Tomorrow When The War Began - Review

I was really excited to see Tomorrow When The War Began, really excited. I had tickets reserved for weeks, I went to a 9pm session on a Friday night... I was keen. Like ever kid growing up in the 90s I read John Marsden novels about Australia being invaded and a bunch of country teenages fighting back and while the novel was really exciting and involving the movie was a huge disappointment.

I actually spent most of the film thinking, why is this so bad? The story is great, the action is fantastic and the special effects faultless (amazing for an Australian film), the soundtrack was a great mix of Aussie indie rock and the scenery absolutely breathtaking. It is so close to being good, but falls short in a few major ways.

The film was really let down by a combination of bad script and bad acting and a bunch of stereotypical boring characters that had no personality. From the tough normal girl (Caitlin Stasey from Neighbours), rebellious best friend (Rachel Hurd-Wood), hot guy (Lincoln Lewis, Home and Away), rebel (Deniz Akdeniz), pretty posh girl (Phoebe Tonkin), Asian guy from the local Chinese restaurant (Chris Pang), straight laced Christian (Ashleigh Cummings) and stoner (Andy Ryan) none of these characters I found relatable in any way. There were brief glimpses of character when the rebel Homer and stoner Chris first enter the story but soon fade into the background with the rest of the characters. Even when one character nearly dies... it is really hard to care.

So many lines of the film were so cliche from the "I think it's time to go to war" to the discussion between two girls "How is the book?" "better than the movie". It seems like they just brought the film to screen without bringing it to life

Oh well, it was only 100 minutes of my life, I don't think there is much chance they will continue with the other novels in the series.

Have you seen the film? What did you think?