OFF TO WAR
Chris Pratt fights with future aliens in ‘Tomorrow War’
In the ingeniously plotted sci-fi spectacle “The Tomorrow War,” due out Friday, people on Earth are given a message from time travelers in the future.
They are warned that in 2051, humans are losing the war with malignant maneating alien invaders.
To survive, soldiers and civilians are sent to the future battleground. Dan Forester (Chris Pratt), an ex-Delta Force operator, enlists so that his wife won’t go.
This Amazon entry is truly a monster mash and for Pratt, virtually nonstop adventure.
“Man, it really was a physical film,” Pratt said during an online press conference. “When we make that jump to 2051, there’s this transition and we fall from the sky in Miami and land in a pool. “That meant some serious water work. We jumped off of this high dive that we built out of a fork-lift. As we jump into the water the camera followed us down.
“You had stunt people landing on top of you, forcing you underwater. You’re trying to come up and struggle into an underwater close-up.
“That whole sequence, which probably took two or three days, was really cool, really fun, really physical.”
A Marvel star, thanks to “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and an essential element as Owen Grady in the “Jurassic Park” franchise, Pratt, 42, is hoping the $200 million “Tomorrow War” will pop as his third franchise.
If a fantasy film like this works, viewers don’t question what they’re seeing because the aliens are frighteningly real. The reality is: filming is done first and CGI aliens added later.
That means actors act with their imaginations. “You could have a whole podcast episode about the way to achieve that effect,” Pratt acknowledged.
“It’s a combination of various things you’re going to look at, whether it will be a tennis ball. Or the guy named Troy who’s 7 feet tall, a mountain of a man, and very scary.
“You look at Troy and you think, ‘That’s certainly a person who could lift me up and break me in half.’ He becomes significantly less scary when he’s put in a giant grey leotard. Still, he’s scary.
“If you’re doing a close-up and it needs to be really scary, you might be looking into the eyes of an actor so they can draw something out of you.
“Sometimes in the big wide shots, you may have nothing. It really is the most embarrassing acting you’ll ever do,” he concluded.
“Acting opposite something that’s not there and fighting something that’s not there is particularly embarrassing.”