So it’s been a while since I’ve watched a movie, but I’ve got a bit of time over the festive period and I had a hankering for some long form entertainment, so I thought I’d see what was about. I was going to watch Dune, but it was a bit too long for the time I had, so I settled on The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt. The basic jist is that in the future, humanity is exterminated by some aliens, and the humans of the future need more soldiers to fight in the war, so they create some kind of beacon system to go back in time and recruit people from the past.
The story felt like a series of convenient coincidences; the most obvious one was that after botching a time travel attempt, the team landed in a swimming pool that just happened to be installed on the top of a skyscraper – that was a real stroke of luck. The future humans seemed stupid and lacking tactical nous: sending in squads and squads of undertrained noobs seemed to be the worst possible tactic and a wasteful use of resources. Why not just send actual soldiers? Why not send individuals trained in combat? And I know it would’ve ruined the big reveal of the monsters, but telling the people from the present exactly what they’re up against would’ve maybe been a good idea as well. Speaking of the reveal, that was probably the best bit of the movie. Up until that point you really had no idea of what they looked like, so when the camera was slowly panning up the stairwell you don’t even realise you’re looking at one until it’s too late. Very cool design, very fast, brutal and quite intimidating, but I couldn’t help wondering how this species of alien made it to Earth – they didn’t exactly seem like intelligent space faring creatures, and I was expecting some kind of twist along the lines of the creatures being man made, or that in a somewhat paradoxical twist of fate they originate from the portal that was created to transport people from the past.
As I said earlier, the entire film felt like a series of convenient coincidences; They’ve got just one person (not an entire team of scientists, just one person) working on the toxin that can kill the queen of the aliens, and she just happens to be the leader of the military, as well as the daughter of the main protagonist. The overblown emotional theatrics felt flat, like they were produced by someone who had only ever been told descriptions of what an emotional scene should be. The action, whilst quite bombastic – very big and loud and well produced – was quite by the numbers, and the ultimate showdown had a few false finishes – the final boss just wouldn’t go down – which also felt quite formulaic. All in all I was quite disappointed.
