Review: 'The 5th Wave' Starring Chloë Grace Moretz

Alien invaders behave intelligently before acting really, really stupidly in “The 5th Wave,” a tween-oriented sci-fi adventure that synthesizes “They Live,” “The Hunger Games,” and countless other visitors-from-another-world sagas. Based on the first of Rick Yancey’s series of novels, director J Blakeson’s film opens with young Cassie (Chloë Grace Moretz) running through the forest with a machine gun, finding a convenience store, and killing a suspicious man she suspected was hiding a weapon inside his coat. This marks Cassie as a do-what-you-gotta-do brand of heroine, and sets the stage for her ensuing ordeal combatting a race of extraterrestrials known as “The Others” who — for reasons that are never properly revealed — are bent on taking over Earth.

Flashing back to the day before The Others’ arrival, “The 5th Wave” details Cassie’s calm-before-the-storm Ohio high school life, an existence full of partying with her BFF, flirting with football player Ben (Nick Robinson),...