Tomorrow, When the War Began

If you read a lot of comments about Tomorrow, When the War Began, you may come to the conclusion that it’s just a blatant rip-off of the eighties action flick ‘Red Dawn.’ To be honest, I have no idea whether it is or it isn’t, as I haven’t seen either Red Dawn, or the remake. Therefore, I’m looking at the film as a new piece of work, not just Australia’s answer to Red Dawn. And, I think it’s pretty good. Not great. It’s not a classic work of art that will stand the test of time while scholars with pointy beards discuss its depth and meaning. It’s just a fun film. Seven Australian teenagers go camping for the weekend and when they come home, they find that some nasty old foreign army has taken over their town and slung all their old folks into barbed wire camps. So, what to they do? Do they simply sit down and tweet their disapproval, updating their Facebook statuses to a multitude of frowny faces? Or do they what the soldiers on the backs of their heads, steal their weapons and become an elite band of resistance fighters? Clue: it’s the latter. However, being a teenager is never easy. Taking aside the invading force trying to kill them at every turn, the poor prepubescent clique still has to deal with relationship issues and ‘does he, or doesn’t he’ like me type dilemmas in between firefights and gorilla warfare missions. There are two ways to enjoy Tomorrow, When the War Began. The first is to be a teenager yourself. That way you won’t have seen many movies and you’ll find this deep, meaningful and terribly dramatic. The second way is – like me – take one of the biggest pinches of salt ever, then sit back and enjoy the action and the daftness. Apparently, the sequel is on its way and I’ll be watching that, too. Some movies don’t have to be good, they just have to be entertaining. This is one. Move over Twilight and The Hunger Games, the invasion has begun.

Rather annoying as this film cannot decide whether or not it's an action film or a teen love flick. Not to mention the fact that is totally unbelievable. It has the feel of a pilot episode of a tv series. I really would'nt bother with this one, I wish I hadn't.

Truely awful in every conceivable way. Like a feature length episode of Dawson's Creek. Awful acting, script, direction........ If your country ever gets invaded don't count on this film for tips on what to do.

It appears the makers of this film couldn't decide whether they wanted to make an action movie or a chic flick.

Unfortunately the story is told from the girl's point of view so we get too little action and too many long scenes of teenage girls sitting around chatting about girly things (particularly early on in the film).

Once the action starts things begin to hot up but whole movie is poorly paced.

It is clearly an attempt to make an action movie to appeal to the fairer sex but this one misfires.

It is definitely no Red Dawn.

You will only love this film if you are a big neighbours or home and away fan (my wife!). If I was being generous I would say the acting doesn't quite seem to fit with the storyline. If I was being harsh, poor acting that made the film unbelievable. The ending is also a bit of a let down. Maybe they have left things open for a sequel (hope not!).On the plus side the story line itself is quite a good one and if I find the time I may read the book that the film is based on.