A tad too long and not entirely convincing in its drama, The Tomorrow War nevertheless succeeds as a sci-fi action thriller that re-establishes Chris Pratt’s standing as a new-era action star.

An amalgamation of World War Z and Edge of Tomorrow while not quite reaching the quality of those two films, The Tomorrow War is a worthy entry in the ever-expanding list of time travel movies. Director Chris McKay (The Lego Batman Movie) makes quite the impression with his first live-action film, with the action scenes and creature feature elements giving the film its genre bona fides, made even more so by the action man heroics of Chris Pratt.

Pratt stars as Dan Forester, an Iraq War veteran who now works as a science teacher to provide for his wife Emmy (Betty Gilpin) and daughter Muri (Ryan Kiera Armstrong). Their world is thrown into turmoil when humans from the year 2051 travel back in time with a plea for help to fight a future war against mysterious predators that have almost devoured humanity. When a worldwide conscription is announced, Dan is drafted into battle once again, this time fighting for the future of his family.

Pratt’s action hero stylings are brought to the fore here, blending his goofball charm with locked and loaded kick arsery that is especially prevalent during scenes of urban warfare in a future world gone to hell. Not so convincing are the moments of family drama that is the core of a film that, at 220 minutes, would work better with less time invested in “daddy issues” psychology. Emotional stakes are a plus when it comes to end of the world scenarios, yet the drama in The Tomorrow War lacks depth and definitely lacks chemistry between Pratt’s on-screen family.

Picking up the slack is McKay’s handle on the visual side of things. The time-travel sequence are thrilling in look and unpredictability, as scores of people are plucked from the present and literally dropped into an unsuspecting future. Great too are the creature designs for a ferocious species that are intelligent, ferocious, and hellbent on devouring the human race.

McKay expertly plays with expectation throughout The Tomorrow War to create an engaging, and often surprising, time travel action movie, yet one that relies on shallow deep emotional drama that fails to add to a visually strong and well performed creature feature.