A military woman in “The Tomorrow War” (Amazon Prime) tells a new draftee why they haven’t released photos of the alien invaders to the public. It’s because if they did, the military camp would be empty of enlistees (even though they are legally required to report).
Creepy creatures win the day
That’s a big promise to the audience, but director Chris McKay’s modern CGI mix of “Terminator,” “Aliens” and fast-zombie flicks delivers with the creepiest creature designs since the Skullcrawlers in “Kong: Skull Island.”
While writer Zach Dean pays lip service to the wrongness of conscription – along with nods to PTSD and global warming — “Tomorrow War” ultimately has such epic action scenes that we come away impressed with the visual spectacle of war.
“The Tomorrow War” (2021)
Director: Chris McKay
Writer: Zach Dean
Stars: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons
An appealingly weathered and mostly non-quippy Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), as military vet Dan Forester, leads both the action and the family drama. He gets drafted and must leave his wife (Betty Gilpin) and daughter (Ryan Keira Armstrong) for the future war.
The personal drama feels rather requisite, with even Dan’s decision to enlist rather than flee to Mexico with his family being sketchily explored. It’s objectively less stupid than, say, the between-battles narrative in “Godzilla vs. Kong,” but I can’t say I got deeply invested.
Family drama across time
Dean riffs on the “Terminator” by telling a multi-generational family story across time – out of order, in a sense – but I appreciated the logistics more than the emotions.
Pratt is ably supported by J.K. Simmons (as Dan’s estranged dad), who finds himself in situations even Farmers Insurance couldn’t dream of. Sam Richardson’s Charlie provides Everyman Scientist comic relief. It’s nice to see Mary Lynn Rajskub (“24’s” Chloe) again.
Yvonne Strahovski plays a character with a secret identity you’ll see coming a mile away. While Dean’s screenplay is “smart” in the sense that all your major time-travel, time-jump and time-paradox questions are addressed, it doesn’t play them for cool twists. It has Dan scrunch up his face and figure it out.
War: It’s fantastic (looking)
“Tomorrow War” looks great under Larry Fong’s lens. I was immediately hooked by the Foresters’ warm Christmas house party and how it contrasts with the foreboding sky of their neighborhood.
The setting of the future war is immediately gripping. The shot of Dan and colleagues falling from the sky in 2051 – some of them, luckily, into a swimming pool – is impressive enough that I don’t begrudge the editors for using it as the introductory shot in addition to its natural place in the narrative.
As a thematic piece, “Tomorrow War” falls short. Is war hell or is it hella awesome? Early on, we see obviously untrained civilians in positions that should be held by rigidly instructed soldiers, and the wrongness – both morally and strategically — is striking. But as the film goes on, it’s clear this is an accidental commentary, or a spice.
The creatures are initially scary, almost to a horror-film degree, but eventually we revel in the action, and Dan and others start shooting off one-liners to go with their bullets.
So “The Tomorrow War” ends up being structurally standard stuff, with the time travel punching up the family story but not providing twists to distinguish itself from a non-time-hopping sci-fi war. Those creature designs and battles, though, make it the best kind of standard stuff.