On Jan. 22, my friends and I sat down in the movie theater with our candy and popcorn, and anxiously awaited the opening scenes of “The Fifth Wave”. Unfortunately, walking out of the theater was more like walking away from an adorable puppy that your mom says you can’t have. As Carol Yao, writer for the Daily Bruin, said, “Watching ‘The Fifth Wave’ felt like when my dad made prepackaged macaroni and cheese a few years ago. By all reason the dish should have been easy to prepare: the ingredients were included and so were the instructions, but he still managed to set the kitchen on fire.” In all honesty, this is the best description I have seen of this movie. It pretty much sums it up.
Now, to be fair, the first thirty minutes of the movie was very good. It begins with a confrontation in an abandoned gas station between Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) and the Crucifix Soldier, an injured man with a cross necklace. The movie then flashes back to Cassie’s “normal life” before explaining the first four waves: An earth-wide power outage. Earthquakes that lead to tsunamis which wipe out all coastal areas. A deadly airborne disease that kills all but two percent of Earth’s population. Snipers. Through a wicked twist of fate (or rather, extreme stupidity on Cassie’s part―as cute as he is, leave the bear!) Cassie and her brother, Sammy (Zackary Arthur), are separated. Determined to reunite with him, she sets off to Wright Patterson, the secure military base where the government is taking children. The fifth wave is said to be upon the earth when the movie goes back to Cassie in the gas station.
Meanwhile, Ben Parish (Nick Robinson), Cassie’s high school crush, arrives at Wright Patterson and quickly becomes the leader of Squad 53. They train day and night, rain or shine, and Ben quickly takes Sammy, now called “Nugget,” under his wing. Squad 53, along with many other squadrons, is the human race’s last chance of survival. (Children killing aliens? Gee, there is nothing suspicious about that.) These scenes last a total of maybe five minutes because the famous actress is more important.
Now, Cassie is crossing a highway when she gets shot in the leg. When she wakes up, she finds that Evan Walker (Alex Roe) saved her and nursed her back to health. (In the book he bathed her unconscious form, but in the movie it’s okay because he’s hot.) Between shots of Cassie throwing longing glances at Evan while he’s chopping firewood and Cassie throwing longing glances of Evan while he’s bathing, I almost forgot that the entire purpose of this book was that Cassie wanted to find her brother. Eventually, Cassie makes it to Wright Patterson and escapes with Sammy and Ben right before it blows up. The movie finally ends with Cassie saying something stupid about hope.
All in all, it was a very disappointing book-to-movie adaptation, and, frankly, a bad movie. The plot is completely screwed over in favor of a completely unhealthy love triangle. In the book, Cassie is angry at everything and raw and hurting, and is completely relatable to the reader. In the movie, she seems rather confused and cries without tears. (Is this because Moretz can’t cry or is it because she was given an awful script? The world may never know.) The CGI effects are bad, shampoo and make-up are somehow readily available, and Cassie is the only person to wear volleyball shorts to soccer practice. (Was that really necessary? Must we always sexualize a strong female heroine? Can’t we pull another Katniss?)
Please, do not allow this plain bread movie to affect your opinion of the book. Read it. The characters are amazing and relatable, and the situations they are in pull at your heart. The movie just did not do a good job portraying that. Long story short, if you have nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon, go while the tickets are cheap. This movie is not worth the price of admission.