** Tomorrow, When the War Began (2011)

If this Aussie teen action/adventure had been made 20 years ago, they might have had a bit of a hit on their hands, but as it stands, the audience for this kind of filmmaking has long since vanished (or more accurately, simply grew up). A critic suggested that it made Red Dawn look like a documentary by comparison, a slightly mean-spirited comment that isn’t, however, too far off the mark. Tomorrow is a film that stumbles under the weight of far too much fiddling by the director, excessive pyrotechnics and a script that had potential, but plays to every cliche in the manual… twice. Everything in Tomorrow, When the War Began, from its tense-challenged title to its sequel-baiting finale is excessive and bloated.

In the right hands, with a complete reworking of the overly-convoluted script, this could – and should – have been a stripped-down action film about several late-teen girls coming to terms with an unseen threat, rising to the challenge of overcoming it, and having to grow up in an instant to survive. A disappointing film that completely misses the zeitgeist moment we are currently experiencing – the rise of dynamic young women to the forefront of our society.

…and they’re leaving the boys in the dust.