A family man is drafted to fight in a future war where the fate of humanity relies on his ability to confront the past.
Chuck says:
Why Paramount Pictures sold their sci-fi epic “The Tomorrow War” to Amazon Prime is a mystery. Unwilling to wait for theaters to reopen and lacking the foresight to save it on its own streaming channel Paramount+, the studio unloaded it at cost – rumored to be $200 million – and didn’t look back. Hindsight, as they say is 20/20, but it’s a shame they didn’t wait it out. “War” is the sort of action epic that’s best seen on the big screen and proves to be much smarter and entertaining than “F9” and Marvels’ upcoming “Black Widow.” Kudos to Amazon for scooping this up, though if it will result in a spike of new subscribers to justify this outlay remains to be seen.
Reminiscent of “Edge of Tomorrow,” Chris McKay’s “War” has the sort of action set pieces that are part-and-parcel of big-budget films of this sort. Yet, what elevates it above the run-of-the-mill genre entry is the intelligence that runs through Zach Dean’s script as well as its fully drawn characters and the connections between them. You’ll likely be surprised by how invested you become as the story’s twists and turns are revealed.
Chris Pratt is Dan Forrester, a high school science teacher and Iraqi war veteran who’s feeling a bit of ennui, wondering just what his purpose is. Unfortunately, he finds the answer to this question in the most dramatic way. A brigade of soldiers from 30 years in the future arrive to inform the world that they are losing a war with an alien race and need assistance. Their ranks depleted they implore the countries of the world to institute a global draft in order to form an army to return with them.
It’s a clever premise and one that opens up many time travel paradoxes which Dean addresses with wit and intelligence. Why Forrester and his brethren are drafted, the reason those who train them are so young and the origin of the aliens that threaten them are plot points many films would gloss over or simply not address at all. However, Dean embraces the challenge of answering the many thorny questions that pop up in time travel movies and the movie is all the better for it. The result is a film that operates on many levels, employing a multi-layered narrative in which the aliens and the action sequences in which they are obliterated are not the primary focus, but a periphery element, the characters and their troubles taking center stage.
A clever twist about an hour in shifts the trajectory of the story as does a revelation at the end of the third act. The movie ends up being two films in one as the final section resets the story, offering up another intriguing adventure. While so many modern action films are bloated with repetitious action sequences that add nothing to the story, “War” avoids this by constantly introducing one logical complication after another, providing a sense of purpose for all that we see. At two hours and twenty minutes, it doesn’t feel long, each scene building towards a satisfying, poignant conclusion.
If the film has a fault, it’s the aliens themselves. At times, the digital effects used to render them are a little rough around the edges, the rapid cutting used to obscure their cheap look. No matter, the driving force is Forrester’s journey, one in which he finds a purpose for all of his tomorrows by stepping into the future, only to be called back to the past. Take a chance on “War” and you’ll see what I mean.
3 1/2 Stars
