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Much has been made over the last couple decades about what it says about our current society that we’ve been flooded with movies and TV shows about first vampires and then zombies. Art does, after all, reflect where society is and what its worries and priorities are. Part of that has been the increased attention young adult literature has received and that genre has not only given us healthy doses of the undead but also apocalyptic stories about alien invasions, totalitarian governments and the like, usually with a plucky young heroine at the center of the plot as she tries to save the world, find her family or bring down the oppressors.
The new movie The 5th Wave fits into the second of those two categories. Based on the novel of the same name, the story follows Cassie (Chloe Grace Moretz), a young girl whose happy life is upended when aliens invade the planet. Separated from the rest of her family she’s responsible for keeping her younger brother safe from the ever-escalating attacks of the invaders. The fifth wave of the title refers to the aliens’ new ability to inhabit a human host, making it possible for them to infiltrate the resistance fighters, something that causes Cassie to not trust the people she’s coming across in that effort to reunite with her family.
The Posters
The first poster does a decent job of setting up the story and showing what the audience can expect. So Cassie and her brother Sammy (Zackary Arthur) stand on a vacant street with damaged, abandoned cars scattered around and a city in the background that has obviously been attacked, with buildings damaged and crumbling. “Protect your own” is the copy at the top, which makes it clear the two characters on the poster are out to take care of each other.
The next poster shows Cassie being much more proactive at the same time it ups the disaster factor. Cassie stands with some sort of heavy machine gun in hand looking off into the middle distance while to the other side a city is enveloped in a massive tidal wave. Above that we get a countdown of what the previous four waves of the invasion were while below the title treatment we’re told this is when “We fight back.”
The final theatrical poster shows Grace protecting her brother as debris rains down around them, obviously from the alien attack that’s taking place. A huge ship looms in the sky in the background and you can see buildings have been destroyed around them. At the top we’re asked “Can we survive the 5th Wave?” so it’s clear this is just the latest in a string of disasters and moves by the alien aggressors.
The first and final posters sell the movie as an emotional journey, with Cassie trying to protect her younger brother as disaster rains down around them. The second poster, though, makes an attempt to present it as more of an action epic, something between The Hunger Games and The Day After Tomorrow. That’s an interesting back-and-forth as it tries to appeal to the different demographics that have made other recent movies like Maze Runner, Divergent and their like box-office successes.
The Trailers
In the first and only trailer we’re immediately thrown into the world after an alien invasion, which we then flash back to as we see the repercussions of that invasion, which has thrown society into chaos. “The 5th Wave” is name-dropped as the aliens’ final plan to mimic and take over human hosts in order to fully exterminate people. We get lots of speeches about defending what’s left of humanity and some shots of landmarks being destroyed. In other words, it’s a pretty typical young adult/end of the world trailer.
It provides plenty of background on the situation of the family whose story we’ll be following in the movie and shows more or less what the sequence of events is here. It definitely sells more of an emotional drama than an action movie, though there are certainly aspects of that here and there. It’s less an action movie, though, than it is something like the TV show “Revolution,” with the main character fighting for survival in a world turned upside-down. It’s not quite selling a Hunger Games or Divergent-type movie but…and this is going to sound more derogatory than I intend it…kind of a sci-fi after-school special.
Online and Social
The official website opens with a full motion image in the the main window while a prompt to watch the trailer plays in the upper left hand corner but oddly that’s the international sneak peek, not the domestic trailer.
Over on the left there’s a menu, with the first option there being “Story,” which has a very brief synopsis of the plot. “Cast & Crew” just has a list of the talent in front of and behind the camera but no bios or other information. “Videos” just has the same international trailer that was on the front page and finally the “Gallery” only has three stills from the film. All in all it’s not exactly a full-throated official site.
The film also had the usual profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The movie also had a presence on Snapchat where, presumably, they shared stories and other exclusive videos and pics.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
TV spots like this one have been running and lay as slightly condensed versions of the trailer, showing the same weaknesses and strengths. If anything it plays up the melodrama of the story a bit more heavily than the trailers but that’s not unexpected.
While I wasn’t exposed to any of them I’m sure there were both online and outdoor ads run as well to sell the movie to the web and highway-bound audiences.
Media and Publicity
Moretz graced the cover of the February issue of Marie Claire, promoting the movie, talking about her career and showing off her style. She would also make appearances on a few morning and late-night talk shows to talk about the film.
There were a few other stories here and there but it never seemed to coalesce into a concerted press push, at least not one that was easily discoverable via search or which was shared on the movie’s social channels.
Overall
It’s hard to get a feel for the campaign, which may just be me not being in the target demographic here. Even accounting for that, though, I just don’t feel like there’s a cohesive, focused campaign here. That’s exemplified by the back-and-forth of the posters, which alternate between selling the movie as a melodramatic drama and an action epic that pits Cassie alone against the invading alien hordes.
The rest of the marketing is a bit better, though, but I guess I’m just having a hard time teasing out any sort of connective tissue here. Moretz is certainly in the spotlight but she keeps having it taken away from her by the effects and the desire to push the big events happening in the story. So while I’m sure this is better in the movie in itself, in terms of the campaign she isn’t really allowed to become the heart and soul of the story in a way that I would expect her to be.
