Review: “Tomorrowland”

Confuses more than it inspires.

The closest I’ve ever been to a Disney park was watching the great guerilla made movie Escape From Tomorrow. Shot without permission on park property, it’s a mid life crisis fever dream perspective of the amusement up for consumption. It’s a nightmare that I, sad to say, will probably live one day in my 40’s. Something evil lurks behind those Small World ride faces…

That is my POV going in to Tomorrowland.

The latest film from the excellent Brad Bird, whose previous credits include The Incredibles and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, is just short of the amazement and wonder it aspires for. Well, very short, actually. No, the special effects were quite nice, and two sequences in the beginning introducing us to this far off place in space time were near breathtaking.

The Tomorrowland in Tomorrowland is a city in another dimension. A place that exceptional people from Earth (scientists and the like) have created, boundless from the rules and regulations of government, greed and ignorance. It is a place that futurists dream of one day attaining. However, something goes wrong, and a young girl meets with a curmudgeon George Clooney to save the day.

That’s. About. It.

Honestly, I can’t say what is the wrong that happens or how they save the day, as the plot itself is so convoluted and complex that it’s hard to keep focus on the important points. There’s a doomsday clock, if that helps… At one point, Clooney says to the girl “Can’t you just be amazed?”. Sorry, I can’t. Superficial constructs without depth bore and anger me, and should do the same to audiences all over as well — though, I admit that while they “should”, it doesn’t meant they “will”. This is a horrific shame, as Brad Bird CAN produce depth WITH beautiful moments of amazement. He CAN do the business end and the artistic end of filmmaking. Here? Something got lost in the translation, or maybe the original text was faulty, I dunno.

I like to think on the two early scenes where a young Clooney and our lead heroine discover Tomorrowland for the first time. What they (and we) experience is adventurous, exciting, awe inspiring and even whimsical. It’s what this movie should’ve been. Instead, 90% of the time, we get miscast actors, misguided story and themes that criss cross into perplexity.

The young girl sat in class, hearing lecture after lecture about doom and gloom. When she asked “What are we doing about it?”, she gets no response, and ends up learning something worse. When the young Clooney tries to fix an invention, a robot does it for him. “I can do it” he exclaimed previously. Sorry, but I just don’t get Tomorrowland, and I don’t think it gets itself. Maybe I’ll revisit the parks in person when I’m a depressed, alcoholic dad. At least I’ll get some groovy images.

1.5 / 5 *s