By: Eunice Chae

Victorville, Calif.

The Tomorrow War an Amazon Original released in July, enjoyed mixed reviews from both audiences and critics alike. The film boasts Chris Pratt in its starring role as Dan Forester, a former U.S. Army soldier who now works as a high school biology teacher. After fail-ing to get a prestigious job at a science facility, Forester has a semi-midlife crisis and waxes poetic about his life aspirations to his nine-year-old daughter.

During the World Cup, a giant wormhole opens up above the soccer field. A group of soldiers comes through, announcing that they’re from the future. They explain that by the year 2051, aliens have attacked the planet and the human race is virtually extinct. The government sends soldiers into the future to fight, and Dan is drafted.

In the future, the aliens — dubbed the Whitespikes thanks to their sharp teeth, claws and spikes — have overrun the city. Meanwhile, the humans have regular guns and regular bullets which barely do anything to the aliens. You would think that if future engineers had the technology to build a time-traveling device from “chewing gum and chicken wire,” they could have created weapons that were a teensy bit more effective.

When Dan tries to rescue a fallen team-mate, the group is trapped and everyone is killed except for Dan, Charlie (Sam Richardson), and a man named Dorian (Edwin Hodge). Later, Dan meets an older version of his daughter, Muri (Yvonne Strahovski), who develops a toxin for the Whitespikes. Just as the toxin is perfected, the aliens attack the military base. 

Muri is injured, and even though the fate of the world depends on getting the toxin to safety, Dan refuses to leave her. When Muri falls toward a frenzy of Whitespikes, Dan again makes a selfish decision and leaps after her. However, he’s transported into the present in the nick of time.

The movie takes a slightly bizarre turn when Dan, Charlie, Dorian, and Dan’s estranged father, James (J.K. Simmons), find a crashed spaceship. Instead of alerting others at once when they find it, the group traipses in alone. To be clear, humanity depends on killing these aliens, and only they know their location. If they die in the spaceship, the knowledge to save the world dies too.

Whitespikes on board eventually attack, and Dorian sacrifices himself, blowing up the ship while Dan, Charlie, James, and a female Whitespike escape. There’s a pleas-antly subversive scene near the end, when James attempts a self-sacrifice. In a small twist, Dan rescues him before he actually can, and kills the last Whitespike himself.

All in all, if you’re looking for a decently fun action flick with above-average performances of a remarkably selfish protagonist and unfortunately two-dimensional characters, The Tomorrow War fits the bill. Just don’t start squinting too hard at the plot, though, because that’s when it starts to crack under the pressure.

By: Mariah Colon

Buffalo, NY

Disney’s Pixar is a controversial topic among film critics due to what many describe as the studio’s fall from grace.  Since the end of the company’s golden g age in 2010, its films have gotten less  traction and for good reason. Recently  the studio has been producing average  children’s films, not the masterpieces  they came to be known for. “Luca,”  their most recent project, is yet another example of this mediocrity. 

“Luca” undoubtedly has made an  impression, but it’s not due to the film being good. Many viewers got at- tached to the relationship between protagonist Luca and his newfound best friend Alberto and the subtle im- plications that the feelings between the two boys were more than platonic. 

Had fans of the film not jumped and made their own narratives about  Luca and Alberto, though, it’s incred- ibly likely that the movie would have  been thrown in the pile of modern,  mediocre Pixar films. The characters are forgettable and hardly fleshed out.  

Luca doesn’t have enough traits to be  considered three-dimensional. He’s a sea  monster in a world of humans—an outcast. We’ve seen this trope countless times, and the film does nothing special with it. Alberto has the basis for an interesting character, but there isn’t enough time given to properly flesh out what makes  him compelling. He’s a young sea creature who was abandoned by his father. The movie seemingly attempts to do the found family trope with him, but it’s so glossed over that it can hardly be considered an important part of the story. Then there’s Giulia, the third protagonist in the film who befriends Luca and Alberto. To be honest, before starting this article, I had to look up her name: that’s how forgettable she is. She’s really only used to develop Luca’s character and fuel some conflict.

Characters aside, the plot itself is boring and rushed. How it manages to be both is beyond me.

So how did “Luca” become so popular? Well, simply put, it was by accident. The idea of Luca and Alberto being outsiders while also being extremely close to each other touched the hearts of many LGBTQ+ viewers. Feeling out of place is common for queer youth, and that’s exactly how the boys felt in human society. On top of that, the way Alberto and Luca interact comes off as more than just a platonic relationship. For example, at one part of the film, Alberto gets so upset with Luca for spending time with Guilia that they get in a fight and Alberto ends up outing himself as a sea monster. Tell me that’s not dripping with metaphor and implications!

When asked about “Luca” possibly being a queer story, though, director Enrico Casarosa said, “I was really keen to talk about a friendship before girlfriends and boyfriends come in to complicate things.”

Essentially, “Luca” wasn’t intended to be an LGBTQ+ film, yet the movie’s queer subtext is the reason it got so popular, despite the movie itself being mediocre.

By: Jennifer Alvarado

Phoenix, Ariz.

A movie with nearly no dialogue. You’d be surprised at how your blood runs cold at the sight of it. With a well-known career as an actor, but not as a director, it was easy to be skeptical about John Krasinki’s abilities behind the camera. Nevertheless, he surpassed everyone’s expectations with the horror/thriller movie “A Quiet Place,”  and did it once again with the sequel. 

 In a film bound by the limitations  that come with not being able to make  a sound, it can become easy to rely 

 too heavily on other elements of film- making, but Krasinski uses the perfect  balance of sound, mise-en-scène and  narrative. This, of course, is supplemented by the incredible acting of Emily Blunt, Krasinski, Cillian Murphy,  Noah Jupe and Millicent Simmonds.

The movie, which takes place in a small town, starts with Krasinksi’s character, Lee Abbott, and his deaf  daughter, Regan (Simmonds), walking  to their truck after seeing an unknown  object making its way to Earth. Only  moments after that, we catch our first  glimpse of the terrors in this movie. 

 After some action-packed sequences  featuring the Abbott family struggling  to escape creatures with significantly enhanced hearing abilities and a great number of sharp teeth, we move for-ward in time to day 474, after the tragic events of the first movie transpired. 

Evelyn Abbott (Blunt), along with her three children, Regan, Marcus, and baby Abbott, were forced to continue moving in search of asylum somewhere safe, all while mourning the loss of Lee, who sacri-ficed himself at the end of the first movie.

With the knowledge that Regan’s cochlear implant could produce high-frequency audio that temporarily incapacitates the creatures, the family walks a path surrounded by greenery in every direction. Slow, steady camera movements add to the tension and the constant thought that any sudden noise could alert the creatures to their presence. 

Finally, Regan and a family friend arrive at an island safe from the creatures. Mean-while, Evelyn, Marcus and baby Abbott are at an abandoned steel mAill, trying to fend off the creatures that have made their way into their temporary hiding spot. 

With scenes that display the parallels in the situations the children are in, we see that this entire time, Krasinski was setting the film up to make the kids the heroes, the ones that ultimately use their courage and creative thinking to aid the adults in finding a haven. Whereas in the first movie Krasinski primarily directed his focus to the concept of parents risking and sacrificing everything for their children, he flipped that around and allowed for Simmonds and Jupe to be given the spotlight. 

By: Esmeralda Garcia-Cisneros

La Grange, N.C.

WHEN “Black Widow” was released on July 9, 2021, it quickly was hailed as one of the best movies in theaters in the past few months. “Black Widow” is a positive return to the movies for Marvel, after months of shuttered theaters, and fans are loving it. Many feel that the movie is long overdue, saying that the Black Widow character should have had a movie ages ago. But it’s safe to say better late than never. 

The movie starts with a family moment with Natasha Romanoff (the Black Widow) and her little sister Yelena playing in the backyard, and it moves to a family dinner with their mom and dad. Then the dad says it is time—but time for what? Well, you then see a scene where the family is escaping from cops and getting into an airplane, which lands in Cuba. Soon, their family life is over, and the two sisters are separated.

Like all the other Marvel movies, “Black Widow” emphasizes family and adventure amid efforts to defeat the evil of the world. Natasha confronts the darker parts of her his-tory when she faces off with the cause of all her pain. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her broken relationships from long before she became an Avenger. 

This movie offers more understanding of how this character—popularized in previous Marvel films—got to be who she was. The character of Black Widow is mysterious and exciting, and this movie really summarized her perfectly.