[rating=5.00]
Tomorrowland feels less like a cohesive movie than it does a mish mash of decent ideas desperately in search of a story. Wild and fun concepts are thrown into a blender and spun around until mixed well, and while the resulting concoction looks rather appealing, it doesn’t quite leave you satisfied, and the aftertaste is sort of difficult to wash away.
Disney has been doing a remarkable job of cannibalizing itself in recent years, starting with the surprise hit that was Pirates of the Caribbean. This modern foray into live action was scoffed at originally—how can they make movie out of a ride?!—but its success inspired an entire new direction for the studio. From there, they’ve begun remaking/reimagining their successful animated films into live action spectacles like Maleficent, Cinderella, and the recently announced Mulan. And now? Well, if you can make a successful movie out of a single ride, then imagine the movie you can make from an entire section of your theme park!
Admittedly, it’s been a couple of decades since I stepped foot in a Disney theme park, but I remember the Tomorrowland of Disney World as a sort of time capsule—a non-updated rendition of what people in the past imagined the future would look like, creating a futuristic retro-chic that wasn’t without its charms. In its own way, Tomorrowland manages to capture that vibe, creating an image of another world that’s steeped in historic sci-fi tropes updated for modern audiences that’s also not without its charms.
The story begins—after an abrupt and awkward introductory sequence—in 1964, with a young boy, Frank, making his way via bus to the World’s Fair in New York. History buffs out there will remember this as the World’s Fair that saw the introduction of another legendary Disney Land attraction, It’s A Small World, a detail that’s not without relevance. Frank wants to enter an invention—a jetpack he built out of an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, because of course—into the science fair in order to win the coveted $50. There, he meets a hard-headed, cold-hearted judge named Nix (Hugh Laurie) and a mysterious little girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy). Nix nixes Frank’s invention (based solely on the unreasonable logic that it doesn’t work) though Frank’s enthusiasm catches Athena’s eye. Despondent over his loss, a sulking Frank goes a-sulking, only to be met by Athena, who gives him a mysterious pin that gains Frank entrance into Tomorrowland, a fantastic world full of science and imagination.
Flash-forward to modern times, we meet Casey Newton (Britta Robertson) a rebellious young girl who wants nothing more than to prevent the impending demolition of the Cape Canaveral launching site where her dad works. Due to reasons unexplained, her actions and passion catches the eye of a mysteriously unaged Athena, who sneakily makes sure that Casey receives one of her magic pins to wonderland—err, Tomorrowland. Come to find out, the Tomorrowland we were introduced to has fallen into a state of fascistic despair; their technology now not only threatens their world, but ours as well, and the only way to stop it is for Casey to team up with Frank who, luckily for him, grew up to be George Clooney.
On paper, this all sounds pretty amazing. At the very least, it’s intriguing. Unfortunately for Tomorrowland, and the audience, it was written by Damon Lindelof, a writer whose body of work gets more and more frustrating as his career grows. Lindelof is a writer whose scope and ambition is higher than his reach, and how he continues to find work is utterly beyond me. The script meanders and warbles its way through an overly convoluted structure to an entirely unfulfilling last act that’s almost completely devoid of heart. It’s only by the grace of director Brad Bird that the movie is able to retain some semblance of originality and imagination.
But wow, if Bird’s vision doesn’t soar on the big screen. He’s proven himself to be capable of producing imaginative animated films with The Iron Giant and The Incredibles and even his only other live action effort, Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol showcased his ability to translate larger than life ideas into a visual medium. This is a trend he absolutely continues with Tomorrowland, cementing his place among modern directors who seem poised to lead the next wave of creative filmmaking.
Clooney is, of course, brilliant as ever. He’s the kind of actor whose presence serves as a kind of elevator, turning a bad movie into an okay one and a good movie into a great one. His charisma and charm is apparent in every second of his screen time, and serves as the perfect jaded foil to his young co-star’s optimism. Indeed, that seems to be the point. Frank has long since given up hope for the world; Casey is nothing if not full of optimism. In another writer’s hands, this message might have felt a bit more urgent, as it’s a wonderful theme to play with.
Because no matter how great the performances or direction might be, the screenplay is the foundation upon which all movies are built. And while there are some funny and exciting moments to be found in Tomorrowland, it’s hard to overlook the flaws. The film is overly long at 2 hours and 10 minutes, mostly due to the convoluted structure mentioned earlier, there’s no real antagonist—Nix, we’re told, has become a tyrannical dictator but we never really see that so I guess we’ll just have to take their word for it—and all of the forward momentum feels, at best, contrived: Athena is being chased by people because…uh…well, I’m sure there’s a reason; Frank was expelled from Tomorrowland due to his…um…I don’t know…whatever, man.
The problem with Tomorrowland is not that it’s a bad movie, it’s that it’s a remarkably unimpressive one that almost completely wastes its entire potential. Almost being the key word there. Moments of fun and originality pop up here and there, keeping your interest piqued just enough to get you to the next cool visual. It’s not enough, though, to save the movie from itself and it very nearly collapses under its own weight.
Tomorrowland is in theaters now.
