Tomorrowland (2015)

  

Bound by a shared destiny, former boy-genius Frank, jaded by disillusionment, and Casey, a bright, optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as "Tomorrowland." What they must do there changes the world - and them - forever.

This one didn't get very good reviews when it first came out but because it stars George (the last great movie star) and was directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles) I wanted to give it a chance when I was far enough removed from it's original release.

 

The villain has a plan right out of Watchmen and that seemed particularly lazy to me. Show me a bad future to change the future? I just didn't get it and it hurts my brain to think about it. In fact so many things are left unexplained in a movie that cries out for SOME explanation.

 

The movie seems geared at telling us at one point that we are exceptional but not exceptional all at the same time. The film is full of nonsense like that.

 

Then giant robot are involved and time travelling tacyon particles - a story thread that never pays off like many other story threads. Why did they make a video in the first place? That is never made clear? Unfortunately I spend too much time thinking of missing plot while watching and that is never good.

 

Lots of Go Go futuristic eye candy but everything somehow just feels hollow. They made jet packs seem frivolous and silly when we all know they are the greatest potential human invention that we will never create.

 

 

The story contains not one element of risk. I never believed that anything but a happy ending was in store for me if not for all the characters. This is Disney after all. Something always dies. Disney is all about motivating characters through the death of other characters. Again, a lazy script choice.

 

 

There are emotions at play here that are not earned through the story. I wanted to care more but I didn't. Everything seems as over designed as Tomorrowland itself. The main relationship is very underdeveloped and that cost a good emotional payoff at the end.

 

George Clooney is George Clooney but he is all over the map in terms of his character. At one second he is a damaged curmudgeon and the next he is a hopeful optimist. Those wild swings just didn't ring true. The final 'solution' to the problem of the end of the world is extremely goofy and again relies on everything to work in the exact way that it randomly had to work for the story to go anywhere and that sucked any and all fun out of this movie for me. The ending was great but that was all of a minute of footage. But it just reminded me of the lost potential of all the came before.

   

 

The road to Tomorrowland is paved with good intentions that leave you wanting much more out of this beautifully designed science-fiction fantasy that expects more out of all of us if Earth is to survive.