The Tomorrow War
review by Bobby Blakey
Chris Pratt has solidified himself as not only a box office draw but full on action star with his franchise flicks The Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World. Now he is taking a new alien race with his latest flick The Tomorrow War co-starring Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge, Jasmine Mathews, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, and Keith Powers with The Batman LEGO Movie director Chris McKay at the helm. Could this latest actioner bring the fun and excitement it promises or will it be an invasion not worth stopping?
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The Tomorrow War follows the world that is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight. Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester. Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.
This was yet another film that was meant to be on the big screen, but with the chaos of 2020 ended up getting sold straight to Amazon for a hefty price tag. The upside is that you can check it out at no extra cost with your subscription, but the down side is that it needs to be seen on the biggest screen possible. I figured it would be fun and have some decent action, but admit that the trailers never fully sold me to what it was bringing to the table. Thankfully it brings all the old school 90s style sci-fi action with some fun new directions that makes it a blast overall.
Pratt fits right in per usual with more of the straight man character who can bring the action as we have already seen previously. It felt very much like watching Independence Day with the time travel element infused in which makes its release all the more logical for 4th of July weekend. The rest of the cast are all great including an insanely jacked J.K. Simmons. Where this movie shined for me was in the action an there is a ton of it. The sci-fi fusion of both time travel and creature feature makes for a great time.
The creatures here are awesome. They are one of the best designed alien/creatures I have seen in some time and get plenty of time to rip through the screen.
I was surprised how many layers this film had in regards to the overall story direction. There are a couple of times that it felt like it was wrapping things up only to kick into high gear yet again for more action and fun. Usually this kind of thing is exhausting and makes the film just start dragging along, but the action and fun of it all made me just more excited for more to come.
I know this film won’t work for everyone and for me it was just the kind of popcorn sci-fi action flick I love with the only real disappointment being not getting to see it in theaters like it should be seen. So if you decided to travel through time to join the war be sure to find a nice big screen and crank up the sound system and just have a blast.
Check out The Tomorrow War when it debuts exclusively on July 2nd on Amazon Prime.