Dusting Off The Shelf: Letter F

7 Feb

Trying something new this week with a return to a genre style and a young adult novel turned film, The 5th Wave. I guess I could use this as a random film, but 5th starts with F and there ya go. Besides my other choice was too similar to a couple of the previous films… so I thought I’d switch it up a little.

Synopsis: Some random aliens, dubbed “The Others”, have shown up in the skies and apparently decided they want Earth for their own. Rather than an out and out attack, they begin waves of attacks. First wave- EMP, destroy technology. Second wave- trigger natural disasters. Third wave- disease. The fourth wave is essentially destruction of the humans humanity. And the fifth wave… well, you’ll just have to figure that out for yourself.

The main plot of the story is that Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz) has gotten separated from her little brother and is desperately trying to get to the last place she knew him to be. There are some bumps along the way to their reunion.

Why I chose this film: Hollywood keeps making movies based on series of young adult novels. So I keep trying to get into them. So far, I’ve only been able to deal with The Maze Runner series. This one is not too bad. I don’t like kids and guns- but, the development of the dystopian world logically leads to this happening. I can accept that (though it’s still not my favorite thing to see). But overall, I enjoyed the film. There’s a logical path and just enough hints to things throughout that when things are revealed it isn’t out of nowhere (which is super frustrating) and though I had already figured out all the twists, they were still handled well.

Will I watch it again: I’m going to give this a solid yes. Not gonna lie, Alex Roe walked into the scene and I had a “well, there’s a tall drink of deliciousness” moment. But it was interesting and that makes it a winner in the will watch again sweepstakes.

Also, there were some silly, possibly unintentional- maybe not!- throws to The 5th Element, and they pleased me. (It wasn’t just me, right?)

Why you should watch it too (or run far away!): Give it a try, it’s a lovely Saturday afternoon time killer. It’s not irritating, like those Twilight pieces of crap. It’s not trying to make itself into something it’s not, like those Hunger Games flicks. I liked the characters (and performances- I’m looking at you, Liev Schreiber!). I would enjoy seeing the next book made into a movie to see what happens next- yes, I could read the book but where’s the fun in that?