The alien monsters known as the White Spikes, named because … well … they can shoot white spikes at you, become just an indistinguishable horde. The characters get caught up in chasing down one plot device after another in equally mundane action setpiece after action setpiece that barely hold the tenuous story together. Not only are they up against the odds, they have already experienced heavy losses.Īlmost immediately, the tension and potential excitement is deflated. Throwing your characters into an immediately dire situation offers a promising start. The only reason some survive is they land in a pool on top of a skyscraper. The initial mission goes terribly wrong and drops Forester into the future thousands of feet above the ground, wiping out a majority of his team who fall to their death. Instead, the story feels as though it is being made up as it goes along. Sending a group of soldiers, some of whom are way out of their depth, into the future for seven days to fight aliens? Fine, right on. The premise itself could have been tightened into a solid enough action romp. Chris Pratt as Dan Forester in The Tomorrow War. There were multiple moments where I thought the ordeal was over only to realize that the film was not even halfway done. Despite having no business being over two hours, the film runs through plodding action sequence after action sequence where characters have to go get a thing to do another thing and it all just becomes increasingly tiresome. The Tomorrow War’s fatal flaw is that it is utterly overblown and bloated. That is not in itself a bad thing, though it requires actually having an exciting action film. That is because The Tomorrow War is an attempt, a poor one, at making a science fiction action-adventure flick that jettisons all other potentially compelling elements for this central conceit. It seemed to gesture at possibly breaking down how the burden of war is falling on a specific subset of the population, though that soon is waved away with half baked sciencey sounding explanations before zipping along to the main focus of the film. The film initially indicates some deeper reflections on how a draft like this would be rolled out and who specifically would be chosen to bear the brunt of the weight of conflict. As if on cue, a group of time traveling soldiers interrupt a broadcast of a soccer match by bursting onto the field to inform the world that alien monsters will attack so they must prepare to send soldiers into the future to save our present.Ī draft is instituted and Dan is selected, meaning his wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) will have to watch their father go into the future with the immense uncertainty about whether he will return. When he is turned down for the position for not having enough “private sector experience,” he reflects on how he needs to do something to prove himself worthy of future jobs. It is tepid and tacky science fiction that as I reflect on it more, the more I find myself completely losing sight of any redeeming qualities.Ĭhris Pratt’s Dan Forester is a loving family man and science teacher who is hoping to get a better job. At the very least, going back to change almost every decision involved in the production of this film would be the only way to save it. Better yet, I wish I could go back in time to stop the film itself from existing. I wish I could go back in time to stop myself from watching The Tomorrow War. The Tomorrow War (2021 | USA | 140 minutes | Chris McKay)
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