The Fifth Wave (2016)

Elevator Pitch: In a recent time a large alien space ship hovers over North America wreaking devastation.  The aliens known as “The Others” start off by disabling all mechanical, electrical and electronic systems, the first wave, then they cause earthquakes and tsunamis, then they spread a deadly viruses ( could not resist the photo). The Sullivan family abandon their home and join a camp of survivors who are visited by military personnel with working vehicles. They say they will take the children to safety and come back for the adults, Cassie, the family’s teenage daughter misses the bus taking her younger brother and remains in hiding to see her father and all the other adults gunned down. Maybe the fourth wave. With Cassie on the run, what can the fifth wave be?

Content: No sex or nudity.  A lot of scenes of human distress as systems fail, resulting in an aircraft falling out of the sky, then a bit of time at the survivors camp. The countryside is flooded and vast waves engulf coast cities.  Cassie is shot while crossing a highway littered with dead vehicles and people. She falls in with Evan who has rescued her, but can he be trusted. The Others are capable of invading humans in a parasitic manner.  Also much time spent with the rescued children who are turned into soldiers and sent out to kill humans inhabited by aliens.

A View:  The critics did not like this considering it totally derivative of other YA movies and one hopes that the book (actually a trio of books) did better. One of my main questions with films of this type is, if the aliens are parasites requiring human or other bodies to live in, what or who were they inhabiting on the space craft  And an even bigger question. Why did they not use trained soldiers to be killers rather than children? But in short, this is not a watch, even for nothing, even if you are a Chloë Grace Moritz fan. In fact it is an ALMOST DON’T SEE.

Additional Info: One critc said theat the image of Cassie runnig though the woods with a teddy bear and an assault rifle made the film appear to have been designed by “some crazed Oedipal wing of the N.R.A.”