Movies: The 5th Wave

Movies: The 5th Wave

Introduction

Don't fret don't fret, if you think you missed the 1st to 4th wave! This movie starts clearly at the 5th wave! In fact, the movie will go on and tell you all about the first, second, third and fourth wave and what is the state the world is currently.

In a market where there are tons of alien movies, end of world movies and zombie movies, is this movie able to stand out from the rest? Well, one plus point is that this movie combines the alien and end of world segment but of course no zombies in this movie.... yet.

Here's the poster!

Its pretty accurate that this movie focuses on these two

So how did this movie perform if we break it up? Let's take a look and see

Storyline 4/5

This movie has a lot of things going for them. It is a new fresh story and a fresh world, which means it is easier to keep the audience intrigued as it fleshes out the current world. It also can spend a bit of time telling about how did the world end up the way it did which will entertain fans of end of the world type of movies.

It also did a good job in having two different main story lines which means that the minds of the audience are kept absorbed by two things that are happening together to tell the entire story. The story flow overall is pretty good and entertaining as it introduces people and the world and there are not too many slow moments that will cause the audience to be bored.

That being said, the storyline also has a bit of a twist towards the end of the movie that makes it that more entertaining with that little bit of surprise and keeps everything quite exciting till the end.

Character 3.5/5

Character development is pretty alright as many of the people are new and need a bit of time to be introduced for the audience to feel any kind of attachment. Time is not on the side of this movie however due to the amount of storyline it has to go through and although you would see the story of about 4 or 5 characters fleshed out pretty well, the rest would be just another person in the group kind of person.

Cinematography 4/5

Cinematography is pretty good in this movie with epic shots of disasters and when it gets to the action part, you would see that quite  a bit of effort is put into the action scenes. The movie however is a storyline focused movie and not so much an action type of movie so there is still a lot of improvement potential.

Nonetheless, it uses the best cinematography form most of the time but does not capitalize and use it more to further immerse the audience.

Music 3/5

Did not really notice the music in this movie as nothing really stood out and no music was used distinctly to push some kind of emotion or feeling to the audience. At least nothing that I noted.

Spectacle 4/5

There are a lot of end of world movies. There are also alot of alien movies. This movie uses aliens to showcase their version of the end of the world which makes the story that bit more distinct and quite entertaining to the fresh audience. It does not excel in action or cinematography and although it does put in effort in the storyline it does not stand uniquely at the top amongst the other movies out there. But put all together, this movie does provide something slightly more different and it translate to a bit of a more enjoyable experience.

First movies of trilogy tend to always do well as it has a great unique source material but as we go into the second and third movie (that may or may not happen), we will see if this movie is able to keep up the interest and the immersion.


Overall

Storyline: 4 (Fresh story line, two interlinked focal point that keeps things interesting)
Character: 3.5 (Main characters have a fair bit of screen time and development but the rest are all pretty forgettable)
Cinematography: 4 (Good choices of shots to bring about epicness and action but really could have more opportunity)
Music: 3 (Music is ordinary, a bit too ordinary and did not feel its particular impact)
Spectacle: 4 (Unique joining of two main type of stories but it did not really pull far out from the offerings you would have seen before)

Overall: 3.7 (Overall, its a good attempt to draw in two types of movies which is the end of world and alien typed movies, and it is done with good shots and a good storytelling method. However the main aim of the movie which is to story tell, uses story line that is not TOO far off what has been shown on the big screen. Did have that bit of a twist in the storyline to keep things fun and entertaining and indeed it is good while it lasted. With a long movie time this is worth the time if you do have time to spare. Not a must see at this point of time and you could wait for the next movie to come out first if there ever will be, but you won't really regret seeing this movie too)

Movies: Star Wars The Force Awakens

Movies: Star Wars The Force Awakens

After so many years of a lull in the Star Wars franchise, it's finally back again and this time it continues from after the 3rd movie.. Wait it's actually after the 6th movie.. Errr yea... It's really quite hard to explain...

Lots of glowy lights

Basically, just to get everyone in the same understanding,  according to the time line, this would be the latest movie which actually follows after Star Wars Return of the Jedi. In fact it is about 30 years after the happenings in Star Wars Return Of the Jedi. (and just past 30 years in real life)

Eh this poster doesn't look that ancient

This allows for quite a bit of fun in the characters you will see in the movie, but will not spoil it any more then that although fans will probably already know what is going to happen in the movie

Somehow or other, every other company seems to be getting onto the Star Wars bandwagon like clothing chain uniqlo, crocs and of course many toy manufacturers. 

Even Ez-link is getting on the band wagon. Costs me 60 bucks...

Anyway back to the review proper!

Storyline 3/5

Probably not what you would wanna hear, but I have to say it.. This whole movie storyline seems to be very very very similar to a previous starwars movie storyline. Unfortunately this works badly for those who are fans of the movie in the first place as it will seem like a rehashed movie and everything becomes slightly too predictable.

But even if we look at the storyline independently, there is little twists and things to keep things intriguing during the movie itself. What is happening in the movie is introduced quite early in the beginning and basically it's just development of that one storyline. There is nothing else to attract the audience.

It's a standard meet a character who is confused what is happening.. Then searches for some understanding, then suddenly realised what is happening in the Galaxy then joins in and goes against the bad guys. Familiar? Yeah a lot of movies are using the same but this has no huge twists and what you see is what you get.

Character 3.5/5

Purely based on the facts that you will see a lot of familiar faces in this movie, you will see a fair bit of character development on both the old as well as the new characters and this may lend a bit of wow or nostalgia factor to the fans of the movie.

Obviously a new robot now takes the main stage as the cute factor in the movie that ties the initial storyline together but overall,  the characters are what you would be expecting, good being good although the bad guy has a bit of more potential to develop then the good. Don't expect anything like the first few starwars (according to time-line aka the anakin part of the story before Darth Vader)

Cinematography 3.5/5

Aye! Was there many lazers pewpewing all over the place? Was there sufficient lightsaber duels and good choreographed fights..

Unfortunately for this movie, sure there are space battles, sure there are fights, but in general there was a bit more attempt to emphasize on driving the story and hence it suffered in the action cinematography section which overall would be detrimental to those looking for epic space fights etc.

There are nice shots of planets, new planets etc but honestly, nothing really stood out as particularly cool and exciting even though this movie had plenty of potential to do so...

Here's some lightsabers, just cause.

Music 4.5/5

Music is classic Star Wars and if you followed the previous movies you know that it always has a very powerful and fitting score to fit the happenings in the movie.

Thanks to the numerous movies before this, it has reach a state whereby when you hear the music you kind of know what is going to happen soon. Even to those new to the franchise the music will add much immersion value to them.

Spectacle 3/5

The overall problem that this movie faces is different for the fans, and also for new comers. For new comers, the introduction of old faces with no background, yet expecting the audience to appreciate their presence makes it hard for the new comers to be properly drawn in. For the fans, thanks to the more action packed episode 1 to 3 (Anakin storyline) this movie would pale badly to those movies where you see tons of jedis and more Saber battles. Thanks to episode 4 to 6 (Luke storyline)  the movie's storyline will unfortunately be too familiar to be exciting.

Don't get me wrong, there are still good action scenes and the storyline in general still moves things along, but it seems more like a set up for the next few movies to bring in new characters but amongst the other movies out there that falls into the same genre this movie falls just that bit too short.

Overall

Storyline : 3 (Ordinary story, too ordinary to stand out amongst the other movie, also feels like a strange rehash)
Character : 3.5 (Expects audience to have a bit of background knowledge of the characters thus not giving enough time and opportunity to be more involved with the characters)
Cinematography : 3.5 (It's fine... it's not great though... just fine)
Music : 4.5 (Good music, one of the most fitting score that adds to the experience)
Spectacle : 3 (Did not stand out in the action section, neither did it stand out enough for storyline. It is kind of more like, just another star war movie in the end)

Overall : 3.5 (This movie had a lot going for it, a good back story, well established fan base, plenty of budget to advertise and even a cartoon. It's hyped up, and everyone should have heard about it. Unfortunately, with so much expectation, it fails to deliver even for the fans or rather, especially for the fans as it did not do anything new. Overall, you could see this movie if you wanted, and you probably would, but if you didn't see it, go ahead and wait for the next one before watching and you won't really miss out anything because this movie did not really add too much. That being said, being a 2 hour movie, if you do have time to kill, you probably won't regret seeing this movie too as it is still a very much palatable action movie in space with light sabers. Probably go ahead and lower your expectation for this movie instead and if you can, see the first 6 movies so that you got some back story to appreciate the characters more. Just remember, more lightsabers = more fun, since this movie has less light sabers, it will be okey, but just not THAT fun.)