The Fifth Wave

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: J. Blakeson/Chloe Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber, Maria Bello, Ron Livingston, Alex Roe, Maika Monroe and Nick Robinson

The Fifth Wave, based on the story of the same name by novelist Rick Yancey, is a hodgepodge of sci-fi movie plots welded together that work story-wise but is incapable of making the audience forget any of the films it shamelessly borrows or steals from. Films that immediately come to mind when watching Blakeson's film are: Independence Day, District 9 and the various movies about young people uniting to resist oppressive overlords, such as The Maze Runner and Divergent series. There isn't anything inherently wrong with a pastiche but The Fifth Wave (the title kept reminding me of The Fifth Element. Maybe someone will make a sci-fi movie called The Fifth of Jack Daniels) doesn't fuse what it plunders into anything original or thrilling. And what's worse, the movie seems like another greedy producer's calculated attempt to create a franchise cash-cow. And to give this franchise-manque credibility, some considerable talent was recruited; Chloe Grace Moretz, Liev Schreiber and Maria Bello; who have all acquitted themselves better elsewhere.

Has anyone noticed that in ALL alien invasion movies these days, we seem to see the same kind of massive spaceships floating menacingly in the skies above Earth? We see the same here though I noticed Blakeson was very sparing in how he deployed shots of the alien ships. Maybe the producers are saving more detailed images for the sequels they hope to mid-wive from this flick.

The whole plot can be summarized succinctly: aliens, referred to as Others, invade Earth, wreaking havoc in successive waves. One wave knocks out electricity and power, another visits Biblical-scale destruction across the planet in the form of literal waves; tidal waves, which is followed by the lethally mutated spread of the Avian virus, which is in turn followed by the alien infiltration of the human species while the last involves the use of children to carry out the mass extermination of humanity. A young woman named Cassie Sullivan (Chloe Grace Moretz) struggles to survive after her parents die in the initial waves. Her attempts to reach an air force base where her brother and other children have been taken for battle-training meet with danger, as she befriends a young man who displays superhuman fighting skills. Cassie manages to unite with her brother and the other children after they discover their military leaders are in fact Others who have recruited them for their plans of global conquest.

That is the story in its semi-concise form. The story does come with romance. Cassie is the focus of a triangle that includes her classmate Ben Parish (Nick Robinson) and Evan Walker (Alex Roe); said young man with extraordinary fighting abilities. The other burgeoning romance involves Ben and a tough, goth-ish girl named Ringer (Maika Monroe); who handles a gun as well as her army instructors.

About half-way through the film, it becomes clear the filmmakers want to ride the Hunger Games/Divergent/The Maze Runner wave of films about young people fighting totalitarian forces. I guess this attempt to draw young viewers makes sense but it really seems like a cheap and easy way to market future installments. I have to say I can't stomach many more of these films but then again, only young tastes count here, I guess.

It seems pointless to expect a movie like The Fifth Wave to be logical or uniformly plausible since the movies it sometimes mimics, like Independence Day, can't be troubled to play by the same rules. What bothers me about the aforementioned movie and Blakeson's film is what I call the Bumbling Advanced Civilization Syndrome. An alien race masters interstellar travel; overcomes all the paradoxes and problems of Einsteinian physics, arrives on Earth with superior weapons and the means to destroy the planet; only to suddenly become thwarted by the relatively primitive human race. If one has the power to create tidal waves that tower above coastline hotels and London Bridge and the means to knock out power world-wide, why does it suddenly have problems wiping out a survivalist village, particularly when it knows its location? Instead, it sends Others-controlled army soldiers to gun down the inhabitants of said village. Very sloppy and inefficient for an advanced alien race, que no?

One character says destroying the Earth isn't part of the Others' agenda, as they need our planet mostly intact. Okay, but if you've already wiped out most of the human race without destroying ALL life on the planet's surface, how hard would it be to wipe out the survivors? It does make sense that an invading alien race would employ an electromagnetic pulse to knock out our power, inundate the planet with quasi-natural disasters and create a pandemic to wipe out humans but I don't think it would suddenly be troubled by those same creatures when the resistance cells are comprised of children and teens.

Suspending disbelief and every mental faculty, one should still find the story thrilling but it didn't take an alien intellect to see where everything was headed and how it would get there. The movie became dull and I did little to resist the sleepy fairy that coaxed me into a brief state of drowsiness.

Mr. Blakeson, you'll forgive me if I don't bother seeing the sequels. The Hunger Games series satisfied any and all desires I had to see films like yours. But I'm sometimes stubborn and if a movie weekend happens to be painfully wanting, I just might pay to see A Fifth Wave sequel. But then again, I resisted The Maze Runner and Divergent follow-ups so I know my will power hasn't weakened.

The key word here is resist. If a determined unit of tykes can resist an alien invasion, I can resist a franchise. And I won't even need an M-16.

It Follows

**Spoiler Alert**

Director: David Robert Mitchell/Starring: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Lili Sepe, Jake Weary, Daniel Zovatto and Olivia Luccardi

It's refreshing to see a horror film that doesn't have Saw or Insidious in the title and even more so to find one that isn't about idiots behaving idiotically. But based on the trailers I watched before director David Robert Mitchell's terrific new film It Follows, it seems more are to come. But in the meantime, Mitchell's film heralds the arrival of a young, new talent behind the camera; one who does so much with what appears to be an emaciated budget. Mitchell's film is creepy, imaginative and its look is something reminiscent of a 1980s' low-budget horror flick, which isn't a disparaging knock.

Set in the urban and suburban blight of Detroit, the film tells the story of a mysterious, malevolent entity or force (Mitchell never really divulges its origins, which works really well), that assumes human form then single-mindedly pursues a victim. The protagonist, Jay Height (Maika Monroe, who resembles both Chloe Sevigny and Dakota Fanning at times) learns of the entity the hard way.

One night, after a date with a young man named Hugh (Jake Weary), who exhibits strange behavior at the movies and dinner, he becomes alarmed when he sees a lady Jay (and the audience) can't. Hugh hurriedly leads her to a secluded area for some carnal pleasure. Unfortunately for Jay, Hugh has ulterior motives, which she learns when he places a rag over her mouth to render her unconscious. When she wakes, tied to a chair in an abandoned building, he explains to her that something is after him; something that assumes human form. Explaining further, he tells Jay that in making love to her he has "passed on" the entity to her; making her its prime target. He also insists she should never allow it to touch her, as it would mean certain death, which would also mean the thing would then find and kill him before moving along the chain of those who have managed to elude its lethal malevolence. He warns her she should always have access to an exit, lest the entity corner her. Jay discovers that only the entity's prey, namely herself, can see the assailant; making its existence difficult to prove to others.

Quite a bit to lay on anyone, eh?!

So begins Jay's ordeal, which means eluding the thing she can only see and convincing her friends she isn't crazy.

What is particularly impressive about Mitchell's film is its lack of special effects. With a meager $2 million dollar budget, Mitchell proves himself to be a resourceful filmmaker. No frame-clogging CGI or ear-shattering noise to tell his story; Mitchell relies on the most basic resource available to filmmakers: people. Every stalking comes in human guise; sometimes an old woman, another time a naked or half-naked assailant. Sometimes the entity approaches from behind or when Jay is sitting in class, looking out the window. The fact that it never runs; only creeps or staggers slowly and implacably toward its victim makes it all the more frightening.

As the story progresses, we begin to see themes emerge; one involves the passing of the entity through sexual intercourse; a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases. Much of the film's imagery is sexual; half-naked or fully naked bodies in relentless pursuit, while the libidinous and quasi-libidinous relationships Jay shares between three young men in the film connect to its sexual theme. Mitchell seems to be making a comment about the consequences of promiscuity and emotionally-detached sex.

Yet another theme focuses on Detroit's economic downturn, which serves as commentary on the country's financial woes as well. As Jay and her friends search for Hugh to learn more about the entity, the group travels from middle-class suburbs to blighted neighborhoods that may have thrived once upon a prosperity.

And as the teens devise a plan to kill the entity, the scheme's outcome leaves us with an uneasy feeling the force is impervious to destructive means. We never actually see or learn how the malign spirit came to be. Mitchell leaves much to mystery, which I think is very effective. We also never see the thing itself, only its human vessels--also very effective.

Though Jay and her friends are sometimes prey to conventional horror film teen behavior--doing things that are several bus-stops pass stupid--they act and react like real people, which means making choices and decisions that are reasonably logical. As many horror film fans know, level-headed teens with common sense are a rare species.

I really liked the film's look; we're never certain which decade we're in. We could be in a 70s' exploitation film or, as aforementioned, a modest multiplex offering from the 1980s'.

Mitchell's instinct to downplay gore is welcome and serves the film well, as does the ending, with its marvelous ambiguity.

It Follows has garnered strong reviews, which it richly deserves. Making a horror film so distinct and imaginative is hardly a frivolous venture;, as film-goers, like myself, are well-aware. To see a horror film as unique as Mitchell's, one usually has to sit through countless, uninspired, Hollywood splatter-fests and mediocre gore franchises that never seem to die.

I hope Mitchell avoids the pitfalls that sometimes rob young, successful filmmakers of their creative fire; either too much acclaim or the lure of Hollywood glamor, which almost always comes with a compromising price-tag. I think he will. Can't wait to see his next film.