Review of Tomorrowland (2015) by Kapten V — 14 Dec 2016

A former boy-genius (George Clooney) and optimistic teen girl really good at science (Britt Robertson) try to save our world. In order to do that, they will have to travel to futuristic parallel world.

A family movie unlike any other. It's has action, effects, verve, exciting concept... It also has ambition and something meaningful to say. And putting young two girl heroes (one's a robot!) in the centre of the story was quite refreshing. But all in all, the movie is so uneven that I can't fully recommend it.

"Tomorrowland" feels never elegants script-wise and the acting style seems kind of hammy (I think it's intentional). But the first act, or about 45 minutes, is really catchy.

A lot is happening then, movie is chock-full of ideas how to take us on a visual joyride. New things are coming in like flood, often way before we are finished enjoying the previous things.

The parallel world is quite cool too, think Luc Besson's cult classic "The Fifth Element" (1997) in a Disney remix. Too bad we get to see actually so little of it.

But from during the second hour, I really started feeling disappointed of seeing so much material to build on (both story and the world) but makers choosing to fill the time with endless mediocre mindless action. The second half turns out to be a bit of a drag, especially final "battle". The movie should really be shorter. Not to mention wasting the message part of the movie, being just "Facebook deep".

Brad Bird is known for near-flawless directing career so far. He is the man behind three animations ("The Iron Giant", "The Incredibles", "Ratatouille") and "MIssion: Impossible 4", all well regarded in their genres. But "Tomorrowland" is messy, having too much material and not knowing where to put all of it.

Maybe it was a mistake for Bird to write screenplay with Damon Landelof, the creator of "Lost" which also started strong and ended having way too much of everything.

"Tomorrowland" is based on the Disney amusement parks' areas of the same name, by the way. Just like "Pirates of the Caribbean".