Tomorrow, When the War Began

Great story that is unfortunately started and never gotten back the first instalment. Quite sad really, one of Australia's best novel series. All in all the cinematography is quite good, but acting is so so.

Despite only reading the book series for the first time when I was well out of the 'young' adult age bracket, I adore the books. I was so looking forward to this series but, having now watched 4 of the 6 episodes, I'm really disappointed. I get that things have to be changed to work on television and I get the inclusion of the events happening behind the fence with the families but there are far more changes made than were at all necessary. New sub-plots introduced that add nothing to the story and detract from the overall drama and suspense, as well as changes that would mean the rest of the story (as per the books) couldn't possibly pan out. Despite having the benefit of 6 episodes to work with, the characters aren't developed in a way that makes you empathise with them or care what happens to them and somehow, despite the visual medium, the pace and tension of the book is lost and each episode for the most part drags. Unlike some of the other reviews here, I don't think the acting is terrible, I think it's actually the directing that is at fault - the long, drawn-out shots held on a character are no doubt meant to seem poignant and convey the emotion the character is feeling but instead they feel staged, fake and stilted. Ultimately, this series had huge potential and I feel it failed John Marsden pretty badly.

I read the books as a kid and have good memories of them, although I can't remember enough specific details to draw direct comparisons between them and this TV series. I have read that they have changed certain details, but I am sure those are ultimately minor and irrelevant to the overall quality of this series as they have got the fundamentals of storytelling and character development so badly wrong.

The entire first episode is like a long sequence of short indie music clips tied together. Lot's of slow motion scenes of laughing when they should have been building tension or showing at least some suitable level of character development. The characters all seem to have the same shallow, fake, annoyingly positive, Triple J presenter-esque personality. I found them all completely unmemorable, unlikeable and almost indistinguishable personality-wise from each other.

The multi-cultural cast is also entirely unconvincing as a bunch of Australian country kids. They dress, act and talk like a bunch of city kids. To think that this group of ignorant hipsters would be even remotely capable of starting an armed resistance against an occupying foreign army requires far more suspension of disbelief than I was able to manage. That is, until you see the absolute incompetence of this ridiculous army in action.

They try hard to give emotional weight to particular scenes early on, but they have never earnt these moments. They are superficial and unconvincing, just like this entire production. Everyone involved should be ashamed of their work, except for the camera crew. They actually did some nice work.

I have read the books and seen the movie and absolutely loved them. When I heard that the series was coming out I was quite excited, I thought the void left by the lack of a sequel to the movie could finally be filled. Now after watching the first episode I'm beginning to think that that void will never be filled. I have found it quite utterly disappointing. Just seemed like the scenes of jubilation/slow motion happy happy joy joy were well overdone. Well i guess after hyping it up in my head it was always possible that it might not live up to my exceptions but i didn't think it was possible it would be this bad.

Anyway I will hang in there for the next few episodes *fingers crossed* Please get better.

A great story ruined by a terrible screenplay adaptation. I loved the books & thought that the earlier movie was a very good adaptation of the first book. But by the time I was watching the 4th episode I was laughing at the ridiculously far fetched alterations to the plot. Completely unrealistic scenes that at times reminded me of episodes of either Gilligan's Island, Skippy or even Hogans Heroes. What were the writers thinking?!! So much potential, so little delivery.