Tomorrow, When the War Began

Australian action film, Tomorrow, When the War Began; based on John Marsden’s novel of the same name premiered on August the 8th and I was lucky enough to get some tickets.
The story follows Ellie (Caitlin Stasey) and her friends; Corrie (Rachel Hurd-Wood), Fi (Phoebe Tonkin), Robyn (Ashleigh Cummings), Homer (Denzi Akdeniz), Lee (Chris Pang) and Kevin (Lincoln Lewis) as they venture into the Australian wilderness for a summer holiday camping trip, where they find a secluded location in the base of steep cliffs and rocks, known to the local Wirrawee country town folk as ‘Hell.’ After a couple of nights bonding and having fun, the group make their way back home to discover that what they had once thought was a safe, free Australia, was now occupied by an invading country – which is never named. The audience is propelled into an intense, nail biting crisis as the gang try to discover what happened to their imprisoned families, leading to an epic climax that is sure to get the heart pumping.
Writer and director Stuart Beattie made the wise decision to higher the stakes in the film, so even the fans of the novel are able to be surprised during the action scenes. The story isn’t like many other Hollywood action films, as it questions the morals of war, and the strength of friendship versus an enemy threat, who are literally trying to kill them. This is credited to the original story by author John Marsden who since 1993 has written a whole Tomorrow Series focusing on the perils of Ellie and her friends. Although the film explores some heavy material and is incredibly intense, the Australian humour is still strongly evident in the dialogue, showcasing the fact that our culture can still joke and try to make each other laugh even under extreme circumstances. There was a surprising amount of imagery used in the film, creating layers of subtext not found in many Hollywood actions. An important factor to the film was that each character had a clear physical and emotional journey evident in the story, which was not as obvious in the novel as it was all in Ellie’s point of view. Another change that I loved was the fact that they gave a reason for Ellie’s voiceover instead of merely writing in the script her spoken internal thoughts.
The casting could be questioned due to the fact that a lot of the actors have simply appeared in Australian soaps, but I can say you will be pleasantly surprised. Caitlin is very impressive as Ellie, she becomes the character and can definitely hold her abilities against other more experienced and renowned actors. The other actors are relaxed in their roles; there are a few forced scenes, Lincoln Lewis being one that was still stuck in his ‘soap acting’ habits. However, overall the casting matched perfectly with the films representation of each character.
For a budget of only 20 million the CGI was rather impressive, although the blue screen work was a little dodgy, more so towards the end. However where it mattered the CGI was effective and helped create a satisfying climax. The aerial shots of the Australian bush; the cliff into Hell, was especially beautiful, showcasing our unique landscape. The cinematography and editing was easy to follow in the action scenes, overall the construction of the mise-en-scene worked well, although in one particular shot, I wanted to die, everything about it was wrong – the framing of the actor, the bare walls, the lighting; crap.
For anyone that has read the books, you will not be disappointed. To everyone else you shall be extremely satisfied. Everyone can relate to the theme of friendship making it easily accessible, while it plays off everyone’s fear of losing their freedom. And only in an Australian film can the dialogue mock novel to film adaptations, that scene alone is worth the ticket price. Fuck Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, this is a film that should bring the nation together.
It is being nationally released on the 2nd of SEPTEMBER. SEE IT!