The Tomorrow War Movie Review


Tomorrow War was meant to be a summer blockbuster until Covid hit and relegated it to a streaming movie. Everything about it begs us to watch it on a large screen, but these are the times.
An ex military special forces protagonist who is now relegated to being a teacher with broken ambitions and a estranged relationship with his PTSD father is called upon to answer the draft again and serve. Except the war is fought in the near future, with creatures we don't see until about a third of the way. In the process, he has to save the world, save his daughter and also his relationship with his loved ones all in the same move. 
The movie is a bit derivative, and channels ideas from many other movies. It mixes Oblivion and Edge of Tomorrow, using fast moving creatures from the latter, the time shock element of meeting a loved one from the former. The trouble father with a troubled past who has skills is also borrowed from past movies (the latest which comes to mind was Angel Has Fallen), but works well here because whilst the plot is heavily borrowed from other sci-fi action movies, the lead actors work hard to keep it convincing, and there is good chemistry between them.
The plot pacing is pretty tight and we don't have to rely on the acting chops of Chris Pratt but he carries it well, and is assisted by a very competent J.K. Simmons who teams up well and the other cast members pull their weight to make the sum of the parts more than it may seem. Chris has played a Navy Seal in Jurassic Park and his comfort playing the ex military man out to save the world shows. And his bulk as wittingly put in Guardians is one pork chop shy of fat.. is well executed. After all, a school teacher with a kid can't be putting in the hours at the gym like Thor can.. 

Good movies don't reveal the monster or enemy immediately and the movie cleverly only shows bits of the monster in the second third. The monster even makes sounds like other monsters in recent movies. I wonder if they borrowed the sound clips from them.. 

As for the sound, it does not plunge the depths like The Edge of Tomorrow, which opened with a truly magnificent bass demo, but there are some decent Atmos scenes, and it's lively enough.
I'm glad it was on Amazon Prime and I think it's a decent effort that will make me buy the disc when it's finally out on UHD.

Recommended. 

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