on (barely at this point), "The Maze Runner" put on hold, and the world of “Harry Potter” await their return to theaters in November,
another YA series tries to rear its ugly head and grab whatever cash comes
closest to the sewer lid. That series was none other than “The 5th
Wave.”
In a
time not far from our own, an alien race begins its invasion on the human race,
slowly but surely lowering their defenses, and inhabiting their bodies as their
own. Cassie Sullivan, a survivor of the attacks, goes on a hunt for one of the
bases, in hopes of rescuing her little brother.
Question:
does this plot sound vaguely familiar? An alien race invading humanity and
inhabiting their bodies? Yeah, that’s because this film is a complete rip-off
of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” disguised as a YA adaptation…just three
years after “The Host,” ANOTHER “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” rip-off that
came out three years ago. Now, I’ve made my stance with rip-offs pretty clear,
so how did this one fair out? Well, pretty bad, obviously.
The
movie has such a slow and broken pace, you could have sworn that someone had
stitched together four completely different movies into one. At one point, it’s
an apocalyptic survivor film, then it becomes “Divergent,” then it’s “The Maze
Runner,” and then you realize this is a fucking mess of a movie. It’s so
confusing to figure out what this film is trying to be, that it really soils
any kind of enjoyment to be had with whatever merit this film may have.
The
action scenes are also very dull and you can barely see anything that’s
happening, especially when most of them are in the dark. Plus, with what little
development there is with any of these characters, we can’t find any sympathy
in them, aside from the main character.
Is
there any merit? Yeah, there is. Chloe Grace Moretz does a good job, playing a
survivor that wants to get her brother back, especially since he’s the only
family she has left. You do feel that sense of desperation she has in her
character as she treads through her journey. Same for some of the other young
cast members like Tony Revolori, Nick Robinson, Talitha Bateman, Nadji Jeter,
and Maika Monroe. They do try to make the best of this, but with how little
material they’re given, it doesn’t give them room to shine.
The
rest of the cast, however, is so dull. Ron Livingston and Maggie Siff as the
parents were useless, Maria Bello was…there, and Liev Schreiber as the villain
was easily the worst part about this movie. I mean, as Ray Donovan and
Sabertooth, Schreiber is a fucking badass, but as this guy, it left no impression
on me. This character and performance are so generic, so uninteresting, that it
didn’t really need to be Liev Schreiber playing him. You could have had anybody
play this character, even Jai Courtney, and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
The
film was co-written by Akiva Goldsman, which should give you an indication on
how this film would turn out. Yes, he did write “A Beautiful Mind,” “Cinderella
Man,” and “The Da Vinci Code,” but don’t forget that he wrote the Joel Schumacher
Batman films too. As for the director of this film, J Blakeson, he needs to
find better scripts to direct.
Overall,
“The 5th Wave” was just another failed attempt at adapting a YA
series, and much like “The Host,” was just a shitty rip-off of “Invasion of the
Body Snatchers.” Aside from the young actors doing their best, it just makes me
wish their talents were put to use in a much better film. And rest assure, this
will be on my worst of the year list.
Rating: 2/10
No comments:
Post a Comment