Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) by Liam M — 27 Jun 2013

Caitlin Stasey is one sweet sexy and sassy student. She steals the show in Tomorrow, When the War Began. Her beauty is equally matched by her acting as she rises up to the occasion to guide her young group of rebels in the right direction. Her group, eight teenagers, return from camping to find that their world has been turned upside down. Their town has been taken over by foreign attackers who are also holding their parents hostage. In a time of confusion and anger, the teenagers must remain calm and be smart in order to not become captured by their adversaries. Ellie(Caitlin Stasey) avoids capture initially by running away after being spotted near an enemy outpost. But she is then cornered and must resort to killing to get away. She sees the look on her dying enemies face and says she will never forget her. She looked just as scared and out of place as she felt. Ellie really rises up after seeing a stoner in their group has fallen asleep while on watch duty. Families have been torn apart and lives changed forever yet he thinks it is just a fun vacation. After putting him in his place, the group gets out of town.

The next step for the group is to fight back. After having a debate on whether they can make an impact and whether resorting to killing is right, they decide that striking back is the best thing for them to do. Destroying a bridge leading to one of their enemies key ports is their first mission. They must band together and go all in for it to work. Ellie gets the group ready for attack and initially there plan is working. But after Ellie realizes they forgot a lighter, the two who were supposed to blow up the truck under the bridge become cornered. Then the same girl who was the most morally conflicted about fighting back and who said she would not kill under any circumstances is left in perfect position to save her friends. She then grabs the gun and guns down the enemy combatants in what was my favorite scene in the movie. It was very poetic in how she suddenly was put in a situation where she either had to go against her beliefs or watch her friends die. She made the decision to kill and was even more shocked at herself for doing it than everyone else was. The movie ends in bittersweet fashion as the group successfully blows up the bridge but during the operation one of them is inflicted with a horrible wound. The girl who was shot then has to be taken to the hospital in order to survive and her boyfriend takes her despite knowing they will become imprisoned. Caitlin Stasey's performance as Ellie is what impressed me the most about this movie. The morality of the group and the sense that they grow up in this film and mature into adults also makes it a good movie. While it isn't 2 hours of greatness, there are enough good scenes and action sequences to entertain the average audience. Tomorrow, When the War Began's cast is mostly lackluster but a stunning Caitlin Stasey makes this both an entertaining and inspiring movie for those who like a hot girl with a backbone.