The Tomorrow War Review

The Tomorrow War is a sci-fi action film. The movie is produced by Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media, New Republic Pictures, Phantom Four Films, and Lit Entertainment Group and distributed by Amazon Studios. The Tomorrow War is written by Zach Dean and directed by Chris McKay.

The story is former Delta Force operator Dan Forester is enjoying his time with his family having to no longer be in a war zone, but that's soon short lived. Time travelers from the year 2051 have arrived in the past in need of soldiers to fight a deadly alien race that threatens to wipe out humanity. Now Dan must enter a new war in order to not only save the world but his daughter.

Initial Reaction

What really drew me with this movie was premise. I really liked the idea of soldiers from the future asking for help from the past. Then the trailer dropped and I thought it was okay, I was still interested in seeing this, it's just I wished the trailer toned it down with the jokes.

Cons

Now you can consider this a nitpick, but during the end of the movie Dan gives us this voice-over which basically tells us, what the movie's message is. Really didn't need that because we saw it. The other issue I had was the tone. Often times the tone is just off, one moment we're dark, serious, and grim then we're joking around. Like what just happened? Weren't we just serious and bleak like three minutes ago?

Middle Ground

The only grey area is the characters. Sure there's good development, but a lot of times some characters will either get killed or we don't see them again for a long time.

Pros

One positive with the film is the action. Not only is it intense and fun, but it's also very suspenseful. There were times when I was just trying to figure where the monsters are going to show up or what are they going to do next. Another positive for The Tomorrow War is Chris McKay's directing. He showed he can handle animation with The Lego Batman Movie and he really showed he can handle live-action with this movie. There were quite a few beautiful shots and a great showcase of cinematography. Really makes me hope he's still working on that Nightwing movie. What also made this movie pretty good were those nice scenes where it's more drama driven than action. I really wasn't expecting that, cause the trailers (which in retrospective did not do this movie any favors) made it seem like this was going to be a generic action flick, but because of those emotional moments we really get to know the characters, the toll this war is taking on people, and how everyone feels about the war. It's moments like that that really give the movie more layers. The other aspect of The Tomorrow War that makes it good is the CGI. The VFX team did a stunning job with the time traveling portals and the monsters. Especially the monsters, there was so much detail put into them. The last thing I'll give the movie credit for is Chris Pratt's performance. He nailed it with being a charismatic hero, the jokester, but here we also see him handle the more emotional scenes. There's a good portion of the film where he sees someone close to him die, and when he goes back to the past, I really thought Chris was going to breakdown crying, he was that good.

The Tomorrow War has its flaws, such as an unnecessary voice-over and the tone being inconsistent. And it also has a mix bag area with the characters, however, the movie makes up for it with great action, McKay's directing, emotional moments, good CGI, and Chris Pratt's performance.

My final rating is Good.

Okay, that's all for now. Come back on Monday, Jul 5th for my review of Fear Street Part 1: 1994. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day, and give this movie a watch, if you're interested.