How is it possible for a work of art to make no choices, break no new ground, accomplish truly nothing, and attempt even less, but still provide a helpful guide to the future of cinema? By being released into a Hollywood culture that will keep making the same mistake forever.
Nine of the top ten highest-grossing films of 2021 were sequels, spin-offs, or entries in massive franchises. Four Marvel movies, a James Bond sequel, aGhostbustersrevival,A Quiet Place II,F9,andVenom: Let There be Carnageall come to the list from their own empires. The lone original film, Ryan Reynolds’Free Guy, is weighed down withceaseless video game references. Even it is still wholly based around other works' name recognition.
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The Tomorrow Waris the story of Dan Forrester, portrayedby Chris Pratt whoneatly packs every popular criticism of his work into this one film, a teacher and former soldier. Suddenly a time portal opens up in the middle of the World Cup and a detachment of futuristic soldiers explains that an alien invasion is on its way. They go on to explain that their plan to battle the menace is to recruit a new crop of soldiers from the relatively recent past. How a sudden increase in fodder would aid mankind in defeating the alien menace remains to be seen as the first recruits are immediately and easily slaughtered.
Dan finds himself added to the effort despite his wife’s protests and joins the battle against the hostile visitors. The film takes great pains to establish its efforts to avoid thetypical time-travel moviefoibles but winds up sidestepping a pothole to fall off a cliff. What follows is a plodding mess of uninspired action that goes on for far too long and ends in a meaningless spectacle. In short, the film does not warrant much discussion on its own merits.
It isn’t very good. It doesn’t make any sense, and it draws a ton of attention to that fact through its protests. None of the cast seems to want to be there. Even the CGI, while expensive, looks phoned in and generic. There is just nothing here that can not be found better in a thousand other films. It’sa littleEdge of Tomorrow, a bitStarship Troopers, a shocking amount ofIndependence Day, and a slight dash of every 80s time travel movie. It’s among the most expensive films ever to be made to release on a streaming platform, it was not an underdog. It’s Amazon Prime Video’s take onBright, in terms of big names and overwhelming failure. Despite all of that, however, there is still something thatThe Tomorrow Wardoes that Hollywood needs to learn from.
The Tomorrow Waris one of the least original films of the decade, but it is, by the dictionary definition, an original IP. A brand new franchise, not relying on marketable characters, decades of source material, or any sort of pre-established fan base. Hollywood, known for its risk aversion, is loath to put any significant cash behind an idea that can’t guarantee massive ticket sales before its first poster. Sci-fi is one of the biggest victims of this concept. Some of the best sci-fi movies ever made wereput together on a small budget, but some concepts benefit from the added cash. Sci-fi often makes use of a ton of special effects, for better or worse, but without a big name, that can be tough to get.
Blockbusters are often looked down upon, but only through constant innovation will they continue to matter. In this franchise-driven cinema world, it won’t be long before sci-fi filmswithoutStar WarsorStar Trekin the title are relegated to self-fulfilling failure. Look at the current state of Star Wars. Once a humble summer blockbuster, now an unyielding monolith that simply ignores its failures and moves on untouched. The franchise is eating itself, falling back on unwanted self-indulgent projects likeThe Book of Boba Fettthat are turning outrougher by the week. Without new blockbusters, every franchise, no matter how powerful, will continue to burn itself out while reaping enormous dividends.
Even when it produces bad films, the blockbuster cinema model is still important and worth salvaging. The one saving grace is the one thing that buoyedThe Tomorrow War:star power. Chris Pratt was the entire marketing pitch for the film, but sometimes a powerful director can get something unique through.Pacific RimandTenetwere wholly original sci-fi stories that came out with huge cash behind them, thanks to the pull of Guillermo del Toroand Christopher Nolan respectively. Even the aforementionedFree Guytraded largely on Ryan Reynolds' marketable visage. The world deserves quality blockbusters, and even thoughThe Tomorrow Warisn’t a shining example, it’s only through new IP that cinema may move forward.
