The Fifth Wave: reviews

What the critics say average 4.6 from 9 outlets

• 7.0 USA TodayBrian Truitt For those kids looking for a little more 'sci' in their 'fi,' 'The 5th Wave' acts as a perfect Alien Invasions 101 assignment for the teen set. Read
• 5.0 VarietyEddie Cockrell Enough of Yancey?s ambitious narrative has made the final cut to reflect an arrestingly original spin on trendy genre tropes. Read
• 5.0 ABCAntonio Weinrichter A tale full of noise and fury that tells four apocalypses in ten minutes to spend then two hours to a kind of gimkhana in which the Riding Hood of Ohio goes through the forest getting the wolf wrong. Read
• 5.0 The Hollywood ReporterHarry Windsor Another week, another plucky teenage girl with the fate of the world on her shoulders, buffeted by smoldering glances from two strong, yet sensitive, young men. Read
• 5.0 La VanguardiaSalvador Llopart The problem is the lack of taste. The vulgarity of a mise en scene that doesn't want to disturb. Where the director has no intention to fill with content. Read
• 4.6 Screen DailySarah Ward Like many films designed to double as opening chapters in ongoing screen sagas, 'The Fifth Wave' always feels padded, its focus on establishing a springboard for future sequels rather than satisfactorily exploring its own narrative. Read
• 4.0 El MundoFrancisco Marinero The adaptation of the original novel from Rick Yancey is in the hands of three known and prestigious scripwriters such as Susannah Grant, Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinker, who don't seem to add more than clichés to a big production. Read
• 4.0 EmpireOlly Richards Everything that comes after the confident, dangerous first half-hour just makes you pine for what could have been as this devolves into ten-a-penny teen-lit sludge. Read
• 2.0 El PaísJordi Costa The film does for aliens what 'Twilight' did for vampires. Read