Tomorrow Is Now

 The Tomorrow War (2021) Time travelers arrive from the future!  Turns out thirty years in the future, humanity is getting its butt kicked by an alien invasion.  The future needs more soldiers from the past to save the future.  A high school teacher leaves his family behind and teams up with an unlikely set of fighters to do just that.

Directed by Chris McKay               Starring Chris Pratt, J. K. Simmons, Jasmine Matthews

Why I Liked It – Lots of action and better logic than usual.

This movie differs from most of what I review here.  That’s because it is available on Amazon Prime, rather than in a theater.  Originally, Paramount made the movie for traditional release.  Right before the pandemic changed how we live our lives.  So they sold the movie to Prime.  If I’m being honest about how we watch movies, I must acknowledge that more people are using streaming services as their primary source for movies.  I now have several streaming services, both paid and free, that help fill my movie dance card these days.  So you will see more reviews of movies that originate there, along with the more traditionally released movies.   

So, what do we have here?  Some pretty predictable stuff-alien invasion, humanity at the edge of extinction, a “regular guy” sacrificing for the common good and finding out what really makes him tick.  It’s a war movie, so there’s plenty of shooting and exploding.  The tough veteran with no time for cannon fodder.  The comic relief.  A surprise twist (that isn’t all THAT surprising).  Chris Pratt being Chris Pratt, the easy going kinda funny, the girls hang around cause he’s cute, the guys want to hang around because he’s a good guy guy.  This time he’s a high school science teacher with a wife and a kid.  What’s not to like?

Going into movies of this genre, there are a couple of things I’m sure to see.  “The Tomorrow War” did a nice job sidestepping several of them.  Here’s the rundown:

• Endless Ammunition – Weapons that fire well beyond any reasonable magazine capacity.  Automatic weapons with high rates of fire that go on and on and on and on.  I’ll give them a half point on this one.  There was lots of shooting, but they do stop to reload every once in a while.

• An alien race dedicated to destruction, including killing and eating everything in sight.  All of their behavior is unthinking animal responses.  With no explanation of how such a race would develop the technology to cross interstellar distances.  Heck, most of this kind of movie alien doesn’t even use weapons, let alone develop a “warp” drive!  I was sure “The Tomorrow War” was going to fall on this hurdle.  In fact, they address that issue nicely.  Full points on this one.

• Earth is a planet that has more ocean/sea/lakes than land.  The aliens create nests only on the land.  So why doesn’t humanity set up on the water as protection?  More points for the movie, they cover this one as well.

• The aliens have two identified vulnerable spots.  Why not go to explosive type weapons?  It takes long bursts of bullet firing weapons to kill them, so it’s not saving a lot of time.  Hit them with something that goes “boom”, and move on.  Nope, a total miss here for the movie.

• On a regular basis, the aliens retreat to the nest/hive places.  Humans still have lots of military aircraft and weapons.  Explain why nuclear weapons rain down on the nests?  A bunker buster followed by a mushroom cloud.  Even napalm.  For all the talk about being scientists and using our brains to figure it out, the military tactics struck me as unimaginative.  So, another zero.

What “The Tomorrow War” gets right is being a fun, high energy action adventure science fiction war against the alien enemy movie.  The ending was a bit over the top for my tastes.  It felt like they wanted something big and profound to end a movie that didn’t overflow with big, profound ideas.  It clanged a little for me, but didn’t ruin my enjoyment.  In the end, that’s all “The Tomorrow War” had to provide.

Rating – *** Worth A Look