Review by Dana Jung
Of all the “lands” at Disneyland/Disney World (the others are Frontierland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland in case you’ve forgotten), Tomorrowland holds the most promise to an impressionable youth. With visions of Buck Rogers rayguns and Jetsons flying machines, the park promises more than it delivers, with its slow “people-movers” and static displays of smart homes and fashions of the future. Except for Space Mountain—a truly incredible roller coaster ride—this park is at once the most visually stimulating, and the most unexciting. The new film TOMORROWLAND shares some of these qualities, but is the end result a wild coaster ride of a popcorn movie, or a rehash of stale ideas about a utopian future?
Britt Robertson (UNDER THE DOME, THE LONGEST RIDE) plays Casey, a smart and capable teenager living in a single-parent household consisting of her caring father (TIM MCGRAW) and not-so-annoying little brother (PIERCE GAGNON, who ironically plays a robot on TVs EXTANT). After a rather long build-up, Casey discovers an “enchanted” coin that launches her on an adventure that is an amalgam of chases, fights, rockets, spaceships, inventions, humanoid robots, roboty robots, and a lot of talk about the future, while also managing to name-drop Tesla, Edison, and Verne. But as the film navigates through several nicely staged action scenes, it also entreats us to consider the world as it could be– if we only could find the best in ourselves. Robertson is a pleasant lead, showing equal amounts of smarts and spunkiness. Along the way she meets Athena (British actress Raffey Cassidy) and a scruffy, disgruntled Frank (George Clooney).
While the three eventually travel to Tomorrowland together, the movie tells their three stories separately in varying degrees. And therein lies part of the disappointment with the film. Because, even though nobody does irascible like Clooney, his importance to the overall plot is secondary. And his chemistry with Robertson, on which a large part of the storyline focuses, at times seems forced. Young Cassidy, on the other hand, practically steals the movie as a girl from the future with many secrets. Her part of the story starts out as rather a lark, but ends up being the most heartfelt.
Director and co-writer Brad Bird has a track record of creating certifiable modern animation classics with IRON GIANT, THE INCREDIBLES, and RATATOUILLE. His switch to live action with MISSION IMPOSSIBLE GHOST PROTOCOL is arguably the best film in that series. However, with TOMORROWLAND, Bird and fellow co-screenwriter Damon Lindelof (LOST, STAR TREK, PROMETHEUS), from a story by Lindelof, Bird and Jeff Jensen, have mirrored the theme park namesake in creating high expectations with mixed results. Just as if we were visiting Tomorrowland at Disney World, the anticipation based on the trailers of the wonders of technology and innovation in the world of tomorrow, sets our heads to spinning. There is one sequence in particular, where Tomorrowland is introduced in earnest, that is both magical and inspiring.
The fact that this portrait of the future turns out to be something of a ruse does not diminish its breathless sense of wonderment. In fact, it could almost be viewed as a summation of everything Walt Disney envisioned for his world of the future. And, as it turns out, this is pretty much what the filmmakers intended. There is a rather long soliloquy that, even though it’s delivered by the main villain of the film, actually sounds as if most of it could have been written by Walt himself and lifted right out of a Disneyland employee manual. The ideals that Walt Disney espoused, not only about vision and innovation, but about who we are as human beings on this planet, are alive and well in this mostly enjoyable summer action movie. I can only think that Walt would have approved.
3 of 5 stars
