THE TOMORROW WAR

Before we get into this review, I will like to pour one out for all the extra characters that didn't land in the swimming pool at the start of this movie. Those guys were 'donezo' before they could even see anything happen. Not a nice way to go out if you ask me but let's get into this movie's review.

Dan Forester, a high school teacher is drafted to fight in a future war where humanity is dying from an alien invasion. The current timeline is set in 2021 and the future is 2051(30 years into the future). The plot of this movie is quite simple. It's straightforward and easy to understand from the on-set. For a movie with this type of plot, I thought the tone will be seriously all through but after some minutes into the movie. I discovered that it was a type of movie that shouldn't be taken seriously because of it's exaggerated use of humour. To put it simply, the movie takes a serious and dire plot setup and injects so much joke into it through its characters. As an audience it's difficult for me to tell If I should really care about them dying or not. I can't really decide what to call this movie if it's a sci-fi action comedy or just sci-fi action. It's almost as if the movie knows what it wants to do and at the same time doesn't really know what it wants to be. In another perspective, this movie felt like there was a creative clash between the director and script writer. Because The Tomorrow War wanted to be two different things at the same time but couldn't find that balance.

This movie is two hours long, and  it will keep you entertained. The pacing is really good but you have to throw away your sense of realism to enjoy this movie. I guess this is what happens when they make a movie that is unsure what it wants to be. Like I said earlier, the movie doesn't know if it wants to be a comedy or just pure sci-fi action and the audience gets a lot of mixed vibes and feedback throughout the course of its runtime. Even when some characters are killed off, I'm not sure if it was supposed to feel emotional or not. Like there are people being gruesomely killed and these guys are making jokes. Other times when, the story is being pushed forward with a serious tone and you feel something solid about the plot but then again, you know what this movie does? It inserts some unnecessary joke. Maybe it's just trying to be a satire, but I don't quite get its message.

I enjoyed Chris Patt being Chris Patt in this movie but if it fits well might be debatable by some people because we all know the type of movies he stars in. His types of movies usually come with action, comedy and soft tone. The Same thing was done here but when you weigh the tension of what is happening in this movie against the attempt to infuse comedy into it. For me it just doesn't work well but to enjoy this movie you have to absolutely ignore the severity of events in the movie and just go with the fun.

This movie takes character development serious than some of the movies we've been reviewing lately. The movie starts out with our main character, Dan, a family man who is trying to provide for his family by getting a new job, but he is turned down. It feels so relatable as he is told is not the man for the job. He is forced to take up a teaching job at a high school. At the beginning it was also established that Dan has a rift between him and his father for abandoning him and his mother while he was young. I didn't like a revelation that was made later in the future with all the build-up it had established. I found the twist quite contradictory but it later redeemed itself by the end.

The CGI in The Tomorrow War is very good. It's part of the entertainment you're getting. There is a lot of explosions, shootout scenes and all the things to expect from an action movie. Also the alien were terrifying. The capabilities of the aliens are also part of what made me to find the imposed jokes weird in this movie. 

At best The Tomorrow War is just another average experience for me due its inconsistencies with its storytelling tone. I really wanted to like this movie but it's not one I see myself rewatching ever. I'll call it a one time experience that you're probably not going to remember as an example for the genre it falls into. Will I recommend it? Sure of course, give it a go. It's a fun watch if you can take in all the humour mixed with the actions.

P.S.: Personally I would have found this movie enjoyable if the tone was more serious and the humour was almost non-existent.