Chris Pratt‘s The Tomorrow War hit Amazon Prime Video today and is currently lighting up social media. Pratt plays Dan Forester, a biology teacher and Iraq War special forces veteran who gets sucked into a bizarre time-travel adventure. The conceit is that in the year 2051 Earth is being invaded by aliens, with humanity now on the brink of extinction.
With the worlds’ militaries having already been defeated, the last desperate hope is to draft soldiers from the past and bring them to the future. Forester is one of them and finds himself navigating a doomed future he doesn’t quite understand against desperate odds. It sounds like a fun ride, particularly as the supporting cast includes always-great J.K. Simmons as an anti-government Vietnam vet.
Here’s how it’s going down on Twitter:
Damn. The Tomorrow War was a lot better than I expected. Pretty insane.
— Nick (@NJRAZ) July 2, 2021
Watched The Tomorrow War. 🤯 Mind-blowing movie!!
— Bhagirathsinh Parmar (@bhagirathsinh__) July 2, 2021
https://twitter.com/JaanniceT/status/1410904067858071553?s=20
I just watched The Tomorrow War! WOW! It is SO awesome! @YvonneStrahovski is amazing in this movie! It is a must watch if you like action movies. One of my fav movies. Think Aliens.
— K8 (@DesertDevilDog1) July 2, 2021
Really enjoyed TOMORROW WAR a creature feature that reminds me of something I’d watch on the syfy channel in the early 2000s & now joins a growing library of monster movies that follows the trope of the minion monsters listening to an alpha monster that the hero’s must destroy pic.twitter.com/Gfrat52WRI
— Kreeecher (@kreeecher) July 2, 2021
Just finished The Tomorrow War. Solid movie. Good action. Decent story. Anything with JK Simmons is usually worth watching. Proven true yet again. Would recommend.
— Grizz (@GrizzJohnson) July 2, 2021
Tomorrow War is like watching Armageddon but somehow less believable???
I enjoyed the concepts. Liked the creature design a lot
I'm certain it will get like an F- by critics but I enjoyed watching it
— Pillchucker (@Pillchucker) July 2, 2021
Just watched The Tomorrow War on prime video… that was insane! Best movie I've seen in a long time.
— AchilleFPS (@AchilleFPS) July 2, 2021
https://twitter.com/Zakiyyah6/status/1410892981763252224?s=20
https://twitter.com/YoBoyCharlie_/status/1410897691526123523?s=20
@prattprattpratt Tomorrow war is easily the best Sci-Fi movie released in the last year apart from Tenet.
— Goe Joldberg (@sidsy_) July 2, 2021
https://twitter.com/trickelbank/status/1410893792874430467?s=20
This reception will come as a relief to Amazon, as professional critics haven’t been singing its praises. The Tomorrow War is sitting at 56% on the Tomatometer, with critics saying the concept is great, but the execution is lacking. Some of the more positive ones say that it’s “gloriously moronic,” but many of them wish that it’d slow down to explore the setting more thoroughly.
It’s also worth remembering that this is one of many films that have faced substantial delays due to COVID. The original theatrical release date was set to be Christmas Day 2020, but was then moved to July 23, 2021. But things still aren’t great for movie theaters and Amazon stepped in to offer $200 million to buy the movie for Amazon Prime Video.
Whether their investment will pay off remains to be seen, but judging from the positivity online The Tomorrow War seems to have found its audience.