Tomorrow, When the War Began

I am not sure what is going on with the complaints about this not being true to the book or 'things have changed' or perhaps the people reviewing it prior to me are expecting a continuation of the film or haven't read the books in years unlike me, but I don't see a massive deviation from the novels other than some modernisation of the tale.

When the books were written, it was a different political climate and youth culture, when the books were written it spoke to the teenagers of my time (90's) where mobile phones and social media weren't everywhere and the biggest threat was a far off distant war in Iraq.

In the movie, there wasn't even mention of The Hermit and yet, the kids mentioned him quickly as they went to enter Hell.

The relationship of the teens is presented exactly as I remember it and their discovery of the invasion feels like it came straight out of the books.

The highlighting of the joy these teenagers experienced in Hell is to prepare you for the stark realisation that these childish experiences are over before the teenagers are thrown into situations much more adult than they are, that their dreams and hopes are about to be shattered as much as their lives are.

I find it a wonderful updated, modern interpretation of a novel series I still read and adore even today.

Don't expect the movie here, whilst the movie was excellent and did take lines from the novel, the series has a lot more chance to play with the themes and events from The Tomorrow series and The Ellie Chronicles. It can take longer to reveal plot points and build the changing, growing nature of the kids relationships and how war will inevitably change them.

I look forward to seeing how it continues.

Great story that is unfortunately started and never gotten back the first instalment. Quite sad really, one of Australia's best novel series. All in all the cinematography is quite good, but acting is so so.

Love the books and even loved the movie, but unsure why the writers felt the need to change this up and add so much storyline's regarding the parents.

A great story ruined by a terrible screenplay adaptation. I loved the books & thought that the earlier movie was a very good adaptation of the first book. But by the time I was watching the 4th episode I was laughing at the ridiculously far fetched alterations to the plot. Completely unrealistic scenes that at times reminded me of episodes of either Gilligan's Island, Skippy or even Hogans Heroes. What were the writers thinking?!! So much potential, so little delivery.

If you are a fan of the Tomorrow series by John Marsden, do not bother watching this. It does not stay true to the series, portraying the kids as typical city teenagers rather than the down to earth country kids described by Marsden. Little details like the scenery, seemed to be more set in a rainforest than country Australia.

The acting wasn't terrible, but was very much let down by the script and direction. It is hard to look past the cheesy happy scenes. If you can manage to overlook the many many inconsistencies between the book and this series, you've done better than I could.

Perhaps Marsden simply wrote a series of books that could not be successfully turned into TV series, as no one has achieved it so far. As a die-hard John Marsden fan, I found this series unsatisfying.