The Tomorrow War (2021) film review

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Star – Chris Pratt My Rating **** Genre – Sci – Fi/Alien Invasion Run Time – 2 hr 18 Minutes. Certificate – PG13 Country – U.S.A Awards – 7 Nominations = = = = = = = = = = = = = The Tomorrow War was one of the big blockbuster casualties of the pandemic as Paramount Studios gave up on releasing it in cinemas and just sold it on to Amazon Studios for £200 million, its production budget. Amazon managed to pull back just $8.1m on their streaming platform but unclear how they come to that figure, unless it was sold on again. The likable Chris Pratt heads up the cast with his witty hunk familiar lead in this enjoyable Sci-Fi that has clearly been denied its worthy audience by the pandemic. It’s a shame as it’s quite a fun idea in the time travel genre and we can just hope a review here and there can help people actually find this movie on their streaming services. But if streaming platforms are the future, you do wonder how studios can keep making these $200 million dollar movies in the Covid era. ===The Cast== Chris Pratt as Dan Forester Yvonne Strahovski as Colonel Muri Forester J.K. Simmons as James Forester Betty Gilpin as Emmy Forester Sam Richardson as Charlie Jasmine Mathews as Lt. Hart Edwin Hodge as Dorian Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Young Muri Forester Keith Powers as Major Greenwood Mary Lynn Rajskub as Norah Mike Mitchell as Cowan Jared Shaw as Tank ===The Plot=== It’s the year of 2022 as families around the world are watching the Football World Cup. Then, somewhat bizarrely, a wormhole opens in a flash of light above the pitch as soldiers from the future arrive on the center spot, announcing to the world they are human but from the year 2051, with the very bad news that aliens have overrun the future world and the soldiers are losing the battle to save the planet from them, the planets population down to just 500,000. Through the wormhole machine they have constructed in the future to deliver the message they have created a fixed time bridge from 2022 to 2051, but only that, so they can’t move people to 2052 or 2050 etc. At first the world’s military are signed up for the future war and moved through the time gate but after a year or so they are seriously depleted fighting in the future and the draft begins. Ex Green Beret and now biology teacher Dan Forester (Chris Pratt) has got his papers and ready to be deployed, his wife and daughter not best pleased as they contemplate escaping to Canada to avoid conflict, dad Forrester (J.K. Simmons) failing to get the device fitted to enforce enlistment on his sons arm in time. You serve seven days in 2051 and then the device zaps you back to 2022, regardless. The disparate bunch of civilians have not been trained but given military kit to fight plus a week’s basic training and a briefing as they load into the star gate bound for 2051. They are not told some facts though, like how fearsome their enemy will be. If they were they wouldn’t go. But if the 2022 people don’t go then Earth is lost by 2051. Forester quickly takes control of his group on arrival in the dystopian war torn future, a wormhole glitch leaving him down on numbers as they crash into the future, their orders to ‘evac’ science staff and their critical research from a tall building in downtown Miami. But the building is surrounded by voracious fast moving aliens as their battle begins. ===Results=== It’s entertaining aliens munching humans stuff here although the PG13 rating somewhat surprising as soldiers do get bitten in half and eaten whole, Starship Troopers style. But it’s done in a lighthearted way as Chris Pratt plays it for laughs the way he did in the later cash-in Jurassic Park re-launch sequels and so you could just about let under-12s watch it. The premise is pretty good and time travel movies rarely fail to deliver although not that many paradoxes to play with here. The twist they do deal from the deck is unexpected and sets up the films second act nicely. It does turn into what most action films do these days with the feminist third act, but emancipated females and multiracial support casts characters is the way it’s going to be for a while now as these films are increasingly made by spreadsheet to target worldwide audiences so the audience feels part of that world. Its over-the-top but not by that much as our heroes escape death in most scenes. The aliens are nasty but basic and just looking for food although the unneeded fourth act offered the feeling that Paramount didn’t want to give Amazon Studios an obvious sequel. But there will be one and I will be watching. Oh and ignore the critic’s low ratings on this one, grab the popcorn and give it a go as there is enough new stuff here to make you enjoy it. ===RATINGS=== Imdb.com 6.8/10.0 (178.000k votes) Rottentomatos.com –% critic’s approval Metacritic.com – % critic’s approval ===Trailer=== https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9777666/