Review of Tomorrowland (2015) by Dillinger P — 14 Jan 2016

Galloping into his second live action film, after the popular Ghost Protocol, Brad Bird attempts to raise the bar and expectations of his film making style to frighteningly high new levels. Although this is a bold move on his part, Tomorrowland sadly drops the ball far too often and ends on such a rubbish note, that any interest or enthusiasm we have placed in the first act, comes tumbling down, extremely quickly.

When Casey is arrested for constantly braking into a NASA launch pad to foil their attempts to deconstruct the project, she finds a bizarre badge that when touched only by her, whisks her off to another world, a world of vast possibilities and superior technology.

So intrigued by this, she goes on a road trip across the states to find out what it all means and soon finds herself teaming up with a bizarre little girl and a scientific genius, who has decided to become a hermit, in order to out run a group of robots sent to stop her.

And as interesting as the start of that synopsis sounds, much like its tail end, Tomorrowland just doesnt hold up its end of the bargain for very long. To give it credit, Bird is a huge talent, capable of not only creating some blisteringly jaw dropping worlds but also managing to craft live action sequences that feel close to impossible.

Tomorrowland has a wealth of dizzying moments in its first 2 acts, that will have you gasping for air, purely based on the balletic movements of the camera, its fun, its fluid and fast. And the lead performance by Britt Robertson is also just that, a brilliant actor, left to guide the audience through this mess, she does a wonderful job, however even she cant save its completely incoherent plot.

There's a whole bunch wrong with Tomorrowland, firstly the story makes no sense, although you wont pick up on this until its dying moments, Bird will have you constantly intrigued about where he is about to take you, the problem is when you get there its the same nonsense were used to.

Annoyingly he spends so much time with the first act, presumably because he knows just how preposterous the film gets as soon as our hero's get to Tomorrowland that it crash lands on the new world, rather than gracefully swoop in.

Yet again, Bird is over reliant with CGI, with so much of this world being animated, the sense of immersion is so alienating. Which is a shame because some of the effects work is pretty well executed.

It also steals heavily from previous science fiction outings, The Matrix, being the one that resonates all too often. Hugh Laurie and George Clooney are both tremendous actors, but here I just dont buy their casting, I dont buy they in what their roles becomes and I do not buy Raffey Cassidy as the wooden and boring Athena.

Its a one woman show in a film that gets the ball rolling furiously and gives up before even reaching its destination. Bird continues to prove he can film and execute well directed set pieces, but the script and casting choices screw him over time and time again, its not a complete car crash of a movie, but the bar is set frighteningly high for weak material and a film maker who should probably get a few more movies under his belt before attempting something of this magnitude.