Tomorrow, When The War Began

G’day sport, you looking for some bonzer Aussie action? Well quit your grinnin’ and drop your linen, cos the dinkum Tomorrow, When The War Began is here to blow your mind.

Yep, the massive selling Australian teenage war novel – part one of a seven book series – has been brought to big screen life.

Tomorrow, When The War Began is already a bit of a phenomenon in Australia where it broke box office records and became 2010’s biggest grossing film down under.

So what’s it all about? Well, take seven ‘average’ teenagers – namely Ellie ‘the heroine’ (Caitlin Stasey), Corrie ‘the best friend’ (Rachel Hurd-Wood), Kevin ‘the cowardly boyfriend’ (Lincoln Lewis Holmes), Homer ‘wild boy’ (Deniz Akdeniz), Fiona ‘hot blonde’ (Phoebe Tonkin), Lee ‘token Asian’ (Chris Pang) and Robyn ‘the religious one’ (Ashleigh Cummings). Pack them off into the bush for a weekend camping trip, only for a dastardly evil invading army to take over their hometown of Wirrawee while they’re gone.

And like any rebellious but good-hearted teens, as soon as they realise that their families have been taken captive and that the invaders are using deadly force on the peaceful townsfolk they vow to fight back in a guerilla style.

Cue lots of sneaking about, soul searching and the occasional exciting firefight or car chase. It’s all put together well enough by debut director Stuart ‘The Guy Who Wrote GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra’ Beattie.

This being a film aimed at young adults, I took my 14-year-old son Luke with me to give me a teen’s view on the flick.

He listed the action scenes, hot babe (Tonkin, who you might know from the mermaid TV show H20) and surprisingly edgy mood as the highlights but was less keen on the ‘dull’ weeping and ‘boring’ long dialogue scenes.

Luke’s review: 7/10, “good but not as good as Battle LA”.

That seems like a fair reaction/ summation of Tomorrow, When The War Began, which delivers some cool military special effects and works hard to set up the numerous potential sequels that are likely to follow.

As lead character Ellie sums up to her video diary: “We’ve all had to rewrite the scripts of our lives the last few weeks… it’s been quite a time.”

Worth a look for anyone looking for a mild action hit – as long as you have a high tolerance of cheesy dialogue and ‘Neighbours’ quality acting.