Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) by Maksim B — 23 Dec 2012

Tomorrow, When The War Began is an adventurous military action teen flick, which entertains, engages the audience and scores much better than the average Hollywood teen flicks. Despite its absurd main story, the movie is captivating and thrilling enough for audience of all ages.

Just as the origin of the production, the story is set in Australia. A group of teenagers in a small coastal town gather for a weekend in the wild when their country becomes invaded by an unknown enemy. The group finds itself behind the enemy line and after initially trying to just survive, they take the choice to get involved in this war and do the best they can to disrupt this invasion.

What director Stewart Beattie has managed to achieve in his movie, is to keep the focus of this conflict within the world of this small group of teenagers. None is known about the invaders, there are no scenes of classic war, no politics at all (except for one short radio broadcast). All the resistance-combat part is kept small, local and it sound perfectly credible as none of the boys and girls is trying to be a hero.

This all works fine in the frame of the story of this group of teenagers. Unfortunately, the invasion itself(with its hidden reference to China) seems somehow unrealistic and improbable. The time watching the movie passes smoothly and due to the overall fast pace few will actually realize that the acting is everything but memorable. None of the actors delivers above-the-mediocrity performance and a week after seeing Stewart Beattie's delivery you would not remember any of the faces seen during the movie.

Yet, Tomorrow,When The War Began is an interesting and engaging movie. It is a genre mash-up, which is worth-seeing and it surely will make you follow the future directorial efforts of Stewart Beattie.