Five (Spoiler Free) Things to Know Before Seeing The 5th Wave
If you weren’t already aware, The 5th Wave is the latest YA book to movie adaptation to hit the theaters. While these YA adaptations feel pretty commonplace now, female-led action films are still relatively thin on the ground, so they’ll always be high on my Must See list. This film follows Cassie Sullivan, a normal teenage girl living a normal teenage life until an alien invasion makes teen drama seem like a breeze. The “wave” mentioned in the title refers to the different “waves” (aka tactics) the aliens have used to dominate planet Earth. The only thing stopping the total ruination of the human race is one teenage girl and her gumption. If that sounds like as much fun to you as it does to me, read on and learn a few things about the movie before heading to the theaters.
1. The book and film are promoted as though Cassie is the only protagonist, but over the course of the novel there are actually four narrators. One is (obviously) Cassie, and I’ll keep the details few and far between concerning the others so I don’t spoil it for you. All you need to know is the bulk of the narration passes between Cassie and another character who provides insight into a totally different side of the alien invasion.
2. There are three screenwriters on this film. Usually, the more screenwriters there are on a film, the more problems a script had in production. Having seen the film, I can tell you there probably were problems in adapting the book to screen. The storytelling is not nearly as streamlined as it could be. That being said, it’s super interesting to me that one of the three credited screenwriters wrote A Beautiful Mind and another wrote both Pocahontas and Erin Brockovich.
3. There’s one deeply uncomfortable scene in the book concerning the unwanted sexual advances of a 13-year old boy. Luckily, this moment was cut from the script, and nothing of the kind appears in the movie. The only remaining sexist(-ish) discomfort in the film arises from the romance subplot. (Again- no spoilers.) The dialogue between the two characters in question suffers from some old school gender role assumption that feels weirdly out of touch with the rest of the movie, as Cassie is pretty great at taking care of herself. I’ll paraphrase Mallory Ortberg when I say this isn’t so much overtly sexist as it is clunky in regard to modern gender roles.
4. The acting isn’t even across the board, but this is one of my favorite roles for Chloe Grace Moretz to date. I think she excels in action films. Case in point, one of her most acclaimed performances is in Kick-Ass where she plays a young upstart superhero. She’s in fine action hero form in this film, and I have to say I wouldn’t hesitate to head to the theaters to see another action film starring Moretz.
In terms of other worthy performances, Nick Robinson turns in an interesting performance in a role that offers him much more emotional range than his turn as a disaffected teen in Jurassic World last summer. Tony Revolori, of The Grand Budapest Hotel fame, provides most of the film’s laughs in a bit part. I only wish we’d seen more of him.
5. The book on which the film is based is, of course, the first in a trilogy, the third of which is set to come out this year. Though the film isn’t projected to win the weekend box office (it’s not even predicted to come in above 4th place), I still think a sequel is potentially possible. The 5th Wave reportedly only cost $38 million dollars to make, which is a pretty low budget for a YA adaptation. If it does a decent business this weekend and doesn’t lose too much momentum in the weeks to come, I think it stands a chance of becoming a moderately successful film trilogy. It’ll never be the heir to The Hunger Games fame and fortune, but few YA adaptations can aspire to such heights.
All in all, I found this movie to be an uneven but entertaining way to spend a Saturday afternoon. If you find yourself in need of something to keep the blood pumping on this cold blustery weekend, I’d recommend a trip to the cinema to watch a bunch of kids blast their way through an alien invasion. At the very least, it’ll make your struggles seem pretty minor in comparison.
