Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

The 5th Wave Blu-ray Movie Review

5th Tier Entertainment.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman April 27, 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.

What to do...

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 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 5th Wave's 1080p transfer is expectedly excellent. The digitally sourced photography presents with a clear, stable, and well defined façade. Clarity is excellent and never does that digital gloss or flatness overwhelm the experience. Details are clean and precise with plenty of heavy tactile surfaces, such as woodland terrain, abandoned cars, pavement, and building façades. Cleaner high tech lines in some of the military command centers are likewise richly detailed. Basic facial and clothing features hold up very well, too, revealing very fine makeup and natural skin textures with ease. Heavier military attire and MOLLE vests are the standouts considering the heavier stitching and material density. The color palette is vibrant but neutral, presenting with a pleasantly realistic tone. Brighter shades pop, natural greens satisfy, and earthy support colors blend well. Black levels retain depth and quality shadow detail throughout. Skin tones, like the broader color palette, never struggle to maintain natural shading. Minor aliasing and a hint of noise are present, but overall this is another winner of a new release from Sony.

The 5th Wave Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5th Wave's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack lives up to the expectations for a movie of this style. Music is clear, detailed, well spaced about the stage, and immersive, whether considering score or thumping background music at a party. Action elements are superb. Bass is prodigious when flooding waters pour through the stage. Helicopter rotors heavily slice through the stage and large military planes rumble across. Gunfire is potent and explosions pack plenty of LFE punch, both presenting with plenty of space and precise positioning around the stage. Atmospherics are terrific, whether natural exterior ambience or voices that emanate from all over the listening area during scenes featuring large gatherings of people talking and murmuring. General dialogue is clear and well prioritized with natural center placement.

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

The 5th Wave contains a nice allotment of bonus content, including a commentary, a large collection of deleted scenes, and various featurettes. A UV digital copy voucher is included with purchase.

• 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 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 Blu-ray is at least capable of carrying the film to technical excellence, yielding excellent video and audio, supported by a fair allotment of extra content. 4K-enabled fans should be aware that the studio is also releasing the movie day-and-date in the UHD/HDR format. Rental.