Summer blockbuster season isn’t just for the theatre anymore. Amazon Prime is out here giving you that Chris Pratt vs. Aliens ft. Time Travel movie that you wanted. Oh you didn’t ask for it? Well I believe “Chris Pratt” “Aliens” and “Time Travel” were probably 3 of the most popular search items on Amazon Prime, so I guess we have no one to blame but ourselves for the Amazon moviemaking algorithm spitting out this spectacle.
Pratt plays Dan Forester, biology teacher hoping and failing for that big thing to happen in his life. He’s supported by his loving wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and adorable daughter Muri (Yvonne Strahovski) in these ventures, who just want their dad to be happy. The unhappy Dan maybe sees his chance to be that big deal when a group of people show up on the field during the World Cup Final. Apparently 30ish years into the future, aliens invade the planet and kill most of the humans, and the best of humanity are recruiting the humans of the present to help in this future war.
For a movie called The Tomorrow War, you’ll spend a lot of time thinking about the past, specifically, 1996’s Independence Day. Amazon Prime’s foray into summer blockbuster moviemaking has it’s roots in those disaster movies from the 90s. There’s all sorts of disparate characters who somehow end up together: a biology teacher and his students, a cancer survivor (Edwin Hodge), an Earth Science PhD (Sam Richardson) and Chloe from 24 (you’re the best Mary Lynn Rajskub), Most of these people are part of the explodey part of the movie; if you’re from Miami, you might wanna look away, because you city gets exploded pretty badly. Plus, while the movie draws you into the war, there’s an ulterior story going on that takes precedence in the 3rd act of the movie that provides even more explosions. Casting wise, The Tomorrow War hired a bunch of quality actors to use their talents to sell the clunky dialogue and hilariously instant bond everyone has in trying to fight a war. Pratt finds a better lane than his Jurassic World one, a little closer to Peter Quill but still carrying the leading man grounding he’s forced to bear, while Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Yvonne Strahovski, JK Simmons, and Edwin Hodge do their best to make the character moments not totally insufferable.
The biggest issue with the movie is that the movie should have ended an hour before it does. It really feels like Chris McKay wanted to get as much stuff in there as possible in fears that there wouldn’t be another movie. As such, the last hour feels like they crammed a movie’s worth of material into an hour, jumping quickly from plot point to plot point in order to totally resolve every dangling conflict/issue. This simultaneously rushes and extends the movie, and will make you look at your watch at least once or twice while rolling your eyes at conversational plot points that deserve more than 1 line of dialogue. The saving grace is the prickly Pratt/Simmons relationship, which finds that perfect summer movie balance of comedy/action/emotional catharsis. The action here goes all over the place: inside a dark ship, then outside in a brightly lit snowstorm edited to death. Sometimes its fun, sometimes its horribly confusing; I’m pretty sure you’ll just eye bulge like I did when I thought the movie was ending and saw that there’s another HOUR of story to get through.
But if you saw Independence Day and it rocked your world like it did mine, then The Tomorrow War is still probably going to work for you. It’s pretty straightforward in what it’s doing, it’s got aliens, it’s got time travel, it’s got explosions, and it’s got Chris Pratt like I said above. That’s right: like the movie’s 4th act, I wasted a bit of your time even though I didn’t really need to. But hey it was probably a little entertaining at least? Right? Right????