Review of Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) by Jess H — 07 Feb 2011

Having not heard of the book series upon which this film is based or even the plot of the movie, I chose to watch it simply because of a couple of surprised reviewers who enjoyed it. After having glanced at the plot synopsis I had my very serious doubts, but I was committed.

The characters were shallow. The plot was ridiculous. The dialogue was cheap. But, barring the disgustingly self-indulgent and horrifyingly reductive final 5 minutes of narration along the lines of "A week ago we were just some teenagers and now we're battle hardened, Rambo-quality heroes of humankind who will continue to wage war against the dark hordes of [some people]" made me want to spit in the face of everyone involved in the movie.

It pleasantly surprised me by being entertaining and not entirely idiotic up until the point where it insulted my intelligence with such a cliche ending. It's a perfect example of how the last five minutes of a film can leave such a bad taste in your mouth that you have a hard time talking about any of the good parts.

Still, I'll try to be fair and say that this movie wasn't (barring the aforementioned ending) as bad as anticipated. For that, I'll give it 2 stars.