Review: The Tomorrow War

I didn’t really know much about The Tomorrow War going in aside from the fact Chris Pratt was in it and it had something to do with time travel and aliens and to be honest I’m glad that was the case and as such I’m going to do my best to avoid spoilers in this review outside of covering the general synopsis.

So as I said above, the film does star Chris Pratt in a performance that was way less comedic than I had expected from him and it was kind of refreshing as it goes to show he can pull off a leading role without the trademark quips that made him a household name in Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World. In The Tomorrow War, Pratt plays as a former soldier and high school teacher who gets conscripted into fighting a future war against a rather nasty bunch of aliens.

A quick word of warning though, although this film is available on Amazon and is rated 12A in the UK, please be aware the film can be pretty gory and intense so it may not be suitable for any younger viewers who may be looking to watch Starlord kick some extra-terrestrial ass.

However, I feel it important to point out that this isn’t the Chris Pratt show by any stretch. There’s some a really good cast that helps round out the world nicely with special mention going to Yvonne Strahovski and J.K. Simmons (who looks like an absolute beast in this film).

Now personally speaking I found this film to be a really fun watch and aside from one very telegraphed reveal, I found the film to be engaging and unpredictable throughout. The film flows really nicely and although it provides you with the information you need to follow along, it doesn’t bog you down in exposition or lose momentum when dropping important information like so many other films out there.

Critically though, one of the key components of a film like this is the special effects and CGI. I don’t know how much they spent on this film but it looks pretty damn good with some really beautiful cinematography on display as well. I believe this is Chris McKay’s first live action film as director and he has dome a marvellous job on this one.

I will admit after the fact that The Tomorrow War being on Amazon is a slight disappointment because it would have been quite the spectacle on the cinema screen with earth shattering surround sound but that didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the film at all. I’ve seen a lot of negativity about this one online, but at the end of the day this isn’t Shakespeare and it supposed to be. The Tomorrow War is a big summer blockbuster action movie and it does exactly what it sets out to do and that’s to entertain us. For me, this is up there as one of my favourite films of the year so far and I’d highly recommend you give it a watch.

by Edward Laing