Review of Tomorrowland (2015) by Spangle — 13 Apr 2017

Often feeling like a modern attempt to rekindle the joy and sense of adventure of 1980s science fiction films, Tomorrowland largely feels like a paltry imitation that has no idea what made those films work. Though capably acted throughout with a compelling premise, Tomorrowland gets too bogged down in the details and forgets to have a good time, instead opting to rush through its conclusion that may have a heart warming message, but really lacks the quality build-up to make it all pay-off. Though fashionable to criticize screenwriter Damon Lindelof for the issues of every film he touches, I have never had that much of a problem with the man. However, Tomorrowland most certainly falters because of its script, though with Brad Bird having a hand in the script and directing the film, the buck stops with him and there are some issues here that should have been stopped from the beginning, ignoring the internal inconsistency that also plagues the film, but could be ignored if the film were better.

This major issue is the fact that the film is two-thirds exposition and character introduction. Introducing us to Frank Walker (George Clooney), his love of inventing, and how he arrived in Tomorrowland with the help of a young girl/robot named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) who recruits dreamers to come to Tomorrowland, the film then introduces us to Casey Newton (Britt Robertson). Explaining everything about their lives, showing pointless backstory about how they love science and invention, and then having Athena and Casey race to meet Frank, it takes a while for the film to introduce its central problem. While some could say they introduce it early when Athena says that Casey is needed to fix Tomorrowland because somebody made something they should not have made, that is merely a foreshadow to what the actual problem is. It is not until two-thirds of the way into the film or so that we actually learn what the problem is: the world is ending. Within half an hour, the disaster is averted due to Casey's optimism and ability to help the world stop focusing on the negative and instead refocus the world on the positive sides of things. How does she do this, you ask? Spoiler: (though a spoiler, it is one that can save you 130 minutes of your life, so I do recommend you read it) she blows it up. Yes, that is literally all there is to it. In order to justify going an extra thirty minutes, there is some fighting between our heroes and chief bad guy David Nix (Hugh Laurie), some fuss about a bomb, and sequences of Casey learning the world will end and freaking out about all of it before saving it and then teaming up with Frank to fix everything and repopulate Tomorrowland with a new set of dreamers. Until this largely cliche sequence that is just filler, there is further filler early on with Frank initially being hesitant to help Casey only to be influenced to help her when he sees guard robots from Tomorrowland following her with the mission of killing her. The film largely goes through the beats of any adventure film about somebody tasked with saving the world and needing the help of somebody who came before them and may or may not have had a hand in creating the present situation. It is a film that has been done many times before and will be made again in the future. For a film that has such an inventive premise, it is a shame to see it just slowly wind up becoming highly derivative and never breathing life into anything.

The script's internal consistency is also a major issue. For example, David Nix says the machine cannot be turned off. Though it is not turned off, it is blown up, which apparently turns it off. Without any explanation as to how the world is saved and rapidly becomes what it once was where people were optimistic about the future instead of afraid of what was to come, everything is fixed. The machine that caused it having the impact it has similarly makes no sense. Allowing the user to see the past, present, and future around the world, it apparently sends radio waves or something out to other dimensions and its mere presence via these waves - even if not tapped into - caused the world to see a bleak future that was coming true via a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or something like that. With regard to the character of Athena, she is incapable of love, emotion, and having ideas, until she loves Frank, has emotions regarding the end of their time together, and has an idea on how to fix everything. Though just minor examples, these do hint to how much this film alters from its 80 minutes of exposition just out of pure convenience or forgetting the fact that it had been previously defined. The film even contradicts things mere moments after it is introduced, which really makes this one incredibly lazily written and inexcusable.