Review: Tomorrowland
"It's not personal, it's programming," a character declares at one point in Tomorrowland. Though the reverse of this statement will be declared by the film's end, "It's not personal, it's programming" is an apt description of Tomorrowland's root problem.
A cynic may well describe Brad Bird's sophomore live-action effort as the most expensive promotional film for Walt Disney's theme land. Tomorrowland also certainly serves as a synergistic tie-in for many of the studio's products and partnerships, with references ranging from the glaringly obvious (Star Wars merchandising abounds in one sequence) to the subliminal (a dialogue snippet recalls Song of the South's "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" tune). That aside, Tomorrowland is beset with narrative issues from second one when George Clooney's Frank Walker attempts to tell this story about the future and is constantly interrupted and criticised by Britt Robertson's Casey Walker, who firmly believes she's better equipped to tell this tale. In all honesty, Tomorrowland may have stood a better chance if the mysterious young girl Athena (the impressive small wonder Raffey Cassidy) had taken the narrative reins. She is far and away the best thing about Tomorrowland.
When we first glimpse the self-possessed Athena, she is approvingly observing the young Frank (Thomas Robinson) as he proudly presents his homemade jet pack to the all-too-aptly named Nix (Hugh Laurie) at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Athena gives Frank a small badge pin bearing the letter "T" and urges him to follow her into the secret realm that is Tomorrowland, where the best and brightest have converged to follow their imagination and better the world.
Almost half a century later, the bright-eyed and hopeful young boy has become a cantankerous scientist in exile when Casey comes knocking on his door. Casey possesses Frank's intelligence and scientific acumen. More importantly, she still has the curiosity and the sense that anything is possible. And she also has the pin, courtesy of the strangely ageless Athena. Together at last, the trio embark on a quest to return to Tomorrowland and, in doing so, potentially save the Earth from self-destruction.
Tomorrowland contains numerous visual tricks. The seamlessness with which Casey finds herself suddenly and instantaneously whisked to Tomorrowland and back is deftly executed. Once at the retro-futuristic magic kingdom, Bird and cinematographer Claudio Miranda have the camera swoop, curve, and launch itself this way and that to absorb the sleek, Calatravan lines of their surroundings. Setpieces such as the Eiffel Tower splitting apart to launch a rocket or an attack on Frank's home that unearths all the gadgets, gizmos, and booby traps are fine examples of how the production team's inventiveness is both retro-forward and tongue-in-cheek. There are individual moments sprinkled throughout the film that work, but they are not enough to offset the film's faults.
Apart from the unwieldy narrative, arguably Tomorrowland's chief flaw, there is the pacing. The rhythm of the film is not quite right - it's either a beat too long or a beat too off. It even manifests itself in the editing, which can be shockingly clumsy at times. Most of the dialogue is yelled, and most of that yelling is done by Robertson, who is a charming and has that Zellweger-like smushy-faced moxie but comes off as an overbearing irritant. Clooney and Laurie both have a naturally engaging way of delivering dialogue, but there is not much either of them can do with dialogue that is either expositional or hokey or both. They also engage in the most awkward mano-a-mano matchup since Hugh Grant tussled with Colin Firth in the Bridget Jones films. Tomorrowland feels engineered to the last pixel - Paris has never felt so generically Paris, all the gee-whiz gawping is so aw-shucks wonderment - and that final five minutes wades deep into Kumbaya territory.
Tomorrowland
Directed by: Brad Bird
Written by: Damon Lindehof, Brad Bird
Starring: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, Thomas Robinson, Keegan-Michael Key, Kathryn Hahn, Tim McGraw, Judy Greer
