‘The Tomorrow War’ has solid action but is hampered by a muddled story

Posted on July 23, 2021

By MARK VIOLA

I’ve often said that writing stories about time travel is one of the trickiest things you can attempt. You can do your best to track down every potential time paradox and plot hole and plug it like the fabled Dutch boy trying to stop the leaking dam. Or, you can forget all of that and just hope the audience goes along with the resulting chaos.

Perhaps the best example of the latter approach is “Terminator,” which has paradoxes and self-creating realities that have never made sense, but the movie is so entertaining, no one really cares — even those who complain about it.

The key, however, is making a really entertaining movie so people indeed don’t care. I’m guessing that was what the filmmakers behind the new Amazon Prime film “The Tomorrow War” were trying to do. Sadly, they missed the mark.

The movie has plenty of action, and most of it is well-filmed and entertaining, but the enjoyment is dragged down by an overly-long runtime and a story that never really brings all of its various pieces together in a satisfying way. “The Tomorrow War” is forgettable popcorn fun in its best moments and boring and slow in its worst.

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