The new teen movie Tomorrow When The War Began has done well at the Australian box office in its very first month of release
. The film is based on the first of various books in a series with the same title. They had been written years ago by writer John Marsden for the young adult reading audience and have turned out to become part of the English curriculum in most high schools in Australia. That's what has contributed to the book's reputation, as teenagers that had to read it at school fell in love with the book and couldn't wait for the movie to be released.
This film was produced in Australia with the majority of the young actors from the movie being young Australian actors who have gained reputation in Australian soapies like Home and Away and Neighbours, to mention a few.
It has had mixed reactions from the public. Most have mentioned how much they enjoyed the motion picture and how Stuart Beattie, the writer who adapted the book into a movie, has kept towards the basic account in the book. Other folks have mentioned they didn't like the minor adjustments he produced as well as the additional parts he incorporated into the movie.
Having seen the motion picture myself, I can say that the movie does stick mainly to the original account in the book; the slight adjustments that have been produced had to be made in order to tell the story in the time frame of 104 minutes.
The film is the account of seven teenagers who go camping for a weekend although the annual Commemorative Day celebrations are on in their rural house city of Wirrawee. They emerge from their trip to discover their city has been invaded by an unknown enemy force with their households being deserted and families held captive at the showground. The movie then goes on to show how the teenagers need to band together to fight guerrilla style against this enemy force so that you can attempt to save their city and their families.
The motion picture does an excellent job of showing how younger adults react and cope when thrown into a terrifying circumstance and how they deal with all the tension and strain that a circumstance like this creates. When they are pushed to their limits they turn out to be really enterprising in the way they try to impede the enemy forces' stronghold on their town.
This is really a coming of age film as the teenagers need to grow up real quick in order to survive the conditions they now discover themselves in. The film has been extremely popular with Australian audiences as evidenced by its massive box office earnings and is certain to become one of the finest films to come out of Australia.