Cert 15
112 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong violence, injury detail
Surely, there must be a limit on the market for movies about teenagers attempting to save post-apocalypse worlds.
But just in case cinema-goers are not sated by The Hunger Games, Maze Runner or Divergent, Columbia Pictures have brought us Chloe Grace Moretz in The 5th Wave.
And, lucky for us, this is just the first of a trilogy.
Mrs W and I may be old but we can appreciate good children's movies or even some of the ones aimed specifically at teenagers (I loved the first in The Hunger Games franchise).
But Jonathan Blakeson's The 5th Wave tested our patience because of its hole-ridden storyline and its lazy dialogue.
Sure, Moretz tries her hardest to keep the pace going but clearly struggles, despite her claims on Twitter that is the one of her favourite films.
The premise of Blakeson's movie is that earth has visitors from another planet who cause a string of catastrophes which progressively wipe out the population.
These range from giant tsunamis to killer viruses.
The fifth wave is the infiltration of what remains of the human race in order to kill them in conventional urban warfare.
In response, the United States army, gathers a team of children to fight them off.
There is no explanation why, after killing by supernatural means, the aliens become conventional opponents and only a limited commentary on why children are needed instead of adults.
Regardless, Moretz plays a high school girl who becomes a killer while, simultaneously, trying to look after her much younger brother (Zackary Arthur).
Even as the end of mankind beckons, there is still time for two good-looking lads (Nick Robinson and Alex Rose) to appear on her romantic horizon.
Oh, and people get shot, limp for a minute and then run like gazelles.
I stifled laughter when Moretz transformed from suffering an injury which at first seemed as if it may require amputation into an Olympic-standard athlete within days. The camera then panned on to a leg which had been torn apart by a sniper's shot, and it was healed, save for three stitches.
This is par for the course for The 5th Wave. On every level, reality is suspended.
I understand the need for an element of fantasy in teenage sci-fi romances but do they have to be so daft?
Reasons to watch: If you are a 16-year-old fan of Chloe Grace Moretz
Reasons to avoid: So many plot holes, it becomes ridiculous
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 3.5/10
Star Tweet
15, it really is one of my favorite films I've made and I'm not just saying that