Rent The Tomorrow War on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Zach Dean
Directed by: Chris McKay
Starring: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
A family man is drafted to fight in a future war thirty years from now where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.
Verdict
It's a big dumb action movie for the most part that throws in time travel for added complexity. It's a creative story with a bit of bloat. The action and the comic relief are completely over the top. The second and third act feel like different movies aided by a lot of contrivance. As grim as this movie should be, it maintains a rather light mood.
Skip it.
Review
This starts in media res with humans falling out of the sky. It's my oft despised trope, how we got here. Dan Forester (Chris Pratt) is a military veteran professor looking for a job. His plans change when soldiers from the future come back to start an international draft.
I didn't understand how sending thousands of civilians into the future would change anything. Are they even trained? The plan seems to be more bodies thrown at the war. The government usually moves glacially, but these conscripts are getting pushed through quickly. The time travel stuff add a fun dynamic, but why do draftees have to be dead in the future? It seems like they are communicating both ways, but I'm not clear on how that works. Why are the draftees relegated to spending exactly one week in the future? Why can't they jump back later?
 |
| Sam Richardson and Chris Pratt play Charlie and Dan Forester. |
 |
| Yvonne Strahovski and Chris Pratt. |
It's a stroke of luck that Forester even survives the jump to the future. He just happened to fall into a swimming pool when the jump went bad. The search and rescue that ensures generates a lot of tension. The battle scenes are intense, though the monsters are bullet sponges. The whole movie is over the top, from the action to the comic relief. Clearly Charlie is comic relief and I'm not sure how he survives as long as he does.
In reality the human species would have no chance. The strategy of throwing bodies at the war seems stupid when we didn't know what they were facing and absolutely insane when we see the monsters. How would anyone survive that.
At the brink of defeat, human are going to stop the war before it starts by developing a toxin.This seems like one of the first things they would do since the military leaders are scientists. They capture a female monster, but don't anticipate any retaliation despite knowing males will fight to the death to protect a female.
Of course Dan is in the middle of everything and the future of the world rests on him. Nearly everyone he's met in the movie with a speaking role comes back to help him figure out how to defeat and find the monsters.
No comments :
Post a Comment