Tomorrowland A World Beyond
Now I'm going to try and avoid spoilers, because while the twist is sort of obvious, especially in hindsight, its important you follow the journey with the characters. Having someone like me just blurt out whats going on does take something away from the film and I don't want to ruin it.
It didn't do very well in theatres, and has been a slow burn on DVD / Video / Download and there are a number of reasons for it. The trailers had no idea how to market this movie, trying to portray an action adventure film. Oh it's certainly an adventure film but the action isn't as important as the message. Lots of professional critics latched onto that message and didn't like it, accusing the film of being too preachy and pointing out that the solution was too simple for what is a very complicated problem. Ironically that was the argument from the film, it knew the answer sounded simple in principle, difficult in execution but worth it in the end.
But I'm getting ahead of myself, we need to get some context. First of all its based on a Disney theme park ride and that puts you on the defensive immediately. Sure Pirates of the Caribbean was good, at first. It all went down hill quite quickly as it became an overblown mess. Then you have other films with the same principle, like Eddie Murphy's Haunted Mansion, and the alarm bells start ringing. In fact it was because of this I avoided the film in the cinema and despite my curiosity I only picked it up a couple years after it came out. Which was a shame. In truth it takes a really good director, that has the complete faith of the studio, to take a tricky premise and make it work. The co-writer and director was Brad Bird. Skill and faith wasn't the problem, Brad Bird has films like The Iron Giant and The Incredibles under his belt and also did a fantastic job with his first live action film Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol. He'd proven his mettle and the studio backed off just enough to give him the room he needed to tell the story he wanted. Now sure he wasn't alone in writing and Damon Lindelof, he of Lost fame, was also involved but he was just the co-driver. Bird had his hands on the wheel and it was his baby
Next up we have to look at the cast because aside of two big names, George Clooney and Hugh Laurie, the cast is full of relative new comers. Including Britt Robinson (who does have a long list behind her IMDB page but Tomorrowland is her first "big" role) and Raffey Cassidy. Both young girls are fantastic actors that had great chemistry with each other and the rest of the cast. I will be very surprised if the two of them don't go on to have legendary careers. All this together you have a recipe for a very good movie.
So what went wrong? Well like I said, bad advertising, bad reviews. People just didn't get it, word of mouth didn't spread and you had the same problems as DREDD. A great film that just didn't get any traction and slipped between the cracks.
So why am I bringing this all up now. Well two things, first Incredibles 2 is out in the US and I thought it would be a good time. Secondly the relationship between Clooney's character and Robinson's. We first see Clooney as a child inventor, Frank, heading to the infamous worlds fair to show off the Jetpack he'd invented. It didn't quite work as advertised but with some refinements it would. Here we meet Laurie's Governor Nix and Cassidy's Athena.
Athena sees Frank's potential and persuades him not to give up. Instead he follows them both and ends his way to an alternate dimension. A world created by some of the greatest minds across the world as a sort of super think tank. Away from prejudice and politics Tomorrowland gives scientists the chance to do what they do best and create a utopia, filled with amazing technology from flying cars to robots.
We then cut to the present day, around fifty years later and Robinson's character Casey. Casey's father is a NASA engineer and his last job is the decommissioning of the NASA launching pad. Desperate to stop this she goes as far as sabotaging the cranes brought in to pull it all down. Now I'm not going to do a blow by blow recap but already you get the idea. Casey learns that there is an almost magical place, Tomorrowland where everything she hopes and dreams is real. She can even go to space! So inspired she, with the help of Athena, tracks down Frank. Only to discover that something has gone horribly wrong and its up to the three of them to try and stop it before it's too late.
This is where things get interesting. Casey is a young girl, filled with hope for the future and it frustrates her that everyone around seems to have given up. Even her Father, her hero, shrugs his shoulders asking what can he do. Deaf to her screaming; "Anything!" at the top of her voice. It's this same apathy that effects just about everyone They see the world, quite obviously, flying apart at the seams and they're doing nothing about it. Even Frank (now played by Clooney) has given up. Watching a clock count down the seconds until the end of the world. It takes Casey's relentless optimism to break him out of his decades long inaction.
This is my other point Tomorrowland has a distinct similarity to the Last Jedi. Bare with me for a moment and let me explain. A young optimistic protagonist finds a mentor hidden away, isolated from everyone in a form of self imposed exile, and tries to convince them to return to the world they left to save it and teach them what they need to survive. The difference? Tomorrowland does it well! Not only do we see how Casey develops her skills, sabotaging the cranes in the first scenes we see her in, throughout the film she shows intelligence, creativity and resourcefulness. If you want to see how Rey can be done well, creatively and with interest, look no further than Casey here. Same goes for Luke. Make no mistake Mark Hamill is a better actor (in my opinion) he just wasn't given anything to work with. In Tomorrowland Clooney's character is defeated, hopeless and all he can do is watch as the world slides to its inescapable end. Hamill's? We get to see his daily life and he was just as defeated and he doesn't even read the Jedi books. He spends decades alone and does nothing. Not a thing! Frank? We see he continues inventing, everything from hologram projectors to miniature stargates! When the bad guys (because there are always bad guys) attack its revealed that Frank's rigged his whole home with booby traps. The entire place explodes!
And this is sort of the whole point of the review here. On it's own Tomorrowland is nothing special. It's message isn't new, it's plot fairly basic and the result pretty predictable. What make it more than a guilty pleasure and an actually good film is that it's masterfully done. With great performances and direction from start to finish. While you can point out that everything in it has been and will be done elsewhere it's done right here. It's a lesson in how to make good films well and should really get more respect than it deserves.
It's problem is it does get a bit preachy near the end and the solution to the problem does sound a little too simple. The thing is it the answer and as much as you don't want to hear it things are up to us. We can't sit around waiting for the world to change like Luke Skywalker, we have to get up off our backsides and make it change!
If you are looking for a good way to spend a couple of hours or just for something to put on in the background you can do a lot worse.
Tomorrowland
IMDB score:- 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes:- 49%
Thomas's score (the only one that should matter!) 7/10
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