rowlsroyceau Reviews

Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010)

Good idea weighed down by problems

[6/10 · 9 September 2010]

A group of friends take an extended camping trip into the mountains. When they return, they find their country invaded by an unknown force, their families forced into a concentration camp, and take it upon themselves to begin a resistance movement.

I have not read the book, but as an Australian I really wanted to enjoy this movie, and I did, but I also came away thinking that it could be a lot better. This is probably the most controversial film I have watched in a long time, because I enjoyed the experience of watching it but I found so many problems with it as well:

The Good: Ellie and Homer's character growth is strong and impressive, impressive enough to carry the film past its problems.

The action scenes are generally exciting.

The film manages to maintain suspense even outside of the action scenes. It's good at conveying the emotions one should feel to find that their homeland has been invaded. I cared about the characters, worried about the way they fought with each other, and gritted my teeth for their success.

The Bad:

The other characters don't grow much.

Some dialogue is clunky. The beginning is a little cheesy as all the characters are introduced. The film does not start quickly.

The action scenes are generally implausible: petrol explosions are all too frequent: a crime to intelligence that Hollywood itself has committed numerous times but don't we know better than that now? Petrol is rather hard to make explode because you need to make sure that it's mixed with a specific ratio of oxygen. Yet everything carrying petrol goes off like TNT. At one stage, something containing petrol explodes three times. How?

I complained to some friends about this issue and they said it was the same as in the book. When I suggested changing the explosive they disagreed, because the movie should stay loyal to the book. But the book was about CHARACTERS. It wasn't about the way they did things, but for anyone with a bit of technical knowledge it's clear that John Marsden didn't do a whole lot of research if this is an exact representation of the text.

None of the characters look like year 12 students. I'm a high school teacher. It's very rare that any female students look like the long-legged, tall, slim, beautiful models used in this movie. Likewise not all boys look like buff sportsmen, but in this movie they do. Hence the movie loses some of its plausibility: it doesn't look like school children taking the war to the enemy. It looks more like university graduates. Only one character - Robyn Mathers - actually looked like a real school girl (except her clothes were so cliché-conservative Christian that even she looks a little unbelievable).

Action scenes were implausible: I like the idea of a movie where a bunch of teenagers outwit an invading force. But the director must be careful not to make the soldiers look dumb or incompetent. Instead he/she must make the teenagers look clever, or lucky. This movie does not succeed here.

Enemy strategy is questionable: the whole TOWN was put in a concentration camp! This is not how you invade a country. Are they going to do this for every town/city in Australia? When you're invading a country you dedicate your forces to fighting that country's military, and even once that's finished, you allow the population to keep going about its daily business and put soldiers on the street to keep order. You try to keep local law enforcement intact so they can do it. You don't herd everyone into a camp because then you need to feed them and clothe them yourselves, which, even if not done well, will draw resources away from where they're needed more.

Despite all of these issues, Tomorrow when the War Began has the framework of an interesting story and an interesting concept. It's a shame that anyone with a small amount of technical knowledge will be able to find more holes in this than a colander, nevertheless if these things aren't a concern to you then here is an emotional adventure with a fair dose of suspense and action. I'll be going to see the sequel, and I'll be praying someone remakes the movies in twenty years time.

The Land Before Time (1988)

Lives up to fantastic childhood memories (slight spoilers)

[9/10 · 12 July 2008]

I watched this movie for the first time in well over a decade yesterday, and unlike some films from my childhood - which don't survive my more judgemental older brain - the Land Before Time stands as strong as it did back in 1988. The only difference is I probably won't watch it twice a week for the next two years.

The Land Before Time tells a simple story of a dinosaur named Littlefoot, who loses his mother to the deliciously one-dimensional, gravity-defying, vicious tyrannosaur known as "Sharptooth". Together with four other lost dinosaurs he searches for the Great Valley, but is slowed by the group's lack of cooperation or trust for one another. The must overcome their personal differences - and the ever-prowling Sharptooth - to reach their goal, and choose to do things the "right way", even if that means choosing the hard way.

For a movie that suffered so much during its production phase, and one which left the producers and directors dissatisfied, its a wonder LBT underwent the success it did at the box office. Don Bluth delights in making cartoons that are both dark and heartwarming, and LBT is no different. The characters will scream and shiver in fear as Sharptooth prowls around their hiding spot, but in other scenes they laugh and interact as would 'normal' children. Due to Spielberg's influence a lot of these darker scenes were cut from the film (probably good due to the film's young audience) but many still remain, enough to make the movie reasonably suspenseful, and with more "bite" than a typical Disney film (quite literally).

The orchestral score is as beautiful as the artwork depicted in the movie, arguably better than the film, though it is often obscured by the sound effects employed. The two elements come together to shroud the world in an air of mystery, adding to the quest-like atmosphere in typical Bluth fashion.

The film does stoop to a few predictable elements, such as the character that appears to die dramatically only to return less than a minute later. Littlefoot's mother also dies (no real surprise there) but watching Littlefoot's misery afterward - and little touches, of his wandering footsteps shown from the air following a much larger pair of footsteps in a search for companionship - has the potential to pull your heartstrings, as it did mine.

The film tackles the issue of racism that was (aparrently) prominent in America at the time. In the beginning of the film, Littlefoot is prevented from playing with Cera because "threehorns never play with longnecks". Cera heeds her father's (poor) advice, but only by working with Littlefoot are the group able to reach their goals. It's nice to see a film with underlying messages like this. Modern films, like The Lion King, though good, are rather hollow in that aspect (though I hear many children now fear their uncles). The Land Before Time will teach younger children that they'll do far better if they put pride and discrimination behind them. Doing so in a humanistic fashion is more than tolerable considering the film's audience.

All the characters in LBT are colourful but Littlefoot is the most likable (in this writer's opinion). While re-viewing this film after so many years, it was interesting to see the obvious emergence of his ability to lead. Though he is a child, when hiding from Sharptooth, he directs Cera's movement to prevent their discovery. He soon becomes the deferred leader of the group, mostly because he's the only one who knows how to reach the great valley, but also because he's a genuinely motivating and kind character, without being repulsive in an over-sweet manner.

There is SOMETHING missing from the film however, possibly exactly what Don Bluth has commented on when he mentions his own dissatisfaction. The film ends after a measly 69 minutes (due to all the cuts), and as a child I was always wanted more. I am no different as an adult, the only difference is I now turn to the internet rather than rewinding the film and starting again. Something just isn't satisfying in the Land Before Time. That might be why so many sequels were spawned, and though they're entertaining for younger children, with singing and adventures and reasonably-tolerable dialogue, they don't have the darkness, that makes the light at the end of the tunnel that much brighter.