Director: Brad Bird
Cast: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy
Disney's latest, TOMORROWLAND, is set to lose $140 million according to The Hollywood Reporter, and I'm not surprised. If there's a studio that can take a hit like that on an original tentpole, it's Disney. However, if a director like Brad Bird comes to you with an original idea, and George Clooney is attached, you'd probably say yes too.
The film is based on the area of Disneyland - Tomorrowland - based on new technologies, and a better future. Because the film is based on an area of a themepark, rather than a story, the possibilites were endless for what could have been done with this film. Unfortuantely it didn't quite fit the endless possibilities mark, and it was a little bit predictable.
The film begins in 1964, where we meet a young Frank Walker, a boy who still believes anything is possible. Frank meets Athena (Raffey Cassidy), who sees something magical in him and gives him a pin that is a key to a new future. Sadly we don't get to see too much of this magical future, we jump to the present where Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a teenager with a penchant for astronomy, a disregard for authority and a belief that anything is possible, gets the same pin that Frank Walker got in the 60's. This time, the pin only gives her glimpses to the new future before it loses its power.
the magical world Casy sees when she touches the pin
Determined to find out more about the magical place she sees when she touches the pin, she googles it (the only way any of us knows how to work things out anymore) and goes on the hunt to find out more about the pin. She meets robots with lasers, and is rescued by a seemingly ageless Athena, who also turns out to be a robot, and then they both get chased by robots with lasers all the way to now grown up and grumpy Frank's house.
Casey demands Frank take her to this new fancy future, and he refuses, convinced that the whole world is going to end. He sees something in her that he thinks could change the future and so off they go to, well, go and change the future.
Frank has a pretty scary set up to watch the world end
There's ancient rockets blasting out of classic monuments, some great chase scenes and fighting robots, but the script is predictable and the endeing is a bit weak. The plot jumps around quite a lot, and I don't know many kids that would be able to follow along, I certainly found my own concentration wanning, and I spent a decent amount of time clock watching. That's generally a sign for me that a movie isn't good, particularly when it's 2 hours long. If a movie goes for 2 hours and I don't notice, then it's a win for me, but I felt every one of those 120 minutes.
TOMORROWLAND isn't as big of a flop as LONE RANGER was for Disney or JUPITER ASCENDING was for Warner, but it really didn't deliver what it could have - I mean the endless possibilities of the theme, Brad Bird at the helm, George Clooney and Hugh Laurie in the mix - and it didn't deliver what I was expecting. Save your pennies and go and see one of the other terrific films out at the moment. That's what everyone else is doing and that's why TOMORROWLAND is most likely going to run at a loss for Disney.
2 out of 5
xoxo
The Blonde Bombshell
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