The Tomorrow War

Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Mathews, Edwin Hodge, Seychelle Gabriel
Directed by: Chris McKay
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A man (Chris Pratt) is drafted into a future war against an invading alien army.

Review:

Tim: I was ready and willing to love The Tomorrow War. In mid-2021, we'd been through the worst 18 months in most of our lifetimes. I was so excited to watch an alien invasion sci-fi movie. Plus, this blockbuster released on Amazon Prime, so I didn't have to risk my health by going to a theater. While watching the movie, I did try to love it. Then, I tried to like it. Ultimately, this is a decent but disappointing movie. There's some truly terrific things about it, but it finally fails to meet our expectations. It's a decent, occasionally fun movie. It's unfortunately just not very good.

In theory, the movie has a great premise. Time travelers from the future return to our present day with horrible news- the human race is the verge of being wiped out by an alien threat. The world institutes a global draft to pull present-day humans into service, send them to the future, and battle the alien threat. That's a super cool premise. As you think about it, the logic of it all does start to break down. It's a better idea on paper than in reality, but if you're willing to totally suspend your disbelief, you can see how it's a cool premise for a film. The movie tries to give us a few details to explain things, but others, they ignore (probably because they recognized there's no way to convince an audience about certain aspects of the film). The fun part is seeing these people serve as our surrogates to travel into the future and fight a war for which they're not really prepared.

One frustrating thing about this movie is that if you focused just on the strengths, there's so many. The future alien battle scenes are extraordinarily cool. The visual effects are quite strong and those action sequences are thrilling. The aliens themselves might not feel original, but they are fearsome and frightening. The explosions, the gunfights, the adventure of it all is very entertaining. When I was watching those scenes, I forgot about the plot holes and general ridiculousness of the premise and just felt entertained watching humans battle the invading aliens. That part of the movie is a big strength. Whenever things are loud, dangerous, and exciting, the movie works. It's unfortunately most of the other parts that fail to live up to that promise.

The human drama is decent, but uneven. Chris Pratt is mostly good in the lead role, but he's a bit unlikable. This feels so strange to me. When he transformed from an overweight sidekick to an action star, it was so easy to root for him. He was all of us, making good on his potential. Once in that role, though, he became harder to like. I wouldn't say I was a fan of him here, although he gives a mostly good performance. His background in comedy helps him in movies like this. Yvonne Strahovski, on the other hand, was excellent. She was one of the best parts of the film. She gives a believable performance, connects with the audience, and gets you to care about her character. The dynamic between Strahovski and Pratt is easily one of the film's highlights and it creates the most memorable, powerful human moments. That part of the film was a definite strength. They also work very well together. J.K. Simmons adds in his usual tremendous supporting role. He got saddled with a bit of a weak character, but you can't fault his performance. I immediately liked the movie better whenever he showed up on screen. Betty Gilpin has never done anything for me, and her blase performance here continues that trend. She's such a not-noticeable actress. She takes space up on screen but doesn't add much. I always like seeing Edwin Hodge and he was solid in his supporting role here. He doesn't say much, but he's cool and fun to watch. I don't know if Sam Richardson was the best choice for comedic support. He has a few fun moments, but his performance felt mostly forced and unfunny. The cast is actually pretty strong, but not quite strong enough to save the film.

The film does have a number of strengths, but they get stretched too thin during the 2 hour, 18 minute run time. This is simply too long and things we might have been able to forgive feel increasingly impossible to ignore by the time the final act rolls around. By the end of the film, logic and realism seem to go completely out of the window. I just couldn't buy what I was seeing on screen. It's like the script focused on trying to create cool moments for its characters, rather than focusing on telling a powerful story first. The story completely crumbles and I spent the last quarter of the movie cringing at what the film was trying to sell us.

The Tomorrow War isn't a bad movie, but it's definitely a failure as a summer blockbuster. The script was too weak and while director Chris McKay does some impressive things, he ultimately can't save the movie. Sure, it has fun moments and entertaining moments, but we needed the movie to be better.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Battle: Los Angeles, The Edge of Tomorrow, Starship Troopers