The 5th Wave 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The 5th Wave 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

'The 5th Wave' in 4K. Review in 3, 2, 1...

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 4, 2016

The 5th Wave takes a perfectly good end of the world idea and squanders it by quickly devolving from gripping premise to melodramatic movie-of-the-week. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Rick Yancey, follows the experiences of siblings -- older sister Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) and younger brother Sammy (Zackary Arthur) -- when they're faced with a fight for survival against invading aliens. The film almost glorifies the play-it-safe route, refusing to explore even the shadowy corners, never mind the dark paths, of human hurt and suffering in the midst of otherworldly invasion and despair. With a vacant emotional slate, stale action, predictable plot devices, and poorly developed characters, The 5th Wave never generates appeal on any level as it meanders through crude plot points that amount to nothing more than a means of propelling the story from one manufactured incident to the next.

Cassie Sullivan (Chloë Grace Moretz) is an all-American high school girl. She has some close friends, parties with her classmates, and lives with her father Oliver (Ron Livingston), mother Lisa (Maggie Siff), and younger brother Sammy (Zackary Arthur). One day at school, her world changes forever. Everyone begins receiving strange images on their phones. Alien craft have appeared in the skies and are circling the globe. At first, their presence seems benign, a curiosity, hardly hostile. Then, the power cuts out. Phones stop working, cars stop driving, and planes drop from the sky. Floods devastate the surface. An incurable flu wipes out many, and strikes close to home for Cassie. The family has no choice but to hit the road and seek refuge at a nearby camp, but when the military, led by Colonel Vosch (Liev Schreiber), arrives with orders to take the children, the family is split. Cassie ultimately finds herself on her own, armed only with less-than-sharp survival instincts and her father's Colt 1911 pistol. In a desperate attempt to reunite with her brother, who has been taken to a military compound to undergo secret training, she must fight for her life in a world that continues to crumble all around her.

The 5th Wave begins promisingly with the most emotionally charged scene of the movie, a scene in which Cassie must decide the fate of another person based entirely on her intuition as it's been reshaped by her experiences (which the audience has yet to understand) in the wake of the cataclysmic alien attacks. The scene sets a dark, engrossing tone that leaves the audience wanting more, yearning to find out how a pretty young high school girl became a lone wanderer whose trust in humanity has seemingly long-since left her and transformed her into a shoot-first warrior. But the film falls off from there, leveling out a bit in the opening act but quickly declining not as the core plot becomes nonsensical but rather as the execution lets the story down. The film follows the siblings' journeys through the apocalypse, Cassie searching for her bother and Sammy enlisted to fight the aliens with other minors, some of whom, like him, can barely hold a gun. Neither plot line engages the audience on any level beyond the superficial. Character depth is partly to blame, but the main culprit is a flaccid, tepid approach that leaves the movie playing out more like a basic childhood dress-up fantasy and less a serious, impactful journey through the human condition under the most adverse of circumstances.

It's a shame, because The 5th Wave oozes potential. And don't so many other movies that have been lost to a similar fate. Beyond the languishing story are uninspired visuals. Some of it looks like a seriously cheap video game. Even as they're critical to the plot -- the movie gets its name from the battle of "the 5th wave" that makes use of the cheap-looking tech -- and resolve in interesting fashion, the journey to the major reveal breaks down on all fronts, transforming an imaginative idea into a ho-hum final act. Director J Blakeson, whose other major credit is the vastly superior The Disappearance of Alice Creed, never seems sure how to approach the material, never mind execute the story with any kind of drive, excitement, or depth. Almost every scene outside of those few moments early in the movie before, and just as, the invasion hits (which happen to be some of the better in the movie, particularly in those minutes where the story transitions from "all is well" to "world is turned upside down") seem to play out with the exact same emotional pitch. Neither Blakeson nor the screenwriters nor the actors ever seem comfortable with the material or understanding of what the movie, or the original core story, are trying to accomplish, and the end result is a big budget film that never distinguishes itself or finds a rhythm beyond its monotone quest to bring another popular young adult novel to the screen.

The 5th Wave 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Fifth Wave's 2160p/HDR-enabled presentation isn't in any way poor or even technically flawed, but it never rises to the level of "substantial improvement" over the 1080p presentation, which is also included on a separate disc in this set. Sitting down to watch the movie without pausing to make A-B comparisons results in an experience that never feels in any way radically different from the 1080p transfer. Granted, that was reviewed a week or so before getting a chance to watch the UHD, but that's close enough to note that, maybe beyond a little more buoyant and saturated colors and mildly sharper details on a few surfaces (heavily textured military gear in particular), there's simply not a lot of added visual muscle here. According to the movie's IMDB page, the movie was finished at 2K, and that is presumably the source for this release, making it more similar to Concussion and less so Sony's first wave of UHD discs that contained movies sourced from 4K masters.

On a direct A-B comparison, yes, the UHD fares a bit better. Blacks appear more uniform and realistic. Skin tones a little fuller. Colors more dense. Improvements in details are not often striking. Take a dialogue exchange between Cassie and her mother in chapter three. Each of them are wearing a protective mask. The words "Kimberly-Clark" are clearly legible on both. Little fabric details don't seem immediately more appreciable in 4K, but very close examination does show some very fine, porous textures in the middle of the mask that are completely lost on the 1080p, which favors a simple white field instead. Still, it's such a minuscule improvement that even the most demanding viewers probably won't lose any sleep over the 1080p disc's subtle differentiation. Besides, in motion rather than examining dueling stills, it hardly makes a difference. That same scene is a good example of the UHD disc toning down brightness, a bit, favoring a more reserved, less blindingly dynamic splash. That same effect carries through. A few minutes later, Cassie, her brother, and her father are walking to the camp. Look at the 18:20-ish mark that sees them walking through a roadway devastated by the flooding. The sun is hitting green and fall leaves above. The effect is noticeably more bright on the 1080p and more reserved in 4K. Detailing, particularly evident on leaves, seems a tad bit sharper on 4K. One of the biggest differences does come on the aforementioned military vests. The thick stitching and complex velcro surfaces reveal an easily identifiable boost in raw texture, enough that the difference was clear even without the A-B comparison. Making that direct comparison, anyway, does reveal just how much of a leap is to be enjoyed. But is the opportunity to see more of Liev Schreiber's and, a bit later in the movie, Maria Bello's uniform textures worth the added price of 4K admission? Eh, maybe. This review was conducted on a 65" screen, which is big enough to see a difference, but probably not big enough to fully appreciate it. There's no doubt that The 5th Wave's UHD improves on the 1080p, but it's by no means a startling, jaw-dropping, must-see, redefine-the-movie increase.

The 5th Wave 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5th Wave's Dolby Atmos soundtrack offers a nice, at times even substantial, improvement over the already excellent 5.1 track accompanying the standard 1080p Blu-ray release. This review is based on a 7.1.4 setup, which is the "traditional" seven-channel plus subwoofer configuration with the addition of four "object" or "overhead" speakers to the mix. Sony's Atmos presentation both solidifies core details while adding life to several key moments, both in terms of the extra surround-back speakers and the limited "aggressive" use of the overhead speakers. In a general sense, the Atmos track makes for a solid refinement of smaller details while bringing some added, and welcome, immersion to the proceedings. Music is notably fuller and more effortlessly immersive. While it never feels like notes are spilling down from the ceiling, the added surround channels create a more unified, full-sounding presentation that gives music a little more kick. Clarity certainly never wavers, and the result is a richer listen that, honestly, 5.1-only listeners won't necessarily miss, but that Atmos listeners will appreciate. Likewise, chaotic action scenes reap the benefits of the added speakers, particularly in some early moments where trees collapse and flooding waters punish the listening area with full-stage saturation that, again, offers a more dynamic and thoroughly defined effect that enjoys perhaps not more raw power, but certainly more entry points into the listening area that all but leave the listener soaked when aliens flood the coastal cities. Gunshots ring out with more immersive reverberation, particularly in the convenience store early in the movie. Smaller atmospheric details prove notably more precise and capable of creating a more fully realized environment, particularly in quieter outdoor scenes. Several discrete overhead effects are present, perhaps the most obvious being a helicopter flyover in chapter six that listeners can almost feel whooshing overhead. The sensation is real and the effect very well done. Dialogue remains well prioritized throughout, rounding a very impressive and, at several junctures, reference-worthy Atmos track into form.

The 5th Wave 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While The 5th Wave contains no new "supplements" on the UHD disc (the commentary track is available on the UHD disc), it does offer a slick new menu system (and presumably the early standard for Sony UHD releases) in which different pages are selected by scrolling up and down and side-to-side. Beyond the usual scene selection and language tabs, there's also an option to watch character-specific highlights for Cassie (12:14), Ben (13:01), Evan (11:25), and The Others (14:56), all of which are presented in 2160p video and Dolby Atmos sound. There's also a Cast & Crew tab that appears to only offer a still image accompanied by character and actor name. All of the 1080p edition's supplements carry over on the included 1080p Blu-ray disc. Below is a list of what's included:

• Audio Commentary: Director J Blakeson and Actress Chloë Grace Moretz offer a good nuts-and-bolts track. They begin by discussing their involvement in the project and move on to cover a lot of basic but interesting ground, including character qualities and how they fit into the film, influences, movie pacing, music, the teddy bear that appears in the movie, editing, and many scene-specific details. Fans should find it to be of value.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p): Party Extended (2:18), Dance In Car (1:22), This Might Be the Next Step In Our Evolution (0:48), Sam and Cassie Run Home (0:48), Mom Dying (1:24), Meet Hutchfield (1:47), Sam Arrives at Base, Thinks He Sees Cassie (2:08), Meet Squad 53 (4:37), New Squad Leader (4:42), Cassie and Evan Love Scene (2:25), and Trackers Explode, Cassie Fights Reznik (3:46).
• Gag Reel (1080p, 3:17).
• Inside The 5th Wave (1080p, 14:26): A run-through of the shoot. The piece covers the core story details, the film's setting, themes, characters, casting and the qualities the actors brought to the roles, visual effects work, set pieces, and more.
• Training Squad 53 (1080p, 5:09): A look at how the younger actors were trained in military combat techniques and conditioning.
• The 5th Wave Survival Guide (1080p, 2:11): Cast and crew share a few tips on surviving a crisis.
• Sammy on the Set (1080p, 6:57): The movie's young star chats with the crew about the filmmaking process.
• Creating a New World (1080p, 5:58): A rapid run-through of some of the key visuals seen throughout the movie.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

The 5th Wave 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

At its best, The 5th Wave is sort of like Red Dawn (the bad one) meets Starship Troopers meets Battle: Los Angeles meets V, a mishmash of alien invasion and teenage survival and wartime combat under extraordinary circumstances. Some nifty ideas are left to rot under the shadow of dismal visual effects, flat characters, and apathetic action. There's so much good potential here that it's amazing the movie fails to capitalize on any of it, favoring a play-it-safe, dumbed-down approach that results in one of the most disappointing movies of 2016. Sony's UHD Blu-ray release of The 5th Wave manages to see a mild uptick in color saturation and detail while the Atmos track really kicks things up a notch for an already great track. The Atmos track, to this reviewer, is more a selling point on this release than the video, but that component is also impressive, just in a much less immediately noticeable way. 4K and Atmos-enabled fans should definitely pick this release up over the standard-issue 1080p/5.1 lossless release.