The return of cinemas since lockdowns have started to ease is easily the most welcome thing to happen over the last year or so. Streaming platforms have been a godsend throughout the pandemic, offering people around the world a chance to see new films while cinemas have been shut however, Amazon Prime Video's latest film, The Tomorrow War is one that I wish we had the chance to see on the big screen because this film is the kind of summer blockbuster that would be great to see on as large a screen as possible.
The world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future, mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight. Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester (Chris Pratt). Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant scientist (Yvonne Strahovski) and his estranged father (J.K. Simmons) in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.
Now, I'm a sucker for big and dumb sci-fi action with Independence Day being one of my favourite films of all time. If done right, they can be incredibly entertaining films that bring the wow factor with sci-fi never having to stick to logic by any means. The Tomorrow War is exactly that kind of film, people travelling from the future to draft in soldiers for a future war giving a wafer thin description of exactly how they did it to face off against rabid aliens that are hell bent on ending life on Earth. You know what? I had an absolute blast with it.
There is a hell of a lot of exposition throughout, making it easy to see why the film runs close to two-and-a-half hours however, the film never left me bored. That is probably down to the fact that, even when they're delivering copious amounts of exposition, there's so much jargon included that you can't help but laugh at some of it. The film more than makes up for it through some incredibly pulsating action sequences, aided by the tenacity of the alien race known as the White Spikes, that are accompanied rather suitably by Lorne Balfe's booming score. The alien design isn't the most inspired yet they make for a formidable foe due to their relentlessness in numbers, reminding me a lot of Edge of Tomorrow, a great film if you haven't seen it yet.
Coming to the performances, The Tomorrow War has a major star in Chris Pratt leading the assault on the senses of the audience. Pratt has moved on from being the loveable funny guy in sitcoms and comedy films to becoming a leading Hollywood star, largely thanks to the MCU, and it's easy to see why with his performance here as a man sent to the future to fight a war so he can get back to his family. You can see the funnier side coming out in some scenes shared with Sam Richardson's Charlie, a civilian sent to the future with Dan who knows next to nothing about combat, and a more serious tone achieved when sharing some more emotional scenes with Yvonne Strahovski during the future war. Of course, numbers are made up by a lot of expendable supporting characters that these films require, J. K. Simmons being the best of the rest to show their face.
It certainly has its flaws and you could easily make a list of films that The Tomorrow War borrows from but that doesn't stop it from being a thoroughly entertaining slice of sci-fi action that you should definitely look out for when it hits Amazon Prime Video.
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