Tomorrowland: A World Beyond
Cert: 12A / 130 mins / Dir. Brad Bird / Trailer
And so, the House of Mouse jump into the fray with a live-action, original composition which isn't part of an existing franchise, something they've often had trouble with in the past. Inspired heavily by the Disney ethos of optimism, community and progress towards utopia, it's easy to dismiss the film as part fluff-piece and part adventure-by-numbers - especially if the trailers are all you're going off.
I was pleasantly surprised, however, as the film itself is a lot more confident and slick than those promos had suggested, opening with a George Clooney narrated, 1964 sequence which is part Joe Johnston's Rocketeer and part Howard Stark. Once the film works into the present day we're on more familiar ground, but it never loses that sense of adventure, thanks in no small part to central performances from Clooney as despondent inventor Frank Walker, Britt Robertson as his young charge Casey and Raffey Cassidy as Athena, an ageless
All credit to Disney for taking a very traditionally structured story and keeping it family-friendly without kiddy-fying too much. The potential is there for a much darker film (and in the right hands, arguably a much better one), but despite a few broad questions on the nature of fatalism, the closest we get to apocalyptic grit is a very Douglas Adams-esque subplot about an 'A-Ark' of creatives, scientists and engineers. The only real downside is that the film often seems to pleased with the mechanics of its own plot that it loses sight of the flow of it, leading to quite a bump for the audience when things are put back on track.
Fans of schlocky sci-fi, dimension-jumping and big adventure should enjoy Tomorrowland on a level enough to make it worth the watch. The film gets quite preachy in its third act, but its heart's in the right place, and I'll be interested to see what they do with a sequel.
And there'd better be a sequel, otherwise this has been a very expensive marketing exercise just to sell badges…
As much as I enjoyed it, I'm not sure that it is.
You probably won't get too many watches out of it until more installments come along, so a rental until it's cheap on the shelf.
Britt Robertson holds her own among the cast, and I haven't seen George Clooney having this much fun since From Dusk Till Dawn.
It does, but in a very round/about sort of way.
Nah.
Not that I heard.
As well as featuring a scene in a sci-fi memorabilia store packed (packed) with Star Wars merchandise old and new, Tomorrowland stars George Clooney, who appeared in The Men Who Stare At Goats alongside Ewan 'Kenobi' McGregor.
^^ That's a strong five, but a five nonetheless.
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