The Tomorrow War

Director: Chris McKay

Screenwriter: Zach Dean

Cinematographer: Larry Fong

Production Companies: Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media, New Republic Pictures, Phantom Four Films, Lit Entertainment Group

Distributor: Amazon Studios

Release Date: 2 July 2021

Runtime: 2 hours 18 minutes

MPA Rating: PG-13

Availability: Amazon Prime Video

Synopsis

In The Tomorrow War, humanity – or rather what’s left of it – is on the brink of extinction due to a seemingly unstoppable alien force in the year 2052. In a last-ditch attempt at salvation, survivors have created a time machine that will allow people from the past to travel to the future to join the war effort. After a group of future soldiers arrive in the present day and informs the world of what’s happening in their time, a global draft quickly commences to save the world of tomorrow. One of those recruits is Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), a former Green Beret turned jaded biology teacher. After a heartfelt goodbye to his wife (Betty Gilpin) and daughter (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), he and a group of civilians turned soldiers will have to work together if they hope to save the world.

Analysis

As far as action goes, The Tomorrow War is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the movie does a surprisingly good job balancing suspense and action. This balance leads to many excellent action sequences, where viewers are first rapt with anxiety over what possible dangers are present, then exhilarated once the tension gives way to thrills. What makes these scenes all the more engaging are the great designs of the aliens. Although CGI, they still feel real and dangerous based on their look, how they maneuver around environments, and how they savagely dispatch humans. The danger these creatures present makes it extremely satisfying when they’re offed by conventional (e.g., guns and explosions) and unconventional (e.g., helicopter blades and buzzsaw) ways. That being said, it’s disappointing how the film never leans into using its futuristic setting to provide truly over-the-top action. Not only do most of the future environments look modern, but more importantly, the types of weapons the people use there are just ordinary. If a movie has a group of soldiers fighting aliens in the future, then I want to see them using lasers, MAC cannons, rocket launchers, go nuts with the concept! And considering that this is the SAME future in which humanity has invented time travel, there’s no reason why the soldiers should be going into battle with shotguns and pistols. While still satisfying, not making the most out of a futuristic setting felt like a lost opportunity and turned the futuristic setting into a gimmick.

As for the plot, this movie makes absolutely no sense. As for almost any blockbuster, you’re going to have to accept some ridiculous things as fact. That being said, nearly every single element of The Tomorrow War’s plot is illogical. Take the movie’s premise for instance. Ignoring how unlikely it would be to get the whole world on board with a global draft, how is sending people from the present day to an ostensibly doomed future in a desperate attempt to save it a good idea? Shouldn’t your primary objective be to send information from the future to the past to prevent the invasion from happening in the first place? [***START OF SPOILER ***] The fact that this idea isn’t brought up until the beginning of the third act - and as a twist - is ridiculous. [***END OF SPOILER***] Although this is the most egregious logical flaw, there are still plenty more to baffle viewers. Why keep sending people to a future war with a mortality rate of nearly 70%? Why aren’t recruits adequately trained, equipped, or even sufficiently informed to face the alien threat? Why does 30 years into the future – aside from a technologically advanced military base – look almost exactly like the present? The movie is more interested in action than the plot, which isn’t necessarily a problem. However, when a story is so riddled with plot holes that I lose interest whenever something’s not exploding, there’s no reason for me to buy into what’s happening. And since the movie clearly wanted me to care about the characters, there wasn’t that much for me to care for given how silly the entire situation was.

I also felt that the movie was oddly structured. First, it went at a swift pace. So much happens in the first 30 minutes of the movie that almost no time is devoted to fleshing out characters or understandably introducing the central premise. And once Forester travels to the future, we are thrown into conflict after conflict with hardly any breaks in between to learn new info about characters or see them develop. Second, there are a couple of scenes that seem out of place or almost entirely unnecessary. You have the standard clip from later on in the movie that ends on a cliffhanger to make the audience wonder how the protagonist got there scene at the beginning of the movie, only it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, and it’s no surprise that the character is in that position if you’ve watched the trailers. There’s also an entire scene devoted to exposition to insufficiently answer all of a viewer’s potential questions. And while oddly enough I believed that the third act was the strongest of the film, I felt that the end of the second act served as a natural conclusion to the movie. Finally, the film never seemed to settle on an appropriate tone. It opens as a dower drama interspersed with some awkwardly timed humor, followed by an action-packed middle portion with drama and comedy sprinkled throughout, and then ending in pure camp. So during the entire time I was watching this odd medley of movie elements, it was difficult to gauge what to make of the film or, more importantly, what I should be feeling during each scene.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think that The Tomorrow War is the definition of a typical below-average sci-fi streaming film. It just barely has enough action to excuse an awkwardly structured plot that’s completely devoid of logic. So if you already have Amazon Prime, watching this movie wouldn’t be the worst way to spend just under 2.5 hours of your day. Should probably be a rainy day though.

Rating: 2.5/5