Summer blockbusters…no summer is complete without them. Traditionally you’d have Will Smith fighting aliens, be it in Independence Day or Men in Black movies. And Chris Pratt in his all American friendly giant mode is a perfectly good stand in for Smith, but Tomorrow’s War just doesn’t pass the muster.
Mind you, no one expects smart out of summer blockbusters, but that shouldn’t invite stupid either. And Tomorrow’s War is kinda stupid or at the very least dumb. It’s all special effects and aliens and time travel, which is to say there’s plenty here to distract you from the fact that it’s dumb, but if you just pause to think…and the movie’s duration gives you plenty of time for that…you’ll realize that logic didn’t even graze this whambam bouncing baby boy. Behold the plot…in 2051 the Earth is attacked by aliens so voraciously hungry and so viciously murderous that the earthlings don’t stand a chance at survival. What they do stand a chance at is apparently inventing a time machine, albeit a very limited one, so that they can jump 30 years only although in both directions. So time travel…check, alien elimination…fail. What do you do with a time machine, especially the one that doesn’t double as a hot tub? Well, apparently you jump back 30 years to recruit more people to fight in your unwinnable war. This idiotic plan everyone gets on board with, despite the insane morality rates for people who go. So a draft is reinstated and whoever gets selected is required to go to the future for a week and try to survive. Most don’t stand a chance, but most are not the hunky former army and still muscley Christ Pratt. Pratt briefly contemplates avoiding draft, but his daddy issues are too huge for that, so off into the future he goes. Where as it turns out he’s been recruited by his own now grown up baby girl. Yeah, it’s all very sentimental. Future war is what you’d expect. The character actors get murdered first, albeit heroically, and the tough dudes i.e. more leading man potential survive. But there’s a twist. A twist the Prattman will need to get back to the present to sort out. Because as we are told time and time again, he isn’t just a pretty face, he’s got brains, he teaches science. Plus it’s also an excellent way to sort out his previously mentioned daddy issues. And so with plenty of guns and plenty of bravura and bravado and an appropriate amount of comic relief, the adventure proceeds, spanning time and continents, because they got the budget and the inclination. Straight through to the prerequisite happy ending, complete with a really lamentable garbage stream of a voiceover. And what have we learned? So many valuable lessons, really. War is terrible, unless its righteous. Science will save the day. Global warming is real. This is a legitimately prescience blockbuster and for that…kudos. It also to its credit gets a lot of interesting details right (well, within the confines of its own mythos) about time travel and alien logistics. It’s just that the overall effect is so silly. The aliens look great, the money’s there, the action’s there. The pure corny cheesy joy of Will Smith bonanzas isn’t. It’s almost as if Tomorrow’s War is taking itself too seriously and forgetting what its meant to be. And sure, the main lesson here is that Chris Pratt will save the day. Pratt’s got the undeniable apple pie appeal of the best version of an everyday guy and an easy charm of a bonafide star. He’ a relatively young action star in a strangely aged action star market. He’s already got two popular franchises down and apparently can do no wrong. Which is why this was a number one streaming movie in the US. But this is the least he can or should do. Unlike his other movies…this is just too bland to be proper fun. Unless boombastic is the way you roll, this is an easy pass. Or watch it for the alien twist. Or the Prattness of it all. Or just rewatch Men in Black to remind you of how it’s meant to be done. And why the f is there a The in the title...shouldn't it just be Tomorrow's War? Are there several and we need to differentiate? Will there be more? Why...
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