The trailer promises CG world attractions (or miniature models of same) getting totalled by giant waves and electro- magnetic pulses. The opening scenes hint at a far more naturalistic (and interesting) drama, in which Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz), a young high-schooler, must get in touch with her inner Bear Grylls if she’s going to survive an alien invasion of earth.
Sadly, we soon realise that we're actually watching YA dystopian fiction #459. Think Twilight with aliens. Or Ender's Game with a girl in the lead. Director J Blakeson, who gifted viewers a white-knuckle ride with the twisty low-budget thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed, crafts a few decent action scenes between the clichés, but it's not enough to distinguish the material from such lacklustre genre competitors as Divergent.
The plot sees Cassie, in the wake of various implausible alien attacks, attempting to retrieve her little brother from the clutches of Liev Scheiber’s military. She’s assisted by Alex Roe’s Evan Walker, whose torso is lingered upon in lieu of convincing narrative or dialogue.
A decidedly low-octane final sequence is punctured by outbreaks of puppy love when those of screen should be getting on with saving the world and what-not.
Smaller, potentially interesting characters, notably Maika Monroe's badass Ringer and Talitha Bateman's Teacup, are similarly pushed to the margins to make way for more teenage longing: The Kings of Summer's Nick Robinson occupies the third point in the Wannabe Katniss/Peeta/Gale romantic triangle. Oh yes, there are another two books in author Rick Yancey's 5th Wave sequence.
To be fair, many of the film’s problems stem from the truncations and elaborations that come from adapting the first book in a YA trilogy. But too often, characters feel the need to tell us exactly what they’re doing and why. And then they take an awfully long time to get there.
We’ve seen worse.
