Humanity is fighting a losing war against Insert Generic Evil Aliens Here, and they need to recruit a new fighting force from the past. Instead of pulling a DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and finding the greatest warriors from across time, The Tomorrow War goes back a few decades to where Chris Pratt happens to be.
Amazon Studios has released the final trailer for The Tomorrow War, which stars Pratt as veteran, teacher, and All-American Family Man Dan Forester, who gets drafted into a war 30 years in the future. Once there, he finds himself in the company of a scientist played by Yvonne Strahovski (who I’m willing to bet all the monies is Dan’s daughter from the future), and together they spout one-liners about how the future of the world is at stake. We also get our first real look at the invading aliens and they look, well, like someone on staff had recently watched A Quiet Place.
I’m flabbergasted at how tame this movie is, considering how promising the premise is. Humanity discovers the ability to travel back and forth from the future, at-will, and doesn’t think the plot would benefit from having them recruit the greatest heroes throughout history? Imagine a scene where samurai are fighting alongside WWI soldiers, and Vikings stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Abyssinians? It wouldn’t even be expensive, just dig in a bunch of community theatre costume closets and you’ve got the makings of an army that could save the world. Who knows: Maybe that’s the twist, and they’re keeping so secret it can’t be in the trailers. But I’m not holding my breath.
That’s only half the problem here. The other is that it’s still the Chris Pratt show, and he’s not playing by the same rules as most of his co-stars(with the exception of Sam Richardson, whose talent is being wasted as the sidekick goofball). Rob Bricken summed it up best when he said Pratt “feels like he’s in an entirely different movie than everyone else.” That’s not as much on display here — he’s giving it his most-serious face — but if you look at the previous trailer you can see how much of himself he’s throwing in the whole performance. I’m not sure whether to fault Pratt for playing to his typecast, or the studio for insisting they get the Full Pratt Experience instead of letting him branch out a bit.
The Tomorrow War arrives on Amazon Prime July 2.