i want you to hit me as hard as you can the new sci-fi action flick the tomorrow war feels like
the kind of summer blockbuster hollywood doesn't go in for anymore fearing the lack of superheroes
and established ip would drive audiences away an original concept that i can assume had an
avengers level budget the thrills and hallmarks of this throwback are refreshingly old-school
defined by soldiers firing infinite bullets at alien threats before spouting emotionally charged
one-liners and ultimately diving from a massive explosion at the last second with movies like
that you aren't always lucky enough to get even a solid story to match but thanks to a story that
does actually manage to provide at least a little depth between the chaos you may find yourself like
me reaching the end of the tomorrow war surprised by how good of a time you had written by zach dean
and directed by chris mckay the movie centers on a former soldier now turned biology teacher dan
forrester played by chris pratt who despite having a solid job a loving family and a wife played by
betty gilpin feels like he's destined for more in life that sort of free mid-life crisis is upended
when soldiers from the future arrive via a wormhole not in a way dissimilar to the
terminator if they got to keep all their gloves and inform present-day folks that humanity is
losing a war to a race of aliens in the year 2051. they need as many able-bodied citizens as possible
to come to the future and fight enlisting anyone they can regardless of combat experience and
sending them into the future while they only have to serve seven days before being transported back
to the present most to go usually aged between 30 and 60 end up becoming alien food while other
sci-fi action movies with time travel tend to get wrapped up in the mechanics and physics of it all
the filmmakers here don't really spend a lot of time caring about what questions you
may have about people bouncing back and forth between timelines and really it doesn't matter
the bulk of the concept starts and stops with people going to the future fighting aliens and
maybe surviving long enough to come back because technological innovation likely stopped as soon
as the fighting started with the exception of you know time travel there's not much exposition and
logistical explanation needed to sell everything so when dan and his crew of mostly inexperienced
soldiers get rocketing into the future it's easy to just buy into everything and embrace
the human versus alien carnage in that regard your enjoyment will stem from just how much you enjoy
90's era guns blasting action a short amount of suspense around what the aliens look like and what
they're capable of leads to constant run and gun spectacle and while the budget could have easily
made everything look overproduced and riddled with half-baked visuals the action is grounded
enough to be immersive and properly explosive loud and kinetic as impressively gnarly beasties
chased down our heroes a welcome amount of humor mostly thanks to the always welcome sam richardson
always ensure nothing feels too taken seriously when it gets going with characters diving from
an explosion or two proving some things never go out of style when things aren't going boom
there needs to be a story of course and while the sheer hopelessness humanity seems to have
accepted means there's not much of a goal the main characters are working towards beyond surviving
the next encounter writer zach dean found room to make the story work for prat's forester
eventually teaming up with an older version of his daughter played by ethons travoski forrester
learns about events that tore his family apart in this timeline and coming from his own broken home
and being estranged from his father played by jk simmons there's enough material there
to give forrester a chance to reconnect with his daughter using a glimpse at his future to
hopefully improve his present it's not the most emotionally complex material out there nor does
it give pratt a ton of room as an actor to branch out from his every man action hero persona but it
gives the movie heart where there could simply be bullets in alien blood this therapy session built
within an action movie may not always be enough to satisfy some viewers between the action and across
the 138 minute run time but by the end the greater emotional arc reached a conclusion that was earned
and a worthwhile through line connecting the movie between hops around the globe and through time
together it all works pretty well and a lot of that is thanks to mckay behind the camera
while his last movie was the animated marvel the lego batman movie there are enough similarities
between the two to show that mckay has a knack for engrossing action injecting comedy into that
action and letting the sweetness of the story in both movies cases involving troubled father
figures shine through it all he knows how to get the most out of supporting performances
so while pratt continues to prove himself a reliable leading man actors like gilpin simmons
and richardson have their little moments to leave their mark or even steal the show in some scenes
paramount sold the tomorrow award to amazon for an astounding 200 million dollars which means
audiences will have to settle for watching it at home as i did which is a shame
because it's kind of movie that's made to be seen on the big screen not being able to hear
the audience's reaction to richard's getting the best kill of the movie is a genuine bummer
and the fact big emotions and big action sequences define the tone it feels like
something will be lost in the experience of people having to sit on the couch and watch it from home
and yet i still ended up liking the tomorrow war more than i expected to and while the story and
emotional beats aren't always strong enough to the action there's enough here to make
the movie feel like a strong blend of action movies both past and present for joeblow.com i
give the movie a solid 7 out of 10. there are 50 to 60 armed men and women standing on the pitch
you tapped in good copy it's okay
we are you 30 years in the future it's okay sweetie we are fighting a war
our enemy is not human and we are losing in 11 months time
all human beings in the future will be wiped from the face of the earth unless you help you us
most of you will deploy with d-force
the rest will jump with our force the screen on your jump band indicates deployment check it now
oh i guess we're together
i'm charlie dan roy oh yeah our force you can braid each other's hair later all right
stop talking listen totally sorry i mean that's when i'm nervous at talk and i'm on
the i'm uh i don't know i'm like on the scale of one to ten i'm like 97 on the nervous scale
well maybe like a 98 you look like a murderer no offense well i mean you do
he will kill you i know he called him a murderer turn around man i am seth i missed all of that
boy they said kids never come by unless they need something
dad i need your help i'll get my coat
30 years in the future we are fighting a war our enemy is not human and we are losing we need you
to fight i will be back and i love you chickpea seven days from now when you're sent into that war
you won't be fighting for your country you'll be fighting for the world you know right yeah going
to war stop talking listen sorry i mean when i'm nervous i talk i'm like 97 on the nervous scale
that should be fun welcome to the future you and your unit are now in 2051.
they're everywhere we are food and they are hungry
our enemy is smarter
faster and stronger than you can possibly imagine
do you want to see something really dangerous i
feel like literally that's all i've been doing since i got here but
okay within the next few weeks the human species won't disappear from the face of the earth
nothing we do here matters that's where you're wrong i don't believe that one bit
together we can stop this war from ever happening
this is my opportunity to give this world a second chance
second chances are really hard to come by light them up
i'm not gonna hide
i'm gonna fight it's not even loaded yeah well yeah it's not loaded it's a pressurized
cabin why would i load it in the cabin the bullet goes in thing and everybody sucked out
you