Tomorrow When The War BeganWhen:
In cinemas from Sept 2
Watch trailer:
Here
Win:
Thanks to Paramount we have 5 dbls! To enter, email win@twothousand.com.au with the subject line ‘We were still innocent. Right up to yesterday'Print Email Share
A bunch of unfeasibly attractive teenagers go bush. Laughing, flirting, frolicking beside creeks and campfires... Something bad's definitely about to happen. Luckily, this isn't yet another of those shitty horror flicks Australian filmmakers insist on continuing to make. This all-Aussie action blockbuster is based on John Marsden's beloved young-adult novels set in an Australia invaded by an unspecified foreign power.
Refreshingly, it's thrilling without succumbing to Hollywood-style cartoonish quips, superhuman stunts and casual misogyny. There's a female hero (Caitlin Stasey) and Asian love interest (Chris Pang), but the film fetishises neither. And while many characters begin as stereotypes - rebel, jock, princess, goody-two-shoes, stoner, nerd - the story's heart is how they conquer their fears and discover new capabilities within themselves.
Screenwriter/director Stuart Beattie is pleasingly faithful to Marsden's book, although some dialogue sounds clunky when lifted from the page. Beattie adds edginess by upping the violence, and updates the technology from handwriting and landlines to mobiles and digital video. However, he can't be as circumspect as Marsden about the invaders' ethnicity; hence, there's an uncomfortable ‘Yellow Peril' subtext. Still, it's a bazillion times subtler than the forthcoming Red Dawn remake featuring the evil Chinese.
By Mel Campbell
Format: Cinema
Genre: Action
Keywords: adaptation, War, Australian
Australian Competitions Club
