Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) Reviews

• Good cast, visually stunning but often put focus on the wrong things

  Seth_Rogue_One2014-12-09

  The cast is good enough and you can't complain about the visuals but the script is flawed, due to the makers eagerness into focusing on the teen- romance aspects of the movie instead of the survival aspect. For instance there is a scene where the gang have a potentially lethal mission going on and 2 girls can't stop chatting about the boys they like, asking if this or that person is a good kisser etc. And stuff like that happens throughout of the movie, so what everyone they know is either dead or prisoners of war does that really mean we can't go on a date right? Yeah... But when it's not focused on that it's fairly entertaining. The violence is very minimal which takes away a lot of the tension that could have been in the movie, okay it's aimed at teens but still war is never pretty. There's also very little action for it to be listed as a action-movie and the poster makes it look like it's actionpacked as well but it's really not. In the end of the movie which ends with a cliffhanger of sorts it's kind of obvious that it was always intended as a trilogy or something with this movie being the first part. And it appears that the sequel is being made as we speak, I'd watch it but I hope they don't focus on too many love-triangles but of the actual war/survivor-story that time.

• Where do I get paid to say this movie was good....

  promo22010-12-24

  Someone is obviously paying people to give positive reviews, I had heard that this was a film I should see... Wrong! Clumsy, predictable, laughable. They should have had a grown-up check the script before starting production. Dump trucks are not bullet proof! Soldiers don't run away when a teenager blows up a lawnmower. Soldiers don't go for dinner when someone steals their tanker. Soldiers don't sneak up on enemy 'commandoes' with their gun-lights on. It kept looking like it could improve and some parts looked very stylish, but then ffffttt! Deflation. Paper-thin character development, dry lines, ridiculous action sequences and the final scene... OMG lol wtf...I was embarrassed to have told my wife she should watch this with me, she doesn't mind suspending disbelief when watching something like this but she laughed out loud at the final 5 seconds and I cringed! Sorry to the writer and director, good on you for having the guts to make a movie, no doubt better than I could do, but sheesh, maybe share the workload next time.

• Worst movie I have ever seen

  graham-938-4550772010-12-31

  I haven't read any of the books so I watched this film on its own merits and I'm generally supportive of Aussie films, but this film was terrible. Let's start with the characters. Stereotypes galore from the prissy, ditsy uptown blonde through to the Chinese boy who's family owns a Chinese restaurant and he demonstrates Kung Fu skills. The actors seem very camera-aware, talking at the camera instead of each other and it doesn't help that the story is full of woeful clichés and unrealistic dialog. There was no development of the characters, i felt no attachment to any of them and towards the end i was wishing the "enemy" would kill at least half of them. The worst part for me is that the story suggests that they are mostly 17 years old, but only 1 character (the priests daughter *groan*) actually looks right for the part. I would have turned it off halfway if it wasn't for the stoner character. At this point I started watching it like it was a spoof movie. The story unfortunately is full of holes and unrealistic events that make it so hard to watch. The enemy was made out to be so stupid and wildly inaccurate with their weapons. Please use a military adviser next time you want to make a film containing armed forces. Are we really supposed to believe that they wouldn't have engineers that could rebuild a bridge? On top of all the technical and military logic errors in the story, it almost seems to completely ignore the fact that Australia has a defense force. Afraid of political correctness, the Asian coalition army invading has no name and it is painfully skirted around making the movie more unrealistic. Trying to keep gender equality alive with woman enemy soldiers (did we forget it was an Asian army?) another painful reminder of the poorly written script. The lead female gaining inspiration for a wall mural depicting aborigines and English redcoat troops was a vomit moment. You guys realise that the English settled here right, effectively conquering?? Just needed a scene with a woman vet holding an injured joey to finish it off. The only good thing about this film is the view of the national park. There is more, but I'm over it. Do yourself a favour and save your money.

• Did everyone else watch a different movie?

  aslan-937-2837642010-12-30

  I felt it was necessary to sign up for an IMDb account to offset the skewed reviews this film is getting... it's current 6.9 rating is baffling to say the least. I started watching this film with an open mind. The premise wasn't original (see Red Dawn) but I like Australian films and since it got such high reviews here, it would be worth a watch. I was sadly mistaken. It's starts off well, establishing the main characters, but quickly falls off the rails once the kids return from their camping trip. I know I'm not the target audience for this type of film, but once you get past the teens and their budding crushes/relationships, this film makes little sense. I won't get into too much detail, but even a non-military person like myself knows that the way the "invaders" take over and police the town is completely implausible and impractical. And don't get me started on using gasoline as a high explosive, which is used as a plot device not once, but twice. When the main characters start musing on the current situation and how their lives were before the "war" (an hour or two after returning to town no less), it comes across as wooden and silly. Maybe if I was a 14 year old girl I'd be more forgiving, but I'm not. To top it all off, the movies doesn't have an ending. There's no satisfying conclusion to the story and it's blatantly clear they want to start a franchise with many sequels, which hopefully will never be made. An awful, awful film… Red Dawn did it much better.

• One big face-palm

  nick-moleta2010-09-05

  I went into this movie not knowing anything about it, I didn't even know it was Australian. I had my head in my hands for half the time it was so cringe until it was so bad I had to laugh out loud. The acting is over the top and ridiculous and the storyline unbelievable to the point of asking oneself if this is actually a joke. As I hadn't read the books at least I didn't have a childhood fantasy crushed like some people I know. I passed the time by wondering what the best way to invade Australia would be to hunt down the people responsible for the complete waste of time and money. The worst movie I have EVER seen in a cinema.