Last year I kept seeing the teaser trailer for Tomorrowland over and over. The more I watched it the more I got excited for it. I’m not usually that big on teaser trailers, but this was easily one of the best teaser trailers I’ve ever seen. It showed just enough to get you really interested, but it basically gave no details on the plot. All you really see is Britt Robertson’s character getting ready to leave jail and picking up her stuff and it is the first moment she discovers the pin that shows her Tomorrowland. It is simple, to the point and just really well done. My expectations got really high for the movie, but unfortunately those expectations were not quite met.
The movie is about a teenage girl named Casey Newton (Britt Robertson). She is a very smart girl who is worried that her dad who is a NASA engineer will be out of a job soon due to cutbacks to the NASA program. She has been going to a NASA sight at night trying planting things to keep the demolition from happening. Eventually she is caught and sent to jail. When she is bailed out an orange and blue pin with a big T on it is with her stuff. She picks it up and it lets her see a place called Tomorrowland. Eventually the pin stops working and she does some research and finds a guy named Frank Walker (George Clooney) who she thinks can get her to Tomorrowland.
The first problem I had with the movie is the original teaser itself. The teaser really makes you want to see Tomorrowland and it kind of makes you think that the actual place of Tomorrowland is going to be a big part of the movie. Unfortunately a good portion of the movie is just about Casey trying to get there. I’m okay with that to a point although I think most people are going to be pretty let down when they realize that Tomorrowland isn’t exactly the main location where the movie takes place for the majority of the time. I’m really hoping that Disney wasn’t just using this movie as some type of ploy to get people to go to the Tomorrowland theme park in Orlando. The movie doesn’t exactly come off as if that is it’s agenda, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if that was the scheme.
The performances are good and the cast does a decent job carrying the movie. Britt Robertson as Casey is a very optimistic teen who is inundated in school with all the talk about climate change and a possible world war that could happen at anytime. When she finds out about Tomorrowland it is kind of a revelation to her and gives her hope for the future. George Clooney plays Frank Walker who is kind of an old curmudgeon who doesn’t want anything to do with Casey or with helping her get to Tomorrowland. The chemistry between Clooney and Robertson works well enough and it kind of reminded me of Clooney’s breakout role in From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) and how he interacted with the kids in that movie.
The movie plays off mostly as a mystery around Tomorrowland which works pretty well probably due to the fact that it was partly written by Lost writer Damon Lindelof. The optimistic nature of the movie is where I think it works best. It reaches back into your childhood when you use to think there would be jet packs and flying cars in the future. Obviously for those of us who are adults that hasn’t exactly happened. This movie kind of plays with that idea and sort of gives some reasons for why they didn’t happen. Honestly the movie does this in a very broad way which makes me think this script wasn’t completely thought out to it’s full potential. The story is a little too messy for it’s own good.
I think the way they went with this movie works for the most part, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was pretty underwhelmed by it. The movie is about interesting things that mankind is capable of, but it shows the potential for mankind in a very surface level way and with very broad strokes. I really enjoyed the gadgets the characters use throughout the movie although most of that only takes place in one scene. Overall I think Tomorrowland is a decent movie, but I also think most people are going to be walking out of the theater somewhat disappointed as if it didn’t fully deliver on the promise of the original teaser.
Dave’s Rating- ★★★(3) out of ★★★★★(5)
