Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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FEBRUARY 10-16, 2016 UCW 23 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM "Well, it didn't suck," I replied to the man who inquired about The 5th Wave (112 minutes) as I was leaving the theater. I definitely enjoyed it more than Mockingjay Part II and The Scorch Trials. Perhaps because I didn't get a chance to read through The 5th Wave source material? Or maybe I have grown more forgiving about films in which I can see the plot "twists" coming from an hour away. More likely, it is the fact that I am sucker for movies about the end of life as we know it. Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a generic female lead with a younger brother named Sam (Zackary Arthur). She has a cell phone and feels feelings about boys until the aliens arrive and unleash a succession of attacks called "Waves." The first wave is an electromagnetic pulse that wipes out human technology along with the ability of humans to fix technology. It also wipes out all the preparations scientists and military worldwide have made to protect against that sort of attack. And since the aliens telegraphed their presence for days prior to setting off the EMP, perhaps humanity deserved to get hit with an EMP. And I'm sure the president, vice president and the rest of the federal and state government didn't bother to go into hiding when faced with aliens of unknown intentions, since we don't hear a whole lot about the government providing aid and comfort. The second wave is an earthquake/tsunami that wipes out a large portion of humanity along with all the coastal cities. Cassie manages to survive this wave by being really, really good at running faster than a tsunami and then climbing a tree. The third wave is weaponized bird flu. Cassie manages to survive that by layering so much make-up on her face that it acts as a surgical mask. In fact, most of the female leads are covered in make-up, which is obviously a huge priority in the dystopian, devastated ruins of the planet. Not just the teenage girls, either. Sergeant Reznick (Maria Bello) looks positively ghastly, with lipstick so thick that when she gets a beatdown, there is a lip-shaped smear left behind on the glass she is thrown into. So I have to wonder. Was so much make-up used on purpose to convey a sense of disorder and apathy? Or was the person in charge of make-up that ignorant of how to make women look attractive? Anyway, where would the female characters even find the kind of high quality make-up that can withstand floods and sobbing and wandering through the woods? My nail polish chips after I wash a load of dishes. The fourth wave is when the aliens take over human bodies and start picking off individual human survivors with rifles. This makes perfect sense because, um, they can only release one strain of deadly virus per planet? And even with their massively superior technology that allows them to travel through space and devastate a planet they have run out of ideas on how to kill more than one human at a time? At this point in the film, despite human casualties numbering in the billions, Cassie is still with her brother and her Dad. They have hiked out to a summer camp to hole up with other human survivors, because it is an excellent idea to concentrate the few remaining members of our species so that the aliens can more easily eliminate them with biological weapons/bombs. Stupid humans. Overall, I really could have done without Cassie's romantic subplot. It's a shame that no one can make a film with a female lead that doesn't involve a love triangle of some kind. I am a fan of Moretz, and I love science-fiction survival stories, but I would have enjoyed this one a lot more if Cassie had saved us all the romantic nonsense by shooting both her love interests before the movie ended. They were one- dimensional characters anyway. Now playing at Patriot 14 + IMAX. You Got Romance in My Apocalypse The 5th Wave (Rated PG-13) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200. J. Wayne Riggins, OD, MD, Sheel Patel, MD, Raz Penmatcha, MD, Cynthia Toth, MD Lejla Vajzovic, MD, Shelby Stephenson, MD, Edward Kenshock Jr, OD John Krempecki, OD, Duy Lam, OD Cape Fear Eye Doctors are honored among the best doctors in America in LASIK, Retina & Cornea Eye Care for The Aging Eye FREE Seminar Join us Thursday, February 25 th 6:00 to 7:00 pm as Dr. Raz Penmatcha presents… Eye Care for The Aging Eye Seminar will be held at our Owen Drive Location Classroom at 1629 Owen Drive Fayetteville, NC RSVP today at 910-484-2284 (ext 269) or register online at www.CapeFearEye.com Raz Penmatcha, MD Refreshments served!