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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Tomorrow War (Lorne Balfe)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you relish loud, meaty, and anthemic music of moderate
intelligence for an otherwise brainless concept, Lorne Balfe
occasionally offering smart ideas for the film but succumbing to basic
genre stereotypes.
Avoid it... if you demand thematic consistency from Balfe or a truly satisfying album presentation of those ideas, the score's themes for the human characters a jumbled mess by the end.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Tomorrow War: (Lorne Balfe) In 2048, as
depicted in 2021's The Tomorrow War, humanity's ass is destined
to be kicked by a nasty, spikey white alien species which tears apart
and feasts upon people like fast food. By 2051, most of the world's
population has already been thrashed or eaten, so the remaining bipeds
send soldiers back in time to 2022 to bring people forward to 2051 for
the fight. In perhaps the film's most entertaining flash of originality,
this message arrives via a time portal opening in the middle of the
World Cup. Not surprisingly, most of the people who go off to fight the
aliens in the future are themselves slaughtered, though they do find an
alternative way to defeat the beasts. Integral to the plot is Chris
Platt's lead, Dan Forester, whose daughter eventually leads research
into a biological weapon again the "Whitespike" aliens; the two have the
most meaningful interactions of the film outside of a highly redemptive
and occasionally humorous role for J.K. Simmons as Forester's father.
Despite poor reviews and grumbling response from audiences over its
derivative fight sequences, The Tomorrow War, which was
originally meant as a theatrical Paramount release in 2020, performed
reasonably well in its debut on Amazon's streaming platforms in 2021
instead, and sequel talk immediately ensued. Nobody needed a time
machine to predict that composer Lorne Balfe would write the music for
The Tomorrow War after having successfully collaborated with
director Chris McKay on The Lego Batman Movie and tackling
similar science-fiction concepts in recent years. Balfe can write this
kind of churning, masculine action music in his sleep, and fortunately
for his listeners, he's become increasing proficient in providing decent
highlights in such scores during the later 2010's and early 2020's. In
many ways, this particular entry is a sibling to his overachieving music
for Terminator Genisys, the instrumentation and melodic
structures similar all around. Many of the trademarks of the genre are
evident in the music, though Balfe and several ghostwriters attempt to
infuse more stylish intrigue and narrative grace into this recording,
which was fragmented in its creation due the pandemic of 2020.
To some extent, Balfe and crew's approach to The Tomorrow War continues his satisfying trend towards more intelligence in his formula, but his triumphs here are restrained by a total inability to wrangle his thematic ideas into a cohesive arc. The Whitespike aliens are treated to a consistent musical personality that is among this score's highlights, but the various melodic structures for the human characters are basically functional but intellectually haphazard, perhaps an artifact of Balfe attempting to manipulate his thematic constructs to account for shifting timelines. Casual listeners won't care about such trifles, however, as the composer offers a mostly woodwind-less orchestra in all its beefy glory, low string ostinatos aplenty and brass presenting testosterone-driven phrases of beefy grandeur. A timpani pounds away liberally, a solo cello does its usual Hans Zimmer-inspired things, a piano thuds in the bass akin to Steve Jablonsky's music for the Transformers franchise, and Japanese percussion inexplicably rips away for the aliens. (That last part doesn't make much sense given that they turn out to be from Russia, but, really, does it matter? Still, imagine if Balfe had unleashed an army of overdubbed balalaikas on the baddies.) Synthetic manipulation is common, and electronic pulsations bordering on electronic dance music are relatively common for the disorienting fight sequences, with bass droning on key always in tow. The general tone of these players is oppressive and loud, the mix of damn near every cue presented in your face and unyielding. Expect to keep your volume set low when appreciating this score's album, even in the handful of softer, character-driven cues. The score's disorienting opening recalls Balfe's Geostorm, and the composer can't resist Zimmer's method of developing a long, mindlessly intensifying crescendo and associated bass-dwelling techniques in "Pushing" and "Miami Dolphins Still Suck," neither of which doing much to advance the narrative. The thematic situation for The Tomorrow War is a mess, but Balfe keeps the foundation of his themes similar enough to serve their purpose for most viewers. He arguably creates too many identities based on the same three and four-note rhythmic phrases, leaving the movie with no clear main idea by the end. Three themes clash for supremacy in defining the story of The Tomorrow War, one for Forester, another for his family, and a third for no discernable purpose other than to provide the film with a generically dramatic fantasy anthem. A secondary set of ideas based on cyclical four-note phrases announces the aliens and is more consistently applied. The Forester theme would seem the logical candidate to represent the film as a whole, and yet, it doesn't on screen. Its seven notes (a four-note phrase and three-note answer) is previewed after the action at 1:37 into "Spikes Attack" but is formally developed in "The Tomorrow War." Solemn strings at 0:19 lead to highly repetitive development for several minutes, building in intensity and flourish and eventually offering resounding counterpoint. A two-note bridge phrase jumbles that progression at 2:42 and 4:41, and a lengthy interlude for a pair of ascending three-note phrases serves as a frantic call to action at 2:52, featuring the score's only notable woodwind contributions. The Forester theme returns faintly in the first minute of "Back to the Past," on stoic brass over churning string rhythms at 1:10 into "Goodbye," and with its opening phrase distorted in "So It Begins." Standard action fare for the theme awaits at 0:29 into "The Cube," turning suspenseful at the end. "Colonel Forester" begins with its chords only, strings and brass taking theme at 1:11 and morphing into the bridge sequence at 4:29; this cue does offer a nice combination of the two other themes as needed for the character, Balfe's recognition of the daughter's connection to both Forester and his prior family life. The underlying chords of the Forester theme develop into a separate action motif in "Dan Forester" with obnoxious electronic embellishment, and that pair of three-note phrases becomes the score's separate anthem by its conclusion. This battle-oriented emphasis on anthemic brevity was heard in the score during "The Draft" and the daughter's death sequence, most notably occupying the opening of the end credits instead of the Forester theme. Coming before and after that final performance of the anthem is Balfe's family theme, which utilizes the same general phrase structures as the Forester theme but with longer lines. This idea is arguably the score's best, presented in suite-like form in its militaristic extension in the second third of the end credits. (Don't look for the credits music on album.) The family theme in The Tomorrow War is introduced on somber, keyboarded electronics at 1:55 into "Back to the Past," with descending piano phrases on piano at 2:58 a nice touch. Whimsical strings take the theme at 0:27 into "Goodbye," its underlying chords occupying "Message From the Future." The theme absolutely shines in "Homecoming," its chords building to the theme in satisfying, Terminator Genisys format and highly redemptive with choral hints. Its repetitive intensification and counterpoint affectionately remind of "CheValiers de Sangreal" from The Da Vinci Code. Meanwhile, the theme for the Whitespikes is consistently built with cyclical, four-note phrases. Balfe's use of ghostly voices for the mystery behind the villains is smartly developed in "Multiply," an eerie cue that literally multiplies the four-note phrase in maddeningly deepening layers. The Japanese percussion joins a forceful version of the same four notes at the outset of "Spikes Attack," and "The Whitespikes" offers the same percussion and preceding vocal mystery under string-like exploration of the melody. Later references to the theme are typically meant as teasing reminders of these fuller cues, including a moment in the middle of "The Draft," a prickly synthetic rhythm for the theme in latter half of "So It Begins," a return to the "Multiply" breathiness in "Test Tubes," and a hint of the vocal presence to close out "Colonel Forester." Altogether, these themes are adequate even if those for Forester and humanity don't always make sense in how they are applied to the film. The action anthem comes to dominate the film while Forester's theme is far more pronounced on album. The album presentation is by no means acceptable in that it is missing several important mixes of thematic material that often leaves the superior, more organic versions only on screen. All three parts of the end credits music (symphonic variants of "Dan Forester," Homecoming" at great length, and "Who's With Us") are unavailable on album, and the battle anthem as mixed for the daughter's death scene is also absent. Likewise, the highlighting "Homecoming" cue's percussion seems more pronounced in the film, with the choir dialed out, but the Terminator Genisys-like transition from that cue to the battle anthem for the credits is well handled in the film version. In the end, Balfe offers much to like in The Tomorrow War, but there are disconnects between the themes in context and as presented on album, and some of the action music in between them pounds away anonymously. It's loud, meaty, and anthemic, just as the film required. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 75:24
NOTES & QUOTES:
There exists no official packaging for this album.
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