The 5th Wave: horror without fear, science fiction without ideas

Unisex boot-camp adolescent training scenes where boy/girl one-on-one martial arts is the abstinence equivalent of sex? Check. Well, this one starts in a lively way, and the natural disaster scenes of giant waves crashing over buildings are pretty

Even before the storm, all three of the biggest new releases this weekend—the Robert De Niro/Zac Efron road trip comedy Dirty Grandpa, the young adult sci-fi invasion yarn The 5th Wave, and the doll-centric horror tale The Boy—were tracking around

The 5th Wave is heavy on post-apocalyptic trappings; U.K. director J Blakeson—following up his debut, the tough little kidnapping drama The Disappearance of Alice Creed—commits to all camo gear, survivalist grunge and kids with guns, all the time.

It's clear that “The 5th Wave” (based on the first novel in a trilogy by Rick Yancey) aims to tap into the audiences for “The Hunger Games” and “Divergent.” But it's just “Hunger Games” or “Divergent”-lite. Chloë Grace Moretz plays the pouty heroine

Unisex boot-camp adolescent training scenes where boy/girl one-on-one martial arts is the abstinence equivalent of sex? Check. Well, this one starts in a lively way, and the natural disaster scenes of giant waves crashing over buildings are pretty