There are two main characteristics to make a profitable teen blockbuster. First, have a decently cute or borderline hot, but not quite there, girl that has two love interests that she has to choose between; usually muscular and sexy. Secondly, that character must have an apocalyptic or extremely dramatic and rooted problem that only the main character has the power to resolve.

“The 5th Wave” tries to plug these traits into its script, but due to poor casting and directing, the film is undoubtedly below average.

The movie is strikingly similar to Stephanie Meyer’s “The Host.” Actually, this movie is pretty similar to many films that have been coming out and have become wildly successful over these past couple of years. Movies like the “Hunger Games” and the “Twilight” series try to exploit teenage female expectations of love to be as profitable as possible.

The main character, Cassie Sullivan, is a normal teenager thrust into the world of survival because of an alien species attempting to wipe out humans by taking over their bodies and living in their place on Earth. The aliens decide to exterminate the majority of the population through a system of five “waves” that systematically take out hundreds of millions of lives. In the fray of the alien destruction of civilization, Sullivan becomes separated from her younger brother and takes on the trek through enemy territory in order to reunite.

Although this is a rehash of a formula used in movies for a while, “The 5th Wave” somehow managed to mess it up even further, making the plot seem even more ridiculous than usual. Romance between characters, natural disasters that would never happen in a real world scenario and an unrealistic response from the government towards these aliens made this movie seem cheesier than that tiger on the Cheetos bag.

The cast didn’t make up for this train wreck of a plot at all. The only decent performance was from Chloe Grace Moretz, who played Cassie Sullivan. She had decent character progression from top to bottom which led me to believe she had been hardened by the travesty that hit her life. There were some hiccups, but that’s to be expected from this movie going into the cinema.

Most of the actors and actresses that followed were bland, monotone and static in their evolution throughout the film. Sullivan’s high school crush Ben Parish, played by Nick Robinson, seemed a little hardened from the waves of destruction, but overall was flat toned and wasn’t a very good leader. Cassie’s little brother Sam Sullivan, played by Zackary Arthur, didn’t mature at all throughout the rigorous events. Honestly, they killed off all of the decent actors and actresses in the beginning of the film that could have redeemed the story in some form or another.

If you liked the Hunger Games, Divergent or the Twilight series, you’ll definitely enjoy this film. That’s the niche that this movie hits, and it’s proud of that fact. No one can take that away from this movie; if you like teen blockbusters, this is your movie. This is a film that if you watched an online bootleg from some guy with their phone camera out in the theatre, you wouldn’t miss a thing, and that’s why I can’t recommend this for anyone outside that bubble. ­­