I remember my thoughts when watching the trailer for Tomorrow when the war began. I had a good argument with a friend who was confident that the film's focus on character development would help it escape it's comparisons to Red Dawn.
But honestly after the first 5 minutes of the film and being subjected to the expositional and awkward dialogue I knew my fears were well founded. I read the first three and a quarter books about ten years ago and remember giving up on the series when it started to become a tad too ridiculous. But in the film that element of ridiculousness bursts through during the first action sequence. In the book you controlled the environment through your perception of the text, but in the film the realism being presented just doesn't juxtapose at all with the guerrilla scenes. When Ellie blows up the lawn mower and takes out the enemy soldiers (Who look like rejects from a Japanese science fiction film in their black storm trooper gear), you just can't accept it. Red Dawn at least was unapologetic and proud of it's gung ho approach. This film tries to ground itself too deeply in reality and as such the action just doesn't mesh well.
Getting back to the script, which is surprisingly clunky and awkward coming from an experienced screenwriter with various big American projects under his belt. The dialogue is awful and completely unhelped by the fact that the actors just aren't good enough to make it work. Perhaps if the director/ screenwriter had let them improvise a little it could have helped but as it is almost every line feels like it's being read off a teleprompter by a year 12 drama student. The dialogue also has a distinctly unaustralian flavour which also adds to the awkwardness of the performances. With some lines sounding incredibly B grade and almost straight out of Red Dawn.
The action scenes themselves are badly shot, with the camera not being able to decide what to focus on or follow. It isn't just the action as most of the shots are boring and bland with only a few exceptions.
In terms of adapting the book the small town of Wirrawee and the outback hideout of Hell are painfully under developed as locations. I remember the hike down into Hell being arduous and interesting in the book whereas in the movie it feels like they just walk down a hill and they're there. You never get the sense of this home away from home, sanctuary of the land feel that the book really emphasized and emphasized well In terms of character development, the interactions feel extremely soapy. The chemistry between the actors is average at best and once again the script doesn't help, with some characters being underused for huge portions of the film. This is the problem of the movie following the book a little too closely and choosing to only follow one group in the sequences where they will split up. In the book it wasn't a problem because the prose and inner monologue of the narration would keep you interested and make you generally surprised when the group would meet back up and something disastrous had happened to the others. But in the film it just doesn't work. You want to see what happened not be told. Show don't tell. This is the simplest aspect of filmmaking. It is also blatantly annoying when they meet up with the horrible stoner stereotype Chris who trails off into a horrible comic relief monologue about what he's been doing for the entire film when "I've been high the whole time" would suffice.
The sound design is another element that hurts the film. The noises of warfare sound more like they're from a video game or Stallone film than the noises you'd expect to hear in a realistic environment. An emphasis on the sounds of the Australian bush would have been nice to help hammer home that this is Australia being invaded. This coupled with the bad art direction on the part of the invaders with their silly looking armour and Command and Conquer Nod Buggies just helps to make the action hurt the film even more.
Overall I just couldn't get into the film at all. The pacing was too fast when it should have been slow and too slow when it should have been fast and there are some jumps in the story and time that feel a little clunky. This film had such an easy job to set it up so that I'd really feel for the characters and get behind their struggle, but the sad fact that they're developed so badly and acted even worse, made me actually start going for the soldiers.
If this is the film that's supposed to rejuvenate the Australian film industry, then god help us. Because if this is what the future holds, we may as well just dub cheesy b grade American films with Australian accents, because that's pretty much what Tomorrow When the War Began was.
But honestly after the first 5 minutes of the film and being subjected to the expositional and awkward dialogue I knew my fears were well founded. I read the first three and a quarter books about ten years ago and remember giving up on the series when it started to become a tad too ridiculous. But in the film that element of ridiculousness bursts through during the first action sequence. In the book you controlled the environment through your perception of the text, but in the film the realism being presented just doesn't juxtapose at all with the guerrilla scenes. When Ellie blows up the lawn mower and takes out the enemy soldiers (Who look like rejects from a Japanese science fiction film in their black storm trooper gear), you just can't accept it. Red Dawn at least was unapologetic and proud of it's gung ho approach. This film tries to ground itself too deeply in reality and as such the action just doesn't mesh well.
Getting back to the script, which is surprisingly clunky and awkward coming from an experienced screenwriter with various big American projects under his belt. The dialogue is awful and completely unhelped by the fact that the actors just aren't good enough to make it work. Perhaps if the director/ screenwriter had let them improvise a little it could have helped but as it is almost every line feels like it's being read off a teleprompter by a year 12 drama student. The dialogue also has a distinctly unaustralian flavour which also adds to the awkwardness of the performances. With some lines sounding incredibly B grade and almost straight out of Red Dawn.
The action scenes themselves are badly shot, with the camera not being able to decide what to focus on or follow. It isn't just the action as most of the shots are boring and bland with only a few exceptions.
In terms of adapting the book the small town of Wirrawee and the outback hideout of Hell are painfully under developed as locations. I remember the hike down into Hell being arduous and interesting in the book whereas in the movie it feels like they just walk down a hill and they're there. You never get the sense of this home away from home, sanctuary of the land feel that the book really emphasized and emphasized well In terms of character development, the interactions feel extremely soapy. The chemistry between the actors is average at best and once again the script doesn't help, with some characters being underused for huge portions of the film. This is the problem of the movie following the book a little too closely and choosing to only follow one group in the sequences where they will split up. In the book it wasn't a problem because the prose and inner monologue of the narration would keep you interested and make you generally surprised when the group would meet back up and something disastrous had happened to the others. But in the film it just doesn't work. You want to see what happened not be told. Show don't tell. This is the simplest aspect of filmmaking. It is also blatantly annoying when they meet up with the horrible stoner stereotype Chris who trails off into a horrible comic relief monologue about what he's been doing for the entire film when "I've been high the whole time" would suffice.
The sound design is another element that hurts the film. The noises of warfare sound more like they're from a video game or Stallone film than the noises you'd expect to hear in a realistic environment. An emphasis on the sounds of the Australian bush would have been nice to help hammer home that this is Australia being invaded. This coupled with the bad art direction on the part of the invaders with their silly looking armour and Command and Conquer Nod Buggies just helps to make the action hurt the film even more.
Overall I just couldn't get into the film at all. The pacing was too fast when it should have been slow and too slow when it should have been fast and there are some jumps in the story and time that feel a little clunky. This film had such an easy job to set it up so that I'd really feel for the characters and get behind their struggle, but the sad fact that they're developed so badly and acted even worse, made me actually start going for the soldiers.
If this is the film that's supposed to rejuvenate the Australian film industry, then god help us. Because if this is what the future holds, we may as well just dub cheesy b grade American films with Australian accents, because that's pretty much what Tomorrow When the War Began was.