The Tomorrow War (2021)

Directed by: Chris McKay | 138 minutes | action, adventure | Actors: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, JK Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Mathews, Edwin Hodge, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Keith Powers, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Mike Mitchell, Jared Shaw

After a bloody 20th century, the beginning of the 21st century doesn’t bode well either. Yet all this is nothing compared to what we experience around the year 2050. According to the American sci-fi action film ‘The Tomorrow War’ anyway. In it we are attacked around 2050 by aliens, slippery creeps with big teeth, slimy tentacles and a bad mood. So what can the survivors do to prevent all humanity from perishing?

The answer is simple: they build a time jump line that allows residents from 2022 to be transplanted to 2051. Those time travelers then fight the aliens for a week, after which the survivors are allowed to return to Earth. One of those time travelers is ex-serviceman Dan Forester. He soon understands that military strength doesn’t work against extraterrestrial odds. A clever plan must be devised to save the world, and quickly.

‘The Tomorrow War’ is one of those films where it’s better not to use your common sense. As with many time travel movies, you often wonder how time will ever get back on track. If you then think about it in detail, you will soon notice that there is little that is right. But also the actions of our heroes and heroines are not always logical. It’s also a shame that the climate metaphor is not worked out, some characters are very pale and that the alternation of brutal action and sweet sentiment rarely works.

Is all that bad? Nope. Despite its considerable length, ‘The Tomorrow War’ does not bore for a second. There’s plenty of action, the set (Miami, Puerto Rico, Russian tundra) looks great, the aliens are athletic and creepy at the same time, and the acting is generally okay. The sandwich chronology (from 2022 to 2051 and back) also works fine.

‘The Tomorrow War’ offers a lot of fun but also raises some questions. Why are high civilization aliens always so aggressive? Why is it always the Americans who have to save the world? And why does it appear in the first scenes that Scotland is playing the final of the 2022 World Cup? As far as the latter is concerned, we rather believe in aliens. Or time travel.