FILM REVIEW: THE TOMORROW WAR (12A) ESP RATING: 3/5

Guardians of the Galaxy’s Chris Pratt may have just ignited another sci-fi action franchise – with this solid alien invasion outing.

While it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, this $200m big-budget blockbuster – acquired exclusively by Amazon Prime after being in cinematic stasis due to Covid – proves to be serviceable fare.

When time travellers come back thirty years from the future – during the World Cup Final in Qatar at the end of 2022 to be exact (sadly no England in the final) – they reveal that mankind is losing a war against an invading alien species.

These (rather impressive looking) creatures – called the ‘Whitespikes’ due to them having the ability to fire sharp objects from their tentacles – arrived in 2048, and now in 2051 have all but wiped out the human populace by hunting in packs (and eating people dead or alive) to cause an extinction level event.

And to make things even worse, when the world’s militaries have been sent into the future via a ‘Jumplink’ to do a seven-day deployment detail – less than thirty per cent return.

So an international draft is opened which leads to Pratt’s family man Dan Forester – a former Iraq War green beret-turned-biology teacher – being one of hundreds of civilians now having to answer the call.

Along the way he teams up with his kick-ass ‘adult’ daughter Colonel Muri Forester (Yvonne Strahovski), cancer-stricken draftee Dorian (Edwin Hodge), the movie’s comedic relief in Charlie (Sam Richardson) – and even his estranged father James (Oscar winner JK Simmons) – as the unit looks for ways to potentially take out this alien race.

What this leads to is a kind of Battle: Los Angeles crossed with Edge of Tomorrow hybrid – that is generally enjoyable throughout due to its glossy production budget.

You’ll have probably forgotten about it by tomorrow – but it provides two hours of competently brainless fun for today.

Rating: 3/5

Gavin Miller

Platform: Amazon Prime Video

Cast: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, Sam Richardson, JK Simmons, Edwin Hodge, Betty Gilpin, Jasmine Mathews, Keith Powers, Ryan Kiera Armstrong & Mary Lynn Rajskub

Running Time: 2 Hrs 18 Mins

Director: Chris Mckay