I wasn't expecting much from The 5th Wave after finding out that it's going to be a January movie and watching the trailer. And even with a lowered expectation, the movie still disappointed.
Ultimately, this movie's downfall was because of director J Blakeson and possibly his lack of experience with a semi big budget movie. The first act of the movie was so glossed over that I couldn't even tell you what the first four waves were even if I tried really hard.
The way the CGI was employed during that introduction to the aliens arriving also suggested the inability of Blakeson to string scenes together to reflect the actual whole properly.
The worst part was that Blakeson couldn't bring out more believable performances from his lead, Chloe Grace Moretz. I love Moretz, and her performance as Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass is an all-time favourite of mine. But under the wrong direction, Moretz doesn't shine.
The movie was too much for Moretz to carry on her shoulders from beginning to end. There was no emotional connection for the audience through her. She even did a skip after seeing her father for the last time. A skip as she was running out the barn. How could Blakeson keep that? Where's the emotional weight?
There were a few plot points that just didn't translate well from the book, especially the ones involving Nick Robinson and young Zackary Arthur. So a lot of frustration came up while watching the story progressed (thankfully I didn't care that much).
The cast was not the best, probably because Blakeson didn't do much with them. And the way their subplot was told were just horrible. All of them suddenly have some cool or silly nicknames and the audience didn't get to find out why or how, they just happened.
The adults too fared no better. Liev Schreiber was a bore and Maria Bello should be ashamed of herself. I just hope they got paid well.
There was a scene in the trailer where Moretz's character met an injured man in a convenience store. That scene was totally different in the actual movie, and I liked the one in the trailer better. It seemed so many poor decisions were made for the movie.
Akiva Goldsman had a hand in the script, and while he's not the only script writer, the result bode very poorly for him and his resume. On a good day, we get A Beautiful Mind from him, on a bad day it could be Batman & Robin. But on this movie, we got the same poor treatment as Insurgent. Goldsman should stop adapting young adult novels.
At the start of the final act when things started to become clear and puzzle pieces suddenly fell into place, the movie came to life. But by then it was just too late as the movie has already lost me long ago for me to care.
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