Speaking of waves.... you know that so called 'teenagers survive doomsday and fights against a dystopian armegeddon' wave of movies and books? Just another entry into the Maze Runner, Divergent, Hunger Games, The Host.... wave.

anyways Cassie is a survivalist teenager returning to her little brother who has been drafted to fight the so called 5th wave of an Alien invasion.

Saw 'The 5th Wave' because the concept was a good one, there was interest in how survival, alien invasion and teenage romance would work together and because there is talent in the cast. Was determined not to let my apprehension, as to whether 'The 5th Wave' would execute its good concept well (having seen so many potential wastes recently),get the better of me.

It is a shame that after genuinely wanting to like it, not with the intention to hate it or want to, that 'The 5th Wave' was yet another potential waste, executing its good idea very ordinarily. Not one of the worst cases but one of the most infuriating ones, not irredeemably awful but the cons outweigh the pros and the cons are hardly big in size. It is not that it didn't try, to me it tried too hard, executing its elements underwhelmingly and they just don't go together.

There are a few good things. Chloe Grace Moretz gives it everything, a very committed performance and comes off well compared to everything else. In fact, a good deal of the cast are game.

Production design has some atmosphere and while the effects are variable a few are above so-so, credit is due for not overusing and abusing them that it became a CGI-fest. The start does intrigue.

Conversely, the camera work and editing were wanting, being far too drab and hasty-looking rather than dynamic. Other effects are artificial-looking. The direction showed someone not at ease with the material and one finding it difficult to control it. While Moretz and the lead cast are game, the children are inept.

The dialogue is clunky and excessively cheesy, particularly in the teenage/romantic scenes. It was the story execution that was particularly underwhelming about 'The 5th Wave'. There was not enough at stake for the survival/end-of-the-world element to work, it was too predictable, a lot could be seen from a mile away, and urgency and tension were missing. The alien-invasion parts suffered from a lack of thrills, no suspense and less than menacing villains. The teenage/romantic elements are just awkward and bog the film down, placed inappropriately at times too.

On top of neither element being executed well, they don't go well together, coming over as a muddled jumble of tones and cobbled together storytelling, with every recycled, fatigued cliché imaginable with nothing new done with either. The twists were obvious and didn't really feel like twists, the big one not excepted. The characters were generally bland with their development at best sketchy. The ending is sheer nonsense and impossible to take seriously. Also have felt that open-ended ones hinting at a follow-up are rather risky in case that falls through, watching 'The 5th Wave' did nothing to change my mind on this.

In conclusion, not awful but there are a lot of issues here. 3/10 Bethany Cox

THE 5TH WAVE is another in an endless wave of young adult novel adaptations based on a futuristic sci-fi premise. It's very much in the line of THE HUNGER GAMES, DIVERGENT, and THE MAZE RUNNER in terms of look and feel, mixing teenage anxiety problems and emotions with a wide-ranging plot. This one's about an alien invasion staged in waves to gradually destroy mankind. The continuously irritating Chloe Grace Moretz plays a kid who joins up with some woodland rebels in order to fight back. Along the way you get Hollywood stars picking up their paycheques (hello, Liev Schrieber and Mario Bello),some absolutely soul-destroying teenage crush romance, some CGI effects, and a trite script. Moretz's look of wide-eyed shock becomes tiresome very quickly and the film's big twists are extremely obvious from the outset. It's another bore, in other words.