Saturday, May 23, 2015

Review of TOMORROWLAND: Overwrought Optimism

May 23, 2015




In 1964, Frank Walker was a child genius who bravely showed up at the World's Fair, bringing a crude jetpack he had invented by himself. In 2015, Casey Newton uses her own mechanical inventions to try and delay the dismantling of NASA platforms at Cape Canaveral. A mysterious little girl named Athena chooses both of them to receive a pin inscribed with a letter T, a touch of which brings them to a magical futuristic wonderland. With Athena's intercession, Walker and Newton cross paths in the present day in an effort to emancipate this "Tomorrowland" from the negative forces which control it.

From the trailer alone, we know "Tomorrowland" would be an extravagant visual treat. And that it really was. From meticulously recreating the 1964 World's Fair with its retro fashion and quaint technology to imaginatively envisioning a metropolis of the future with its outlandish architecture and snazzy hovercrafts, this film is a masterpiece of production design. An old wooden farm house becomes a high-tech ironclad fortress. A store in Houston becomes a treasure trove of pop culture memorabilia, a true blast from the past. And best of them all, the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris becomes a sparkly and spectacular rocket launch station! 

Visuals alone though do not a great movie make. The way director Brad Bird tells it, the story goes through 130 minutes of convoluted loops and elaborate turns. The first act was slow and long-winded, with so many fancy stunts that led nowhere. The second act when Franky and Casey get together was the best and most exciting part of the film. I forgot my dissatisfaction of the first act, and felt the rising tension so effectively built. Disappointingly, whatever momentum was created by the second act got eroded away by an overlong and even tediously anti-climactic third act. I could not wait for it to end, but the end was not coming soon enough.

Since his two main co-stars are relative newcomers, the talent and experience of George Clooney were essential to bind this whole rather messy bundle together, and he does so effectively. Clooney plays his disillusioned genius character Frank Walker as a gruff curmudgeon, and he was charming and funny. 

Britt Robertson has been acting for 15 of her 25 years and this lead role as Casey is her biggest break. I do not know if it is her acting or the way her character was written, but she did not succeed to have me rooting for her Casey.  She came across as too sassy and smart-alecky for comfort. Aside from optimism, what exactly is Casey's dream? We were not clearly told. Her closeness with her father is only implied but not elaborated. It seemed too easy for her to just run off to another state without seeking her father's permission. This was bothersome from a parent's point of view.

Child actress Raffey Cassidy fares much better in her role as Athena. We had seen her delightful pixie face before as the young Eva Green in "Dark Shadows" and the young Kristen Stewart in "Snow White and the Huntsman." Here she had good chemistry with Thomas Robinson, the actor playing the young Frank Walker, as well as with Clooney as the old Frank. It is just too bad that her character was not developed too clearly. When her climactic dramatic moment came at the end, we fail to emotionally connect with it

Hugh Laurie was given the thankless role of Nix, the leader of Tomorrowland whose motivations are unclear and do not really make any sense in the final analysis. This underwritten antagonist character was certainly one of the factors why the story did not fly.

Since his auspicious animated feature film debut "The Iron Giant" (1999), Brad Bird had consistently given us top-notch films: "The Incredibles" (2004), "Ratatouille" (2007) and the live action "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" (2011) are all excellent. Audacious as it may seem on the surface, "Tomorrowland" is Bird's most disappointing project to date. 

Of course, as this is a Disney movie, we are expected to approach this film with childlike idealism, flawed as the underlying message may be. Optimistic dreamers are the ultimate saviors of the world.  For me, "Tomorrowland" was not able to sell that idea too well. 

It concentrated too much in developing grand images guaranteed to awe and amaze us, hoping that the poorly-told story will not matter so much. Frank Walker did have a line that went, "Can't you just be amazed, and move on?"  For young kids, maybe because they will not really understand what is going on. For most adult audiences though, they will see through the smoke and mirrors and feel oddly empty after the final (supposedly inspirational) scenes. 5/10.


20 comments:

  1. i didn't like this too! had high expectation of the movie when i watched the trailer but it turned out almost... bad. i had a hard time swallowing the ending they forced it down on us.

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  2. My friend were all advising me against this film! So I'm not going to waste my time to watch it. It didn't attract me in terms of cast, title nor trailer! So three nos = Out!

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  3. Honest review here Sir. Good thing you shared that the film is slow-paced and lots of unwanted scenes. Baka makatulog agad si misis nyan.

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  4. Every film has its own plot and concept to follow. This is a fantasy or sci-fi movie and audience need the understanding of it to fully enjoy the film. I'll try to watch this if it's true for other commenters.

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  5. The fact that this is a George Clooney film convinced me to watch it, but seeing the review made me almost change my mind. Almost because I’m still thinking of giving it a shot.

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  6. Curious with how Hugh Laurie will fare. I thought this movie was not good at all, but if you say Clooney displays wit and experience, then I just might give in to my hubby's request to see this.

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  7. didnt get to watch this but so many ppl give bad review ><

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  8. Thank you! I mean, my friend was telling me to watch this with him but it didn't really convinced me. Even by the poster, I find it boring (& confusing). Thanks you made a review about this. I'll show this to him and tell him that Age of Adaline is more worthy. Haha!

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  9. A great review - but not a great score for the film. The only George Clooney films I have ever enjoyed are the Ocean's 11 films.

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  10. Thank you for the review Fred! Hubby will watch this because he is a Clooney fan and I must say I'm intrigued and wouldn't mind taking a shot at it. The girl looks like one of the actors from Under the Dome.

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  11. ive never actually watched any george clooney films before. may be i should start watching his movies. may be not this

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  12. I've heard a lot of negative reviews about this movie. I'd still want to see it because of George Clooney. :)

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  13. I was high on this one because it's among Disney's attractions in Disneyland. I guess they may have rushed in coming up with the story so it ended up not fun for the adult crowd.

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  14. This one's just sad. I always look forward to Disney movies because tgey usually are inspiring and very personally touching. Too bad this one is too disappointing for you.

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  15. I had really high hopes for this movie and took the kids to watch it. While they liked it I was really disappointed. Wish I could get that 2hrs of my life back.

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  16. don't sound too fab. even george cloony can't save the day hurh.... and it seems, reading the comments here your rating was already quite generous Fred... but I do like eye candies!!

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  17. I will soon watch this its all because I have huge crush on George Clooney. But when i get to watch this i will try my best to understand the movie itself and not just stare at george clooney,lol

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  18. The reviews are mix, some said it great and some so so, overall I thinking its cool and sun to reach bangsar

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  19. Didn't watch this as many of the reviews were bad.. Not gonna waste time/money on it :p

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  20. I won't watch this either. I usually watch movies for the story not for the cinematographic effects or whatever. So thanks for the heads up on this one. Saves me money. :D

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