The Tomorrow War (2021)

 

During the broadcast of the 2022 Soccer World Cup, soldiers from the year 2051 arrive to warn that, in their time, humanity is on the brink of extinction due to a war with alien invaders referred to as "Whitespikes."  These creatures appear in Russia in 2048, and relentlessly swep over the planet, driving humanity to the brink of extinction.

For some reason, humanity's response has been to research time travel, so they could come back nearly thirty years and draft soldiers to help them fight the war in the future.  Though they don't share the information widely, they only draft people who are known to have died before the Whitespikes appeared.  In essence, if you get called up, you're already dead.

The Tomorrow War focuses on James Forester, a biology teacher and former green beret who is drafted into the war.  What he learns in the future might not just save the world as a whole, but also his and his family's future more specifically.

I'm something of a sucker for high concept SF action films, so from the moment I heard about The Tomorrow War, I was keen to check it out.  Alas, sometimes movies do not live up to our hopes, and for me this was definitely one of those cases.  The Tomorrow War's execution is generally mediocre.  Its alien antagonists far less interesting and intimidating than it builds them up to be and its action sequences derivative and lacking in tension.  Worse still, its plot contrives to be both utterly nonsensical and utterly predictable, both at the same time.  Which is an impressive achievement, but not one to celebrate!