Pratt doesn’t have enough heart in ‘Tomorrow War’
Maybe they should have made it with Legos.
Sorry. That’s a cheap shot at “The Tomorrow War,” and its director, Chris McKay. He directed “The Lego Batman Movie,” which was delightful.
“The Tomorrow War” isn’t. It’s a science-fiction action film that tries really hard to be a family film. That’s somewhat different from being a family film disguised as a science-fiction action film. Whatever the case, it’s big and loud and somehow McKay coaxed a moreexpressive and genuine performance out of a toy superhero than a real-life Chris Pratt.
In fairness, Will Arnett made a great
Batman.
Pratt stars as Dan Forester, a combat veteran who now is a science teacher, but with dreams of bigger things. He and Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and their daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) live a happy life, albeit one interrupted by some professional disappointment for Dan.
There’s a fight in the future and the world isn’t winning
That will pale next to what happens next: During the middle of a televised soccer game, time travelers arrive from 2051 and drop a figurative bombshell (hey, it could have gone the other way): In their time, the world is en
gaged in a brutal battle with an invading alien species. And the world isn’t winning.
The only hope is to bring people in the present to the future to fight. Reinforcements, in other words. As you’d expect, the ensuing worldwide draft causes a ruckus. But soon things have grown desperate enough in 2051 that they’re just taking people in the present, arming them with a weapon and best wishes and beaming them into the future to fight.
Now they’re fodder, basically.
The military locks a big bracelet on your arm — that’s how you know you’ve been indoctrinated. Naturally, Dan winds up with one. He visits his estranged father, James (J.K. Simmons), a crusty old cuss who knows how to remove the bracelets without alerting the authorities. But the two fight before that can happen, and Dan leaves in a huff.
Next thing you know Dan is on his way to the future. Since he was an officer before, it falls to him, loosely, to lead — again, loosely — a ragtag bunch, played with varying degrees of intensity and amusement by Sam Richardson, Edwin Hodge, Alexis Louder and Mary Lynn Rajskub.
It’s basically a suicide mission. The alien creatures are gross and fairly indestructible, though not quite. They also shoot spikes out of tentacles with mouths, so there’s that. A nasty bunch all the way around.
“We are food. And they are hungry.” That’s how the leader of the future fight (Yvonne Strahovski) describes the monsters.
In addition to being a genius scientist, she is also the de facto leader of the military, it seems like. She and Dan work together to try to figure out how to kill the monsters. Although defeating them in 2051 seems like a losing proposition.
There’s a lot of Chris Pratt. What’s needed is more genuine heart
“Nothing we do here matters,” one person tells Dan.
“Well that’s where you’re wrong. I don’t believe that one bit,” he replies. It’s the perfect Pratt delivery — aw shucks optimism. He’s better when he’s funny (as in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies and “Parks and Recreation”). When he’s the strong no-nonsense type, it feels like there’s something missing.
Because there is. The humor. There is some of it here. But not enough, at least from Pratt.
As in the “Terminator” movies — also about family at their core — eventually they land on trying to stop the war before it starts. A sound plan, but one that is difficult to execute.
Eventually fathers and children must work toward reconciliation if the threat is to be eliminated. Because family is the most important thing, as you know if you’ve seen most movies.
Which means you can’t really knock “The Tomorrow War” just for that. It’s more the lack of connection between the characters — the family characters, that is. Pratt’s chemistry with Strahovski and the unwilling soldiers is stronger than with Gilpin, and even Armstrong. (Simmons sort of bridges the gap between family and fighter, and part of his deal is never getting along with anyone for long anyway.)
The film has lots of effects and action and loads of Chris Pratt. What it needs more of is heart.