Ever since Twilight came out to huge box office and generated an obsessive teen fanbase, Hollywood has attempted to capture lightning in a bottle once again. But no matter how many I Am Number Fours, Red Riding Hoods or Beastlys that they make, they've not been able to recapture the success of that film series (even if they are mind-numbingly boring). It's cool to report that the Australians have been Hollywood to it with Tomorrow - When The War Began, based on the series of teen adventure novels by John Marsden.
The plot is simple...that of 80's action movie Red Dawn. Oz is invaded by an unnamed Asian military menace and a group of teens, camping away from their smalltown Australian community, have to grow up fast and fight back. Considering this is written and directed by the dudious talents of Stuart Beattie, writer of GI:Joe and the first Pirates Of The Caribbean, it's the script that really makes this film special. In virtually every American teen movie I've seen recently the gang of youths have been largly unlikable, prompting me to wish them a swift annd brutal death. But in Tomorrow, the kids are all distinctive, likable, and most importantly humorous. The way they talk and interact with each other is both realistic and fun. They're conflicted and multi-layered and you actually want to spend time with the rag tag group...both before the invasion and after. It even wisely keeps the romantic elements to a minimum, although they are there.
It's shot in an old fashioned kind of way, steadily paced without many irritating modern movie making techniques, and has a couple of well staged action sequences in amoungst the drama. It's not a big scale production by any means, but it's premise is strong enough, it's direction is cinematic enough, and it's great cast of morally questioning characters is riviting enough to make me yearn to see the soon-to-shoot sequel.
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