‘The Tomorrow War’ – a.k.a ‘Jurassic Terminator’

Amazon has been generating a lot of buzz about their new original movie, The Tomorrow War. And why not? Who doesn’t love Chris Pratt and the Summer Blockbuster Action Movie? This is a fun movie which I do recommend, even considering what’s about to be said below.

(RELATED: We Are Stoked for ‘Star Wars: Visions’)

The Tomorrow War feels like a patchwork of every summer movie you’ve ever seen since 1984. Looking at this movie is like looking at a sci-fi Rorschach image.

Q: Is it Starship Troopers and Back to the Future, or maybe Predator with a time-travelling Jurassic Park story?

A: It doesn’t matter! Even though COVID is essentially over, it’s getting a bit too hot out there to be outside, so get some popcorn and your favorite cold intoxicant and you will enjoy The Tomorrow War.

I’m pretty sure the movie came into existence when someone thought, “Hey, what if we took The Terminator, that pretty good Tom Cruise movie that no-one saw (Edge of Tomorrow) and a few highlights from a Hallmark movie and turned it upside down?”

What follows are SPOILERS and logical leaps so vast that even theoretical physics can’t explain it. (Thank you Jeff, however, for trying.)

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Our movie opens with just a normal day for a big-hearted veteran, Dan (Pratt), struggling with the disappointments of civilian life common to us all.

Then the first massive implausibility occurs: he and his family are absorbed watching a big football game–no not that kind–the Euro footie World Cup thing. At this point, you know this movie will be hard to swallow. (Maybe this is a sop to an international audience?)

During the match, right there on the field, a time portal opens up and a bunch of future soldiers arrive in spectacular fashion. This isn’t your naked Kyle Reese entering our timeline convulsing and scared. Nope, this entry is worthy of a Pepsi-sponsored Super Bowl (the correct football) Halftime Show featuring Elvis Presto.

They tell us of a desperate war 30 years from now that they’re about to lose along with humanity itself.

Here’s where the premise takes shape and you need to take that second drink; instead of coming back to prevent the war, they need humanity to go forward to fight the war. There’s a little exposition so you can say, “Okay, sure.”

Our Earth is galvanized to action and the movie takes a quick detour into a light-hearted dystopian nightmare. All our trained soldiers are quickly depleted by the future war. Now we need to institute a worldwide draft. Suddenly, we’re talking the meat-grinder-send-the-lambs-to-the-slaughter process at the Battle of Stalingrad. But this is a more fun slaughter because Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from 24) is there to provide comic relief.

This part is just as enjoyable with the sound off. Yvonne Strahovski – me-ow!

In the future, our protagonist, Dan, meets his grown-up daughter and much pathos is had. Apparently, between the beginning and now, there’s been a bit of family trouble and alienation. This, not coincidentally, is the same tension Dan has between his own father, played by the loveable J. K. Simmons.

What follows are all the good things you’d expect. Family bonding, great action scenes, a craven President of the World, a boss fight and a very satisfactory ending (see Hallmark snark above).

This isn’t so much a movie review as the need to get this off my chest. Thank you for your support!

3 comments on “‘The Tomorrow War’ – a.k.a ‘Jurassic Terminator’

  1. The Mgmt. says:

    Must admit. It was sci-fi paint by numbers but I dug it. 100% mindless fun.

  2. Casey says:

    Tons of Starship Troopers vibes, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. It’s so nice to see a decent and real father as the lead character.

    1. The Mgmt. says:

      Agreed!

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