Tomorrowland

"What year is it?" "It's the future!!!"

Tomorrowland is a Disney live-action film and the first to be largely based upon an actual section of the Disneyland theme park, rather than the ride-based movies we've seen before (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion of Eddie Murphy's career). Disney really raised the stakes with this one. They didn't reveal too much within the trailers months before release, and honestly, going into it, even I didn't know much about it. I knew that George Clooney was in it and it dealt with a futuristic alternate-reality, and that's mostly it.

The film largely follows the stories of Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a young teenage science whiz as she stumbles upon a pin with a large blue T embossed upon it. Whenever she touches said pin, she sees another world, with much more futuristic features than her current one. After the pin runs out, she embarks on a journey to find out where it came from. Along the way, she meets Athena (Raffey Cassidy), an android recruiter sent back to the present to find the best of the best in the science and creative world, who gave the pin to Casey because she proved to have the stuff needed. Athena takes Casey to Frank Walker (George Clooney), who originally was taken to Tomorrowland way back when he was a boy and was a large part in the help of creating the actual place.

After a trip to Paris (and a rocket ship ride coming out of the Eiffel Tower), the crew eventually finally find themselves in Tomorrowland once again, where they come face to face with the antagonist of the film, David Nix (Hugh Laurie), who eventually reveals his plan to blow up the planet Earth and keep Tomorrowland to himself. Together, Casey, Athena, and Frank detonate the monitor that was keeping Nix's plan alive, killing Nix in the process. And afterwards, the group rebuilds Tomorrowland to live a long and foreseeable future.

Disney keeping everything secret wasn't really a good idea, because I feel largely let down by this movie. Going based upon the trailer alone, I was ready for a futuristic sci-fi action fantasy movie, with tons of beautiful CGI and interesting inventions abound. Instead, you're given a much over-exhausted spiel about how the earth is (and I'm not trying to give away too much here for those who still want to see it), and that is very unsatisfying. When Tomorrowland is shown in its full glory, however, it is beautiful, and I can't complain about many of the fight scenes and the choreography within them. That aside, the plot isn't very intriguing, and it feels rushed sometimes. It's more about the journey to Tomorrowland, rather than the actual destination.

Even with a mediocre plot, the casting is very good. George Clooney was, as always, the star of the film. One of the things I was most afraid about was the fact that Clooney might not seem very interested in the project, but he actually conveys his character well. The emotions are there, the genuine awe and anger is there. Clooney really pulls it off well, and if you go see this movie just for him, you will not be disappointed. Britt Roberson is an aspiring young actress, and she exercises her chops well in this role, and the same can be said for younger child actress Raffey Cassidy. I found myself in many scenes waiting for Athena to say something, because of how good Cassidy is at this. But for every good character, there's always one horrible one, and I'm saddened to say that the horrible one here is Hugh Laurie as David Nix. Nix doesn't feel like an antagonist often. When he greets the main characters, he does it very politely and in a nicer manner, which is odd, considering that the movie builds him up to be some mastermind dictator or something, and when he does show his fangs...it isn't all-out villain, rather he just feels like the guy in the group who disagrees with the larger consensus. Not a very good antagonist at all.

Honestly, I'm going to have to give Tomorrowland a 3 out of 5 stars. Aside from casting and visuals, the plot is rather rushed and confusing at times, and feels like a rather large letdown. I know that Disney knows better than this, and perhaps we can get something better out of their future works.