Denizens of the future have no option but to return to the past to save themselves in The Tomorrow War, a cliché-ridden yet appealing mix of science-fiction, alien-monster, actioner starring Chris Pratt as a school-teacher.

Since this is an action film, the school teacher goes off to fight bleached-white, wailing-voiced, hard-to-kill alien creatures (one of the best designs in years in this genre). Very late in the film, it is revealed that the malevolent ET’s are here to wipe humanity off in a half-explained story point.

To its credit though, the aliens’ screen-entry is put on the backburner until nearly the one-hour mark.

Until then, we’re introduced to Pratt’s character, Dan Forester, a husband and loving father of a bright young girl who is striving for better job options. Dan is also an ex-military Green Beret, who previously served two tours in Iraq. The combat experience comes in handy when he is drafted by the government to travel 50 years into the future, where humanity has all but lost to the aliens.

Despite its video game level action plotting, The Tomorrow War has enough going for it to remain engaging

According to the time-jumpers, who rip a hole in time to land in the middle of a super-bowl game in the present, we learn that the aliens arrived out of thin air in Russia and slaughtered more than 99-percent of the human race. With less than half a million humans left on Earth, the survivors from the future desperately returned to the past with a plea for help: they appealed to governments to draft people who aren’t alive in the future to go fight a war they know nothing of.

It’s a losing battle, and one that, time and again, plays like a video-game level: lock and load guns, travel to a certain location, get an item, try to stay alive. Other than that little snag, there is a lot to appreciate in this little gem.

The reasonings from screenwriter Zack Dean (Deadfall) are simple: the film steps away from time-related paradoxes entirely. The travellers from the future aren’t born yet in the past, so they cannot come across younger versions of themselves. If the future is saved or — as it happens in films of this genre — a virus is developed to kill aliens when they land (this is a plot point late in the story), the horrible future can be averted.

Also entrenched in the plot is a strong message about global warming and a slight commentary about humanity’s lack of belief in itself.

Another plus point: the emotional angle. Dan has an estranged relationship with his father (J.K. Simmons) and, learning from his personal issues, he tries to be a great dad for his young daughter. The Tomorrow War spends a decent amount of time creating spaces for characters to figure themselves out, before the action kicks in.

It stays engaging, and pleasantly surprising, even after Dan travels to the future, where he is singled out by a military scientist played by Yvonne Strahovski (from the serial Chuck).

Dean’s screenplay is interesting and light-hearted which, in the context of a typical blockbuster, is a minor achievement. Director Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie) handles the material with the routine deftness necessary for a big-film, though there are moments when you question his choices of editorial cuts and lenses (some are quite wide, and badly exhibit distortions at the left and right edges of the frame).

At two-hours and eight minutes, one doesn’t get bored though.

Pratt, Strahovski and Simmons are engaging, but the rest of supporting cast feel like throw-away characters; it’s another, minor, slip-up in a film that would have been great to see on a big cinema screen.

Streaming on Amazon Prime, The Tomorrow War is produced by David Ellison (Old Guard, Star Trek Beyond, Terminator Genisys and Dark Fate, the last two Mission Impossible films). It is rated PG-13 for the usual action blow-em-up stuff

Published in Dawn, ICON, July 11th, 2021