Movie Review - The Tomorrow War

This film was originally scheduled to be released on Christmas 2020. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, it was delayed. Eventually, Paramount Pictures sold the film to Amazon Studios and Amazon decided to release the film for the July 4th weekend. Given that this film is about humanity on a global scale fighting an alien invasion, the film's release can't help but be compared to Roland Emmerich's Independence Day (1996), starring Will Smith. A character in this film even references Will Smith, so that 1996 blockbuster would have to have been on the mind of the makers here. There are of course a lot of other films that come to mind or could be a basis of comparison. Instead of surpassing those other films or standing out in any particular way, it falls short and even ends up being rather boring by the end.

One has to suspend disbelief in order to accept the premise, but, even with that suspension, there are many things that just feel dumb in this narrative. Something like Independence Day had a lot of goofy and silly things, but that Emmerich hit still felt smarter than this. What's ironic is that the main character is an educator and a pivotal scene involves his student and the student's knowledge of geology, which isn't even the class that the educator runs. There is a theme that emphasizes the importance of science being used to overcome problems. Yet, the ending undermines that theme with a Mano-a-mano fight. It's appropriate because this is an action flick that is more about flexing the muscle of its main character, that muscle being his biceps and his pecs, rather than his brain.

Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World) stars as James Daniel Forester aka "Dan," a high school biology teacher in Florida. He used to be former military but his passion is science and hopes to get a job as a scientist. He's proud of the fact that he went to Cal State. He served in Iraq. Given his credentials, it's strange that he doesn't have a job at a government-run or government-funded, science facility or laboratory. Him having a job as a school teacher seems to want to impart an every-man quality to him or down-to-Earth quality to him that Pratt never really pulls off.

One night, time travelers from 30 years in the future arrive and inform the planet that aliens will invade decades from now and engage in a war to eradicate all of humanity. The future's solution is to collect people from the past in order to be used as soldiers in the fight against these aliens. In a brief and fast montage, we're shown that humanity initially and almost immediately accepts that reality and even starts to willing draft people to fight in this future war. Dan has a wife and daughter and even though he has experience in both military and science, he pushes science on his daughter. He doesn't really reinforce military service to his daughter. When the draft happens, it sets up the film to be a conflict over whether military or science is the correct path.

The film seems to want to have its cake and eat it too. It props up science as the correct path, but, by the end, it devolves into fisticuffs as the solution. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash and Spider-Man) co-stars as James Forester, the father to Dan. When it comes to the conflict between brains versus brawn, James seems to be on the side of brawn. Nothing is more apparent than in James' first scene, which has him showing us his incredibly ripped biceps and machismo, pushing toward toxic masculinity. Dan's rejection of James in the beginning feels like a rejection of that kind of masculinity, but, again the film undermines that by the end.

Again, the theme of this movie pushes toward this idea that might isn't the winning ingredient but rather intelligence. The time travelers for example aren't recruiting soldiers who are fresh out of high school, as the current United States armed services do. Instead, the time travelers are recruiting people who are over the age of 40. Conscription in America usually cuts off people in their 40's. A few of the characters who are the focus and the heroic focus are those who are into science. One in particular is Charlie, played by Sam Richardson (Werewolves Within and Veep). He's overweight and out-of-shape, and he doesn't even know how to load a gun.

The film takes time out to focus on wounded warriors and to spotlight PTSD. The film is showing us the ravages of war and the toll it takes. It doesn't do much more to underline that theme and really sell it. I appreciated that the theme was there, but it's an undercurrent that's under valued where it should be more prominent, especially given the stance the protagonist himself pushes. Dan claims to be an Iraq War veteran and at moments this film feels like Stop-Loss (2008), which is about the psychological damage or trauma that some soldiers face. Yet, the film pivots to a rather lame father-daughter story.

Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid's Tale and Chuck) also co-stars as Muri Forester, the daughter to Dan who is a colonel fighting in the war that's occurring in 2051. She's very much like her father. She's into science but she also has military training. She reveals that her father abandoned her and her mother when she was a teenager. Dan says that he would never do that, but Muri says that he will in his future. This is an interesting hook, but the film never explores why he left and why he separated from his family. The film never reveals the impetus for that.

It's an important character beat that's basically ignored or skipped. Therefore, when character stuff and the emotional core of the film aren't handled with absolute care, it opens up criticism or nitpicks of other things. As with any time-travel film, the time-travel logic can have all kinds of holes poked in it. Even if you put aside the time-travel rules, one thing that's easily nitpicked is the fact that Muri has a lab in 2051 that's working on a toxin to fight the aliens. Why wouldn't Muri and the scientists in that lab travel to the present and work there instead? Muri tells Dan and his team to go to the lab to retrieve something and check on the scientists there, but his team has to go there and back on foot. Why wouldn't they get a helicopter to extract them? It reminded me of the failure in logistics that was Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead (2021).

Finally, the one thing that I liked about the aliens in Independence Day is the fact that those aliens were intelligent and behaved intelligently. They were aliens that could pilot a spaceships and other aerial vehicles. Supposedly, the aliens here came in a spaceship, but instead of behaving intelligently, they behave like rabid animals. They behave like the aliens in A Quiet Place (2018). The makers here probably intended to have aliens akin to those in Edge of Tomorrow (2014), but they can't quite rise to that level.

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence, action, language and some suggestive references.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 18 mins.

Available on Amazon Prime.