Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
The world is stunned when a group of time travelers arrive from the year 2051 to deliver an urgent message: Thirty years in the future, mankind is losing a global war against a deadly alien species. The only hope for survival is for soldiers and civilians from the present to be transported to the future and join the fight. Among those recruited is high school teacher and family man Dan Forester. Determined to save the world for his young daughter, Dan teams up with a brilliant scientist and his estranged father in a desperate quest to rewrite the fate of the planet.
The Tomorrow War assembles familiar sci-fi and time-travel concepts without doing much new with them. The plot borrows heavily from Edge of Tomorrow, Interstellar, and generic alien-invasion fare, with logic holes in the time-travel mechanics and a formulaic emotional throughline (estranged father, devoted dad saving the world for his daughter). Chris Pratt and J.K. Simmons deliver competent performances that elevate the material somewhat, and the production values are solid enough for a streaming blockbuster, with decent creature design and action set-pieces. However, the cinematography is functional rather than inspired. The ending wraps up too neatly and the third-act pivot to the Arctic feels rushed and anticlimactic, undercutting tension built earlier. Overall a watchable but forgettable genre exercise.