The Tomorrow War – A Bland Streaming Blockbuster

In the age of streaming services and a landscape affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the scope of films appearing on them have changed drastically as studios have employed them as another venue for their releases. Therefore services are no longer feature just smaller to mid-range budget films with more blockbuster-worthy content appearing on larger services on a more regular basis. The Tomorrow War is the latest summer blockbuster-worthy film to hit a streaming service and while it will surely entertain, it still faces the common pitfalls of summer blockbusters for better or worse. In most cases, in spite of their flaws, they are still entertaining for the most part and this film is no different. This film may not be perfect by any means but it does just enough to get by and certainly feels like a summer blockbuster though it could be shorter with a running time touching nearly 2.5 hours. Definitely ambitious, the film perhaps bites off more than it could chew.

The Tomorrow War takes place in a world that is shook when a group of travelers from thirty years in the future deliver an dire message about the fate of the human race as they were on the losing side of a war with a deadly alien race. Their only hope was to find soldiers and civilians to send to the future to join the fight. One of those was a former soldier and high school teacher named Dan Forester (Pratt) who left his family to jump to the future and join the fight though only for a 7 day tour in which he may or may not survive. The issue of convincing people to fight a war with no effect on them was a tough task therefore a worldwide draft was instituted but it could only go so far as to convince the world of the threat. Meanwhile. the combination of soldiers along with everyday people fighting in a future war made for an interesting dynamic that disappeared as quickly as it was introduced. From there, the film essentially devolved into a bland sci-fi tale as characters fought to survive against the alien threat long enough for them to find a solution for disposing the alien threat before the aliens disposed of them and/or Dan had to jump back to the present.

It goes without saying that in order to enjoy The Tomorrow War, one must not think about it too much. Trying to be something deeper than it was on paper, none of it truly mattered in the grand scheme. While the story and characters were on the bland side, there was still enough spectacle to be had to keep things somewhat entertaining. The aliens in question posed a solid threat but were also on the bland side (as was their character design) as they were never established in a satisfying way, merely killing nameless characters indiscriminately which gets old. Connecting it all were a series of decently-shot big action set pieces that delivered in spectacle (and sometimes sensory overload) with an epic score to match that spectacle. For a film with so much going on, it can often feel like it is going nowhere which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Pacing issues put a stall on things overall as they made a nearly 2.5 hour film feel longer than that, especially thanks to its tact-on third act.

In the end, the best part of The Tomorrow War was its performances though that really isn’t saying much. The material wasn’t there so it’s only fair that the performances failed to show up either. The normally charismatic Chris Pratt did the bare minimum when it came to his performance as Dan by simply going through the motions as the lead. Though he was still compelling to watch as he still carried himself through the action, the emotion just wasn’t there as he wasn’t quite believable as a cross between a quippy anti-hero and the prototypical action lead. The only one to remotely try was Strahovski as Romeo Command with her energy and her chemistry which helped prop up Pratt. Simmons as Dan’s father James was wasted in a criminally-small role.

At the end of the day, The Tomorrow War is definitely a blockbuster that will entertain in spite of its flaws which saves it from being a complete disaster.

still courtesy of Amazon Studios

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.