MPAA Rating: R
Director: Stuart Beattie
Film Pulse Score: 6.5/10
Tomorrow When the War Began is the blockbuster Australian film based on a John Marsden novel of the same name. With some genuine elements of suspense, some decent action, and some moderately likable teens, this film goes beyond the standard teensploitation flick and delivers on some levels that others of the same genre do not. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.
The film starts out as most teen flicks do, with a socially and racially diverse group of friends getting together and traveling to a remote area outside their town for a weekend of camping. At first, they’re having a great time doing teen stuff, but then one night they see a fleet of planes fly by and begin to think something is amiss. They go home only to find that everyone in their town is missing, and in their place, is an angry army of Asians who have invaded their country and placed the townspeople in a prison camp. The teens realize it’s up to them to save their loved ones and their town from this foreign threat and wage war on the invaders.
Reading the synopsis of this film, and even seeing the trailer, may make you hesitate to give it a chance, and understandably so. We’ve seen this type of film before in Red Dawn, but you can be assured that this is not nearly as cheesy, or bad. While there are some moments of absurdity, this is a solid action film and is certainly worth a watch.
One of the main aspects of the film that’s worth mentioning is the invading army itself. While the kids never find out for sure who they’re being invaded by, it is clearly an Asian country, and most likely China. This has caused a bit of a stir on the internet regarding this film and race issues. My response to that would be by saying it doesn’t matter where the opposing forces come from. If they came from Russia, no one would say a word about it, but because they are clearly Asian, this is somehow not okay? There’s a reason they don’t discuss the origin of the army in the film, because it doesn’t matter. The focus of the film is that they’ve been invaded and need to survive, where they came from is irrelevant.
That being said, whoever they are, you don’t want to mess with them. They perform like a well oiled machine, having the prison camp built and the entire town in captivity before the kids even get home from their holiday. This proved to be the first of several completely unrealistic moments that occur throughout the film. There is also no sign what so ever of the Australian army, except for in one scene where we see a dog fight between several fighter jets. While it’s understandable that the army can’t be everywhere at once, it appears that the first place that was invaded was the town the teens lived in, and I have a hard time swallowing the idea that the Australian government would sit back and let this happen.
Nit picking aside, this is still a fun movie to watch. The action scenes are quite good, and there are some very suspenseful moments throughout. It’s rare that we see Hollywood quality big budget action come from Australia, but this is definitely an exception. Big explosions, lots of death and destruction, and some very cool set pieces round out some of the film’s moodier moments. Because we’re dealing with a cast of teens, we do have to endure some teen issues.
Like, Red Dawn, Tomorrow When the War Began will make you think about the hypothetical situation of your country being invaded by another, and taking it by force. It proposes the question, would you stand and fight, or would you cooperate and hope for the best? The teens in this film chose the former, which is good, because it provided a much more entertaining movie. While there are some issues with the script, it’s still a slightly above-par action film that is an enjoyable watch.
