Tomorrowland - Review

A rebellious yet glass-half-full teenager (Britt Robertson) is secretly given a pin that grants her a vision to a futuristic utopia. She sets out to locate the city, eventually coming into contact with a kiddie android named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) and a boy genius turned adult hermit (George Clooney). That may sound like a breezy adventure film worthy for families but I forgot to mention its casual swiping of THE TERMINATOR, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, THE ROCKETEER and other better films in order to cover up its own massive shortcomings. TOMORROWLAND is nonessential tripe, spending all of its time and budget on a story that is putrid at best and a message that can easily be gleamed from an average GE commercial. It also does justice to the idiom that those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones; director Brad Bird and his co-screenwriter Damon Lindelof criticize video games,the TRANSFORMERS films and the like for spreading doom and gloom as entertainment despite the fact that their own film features innocents being zapped and explosive mayhem more than the wonderment of scientific/artistic advancement. Heck, even when the characters get to the titled location, the city is in shambles and practically abandoned, now ruled over by a dictator for no real reason given. When it isn't "homaging", the script is riddled with sheer incompetence, crafting scenarios that significantly pad out the film, never explaining why the main heroine is so necessary beyond "she's special", and making all of these so-called intellectual saviors look like total dullards. As an example of the latter, there's a scene where a clear-as-day rocket ship rises up from a famous landmark. As it comes close to her position, Robertson goofily exclaims, "It's a rocket!" There's also a subplot where Clooney rues over his former feelings of Athena that just nearly heads into squeamish territory. Though the film has a few redeeming elements, such as a simulated one-take around the city and a home invasion sequence, TOMORROWLAND is yet another live-action failure for Disney and sadly besmirches the good character of Brad Bird.


FINAL REVIEW: 2 / 5