While Disney’s Tomorrowland starts off with a lot of promise, building on the anticipation from the trailers, and has a lot of positives in the action packed mid-section of the film, it goes on to find itself at a loss in the final third. It makes for an underwhelming finish with so much excitement before it fizzling out a little in the end, especially with the over-egged messaging that does all it can to inspire without really catching the spirit behind the movie.
The sci-fi fantasy adventure made its way to the big screen on the 22nd May 2015 in both the UK and North America, and with such a strong trailer and George Clooney in the cast, it was always going to be a big draw at the box office. What’s surprising is that it didn’t make it out in 3D, which is a bit of a shame, because some of the closing scenes could have been improved by a little of the pop-out effect.
In terms of stories, it doesn’t get much cooler than finding a gateway into a futuristic land created for creative geniuses, but even here it loses the plot a little, missing the opportunity of retaining the magic inherent in it when it finally becomes a reality for the young hero of the film, Cassie Newton. The single parent family setting makes for a good back story for the rebel as she tries to sabotage the dismantling of a Cape Canaveral launch pad in a bid to save her dad’s job, contrasting well with the sci-fi roller-coaster she’s about to embark on.
It progresses really well until a key Tower-based point in the film where it descends into base extravaganza, which it really didn’t need to do, as it already had us hooked on the scientific magic in the mundane. There’s also a lack of depth to the reality of Tomorrowland that takes away any real semblance of credibility the earlier parts of the story had, leaving it with a flat ending.
The Tomorrowland cast put in some pretty good performances overall with George playing his part as the disillusioned science genius inventor very well and rising star, Britt Robertson (Delivery Man) makes for a captivating heroine. They’re added to with the British charm of Raffey Cassidy (Dark Shadows), who plays the Tomorrowland recruiter Audio-Animatronic robot, Athena, with a lot of skill for her age. Though the character owes a little to Hit Girl from Kick-Ass, Cassidy does very well in making the role feel believable.
There’s also a pretty smart pseudo cameo from Kathryn Hahn (The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty) and Keegan-Michael Key (Let’s Be Cops), who play messed up, assassin Audio-Animatronic robots. They bring a cookie kind of sinister twist to the mid point of the film helping to send it spiraling off with helter-skelter adventure with a brilliant fight scene with Athena in their little Blast From The Past memorabilia store.
The exception to the positives, though, has got to be Hugh Laurie who lacks the bite needed (spoilers) to come across well as the bad guy of the film. He plays David Nix, the leader of Tomorrowland, with meh-like qualities that lack substance, power or serious intention, considering the nature of what his character is actually doing.
If we had to point the finger, we’d have to say that the blame for the deflation of the film has got to sit with director and writer Brad Bird and his co-screenplay script-writer Damon Lindelo, as much as it does with Laurie. Whether they ran out of time, ideas or focus, they weren’t able to deliver the ending to cap off what could have been a great sci-fi outing for Disney, which is a shame, because it was set up so well up until the Eiffel Tower gets pulled into action and the emptiness of Tomorrowland becomes apparent.
Visually, the film delivers some solid eye-candy special effects, it’s shot well and has a good amount of Hollywood movie magic, but without the material needed to deliver the flourish you’d expect. Director of photography, Claudio Miranda (Oblivion), is on form as ever, helping to hone in on the wonder inherent in the futuristic concept behind the movie.
Tomorrowland may well be a little disappointing in the end, but that doesn’t entirely stop it from being an enjoyable movie to watch on the big screen. It’s fun and has a really nice concept behind it with some cool visuals, good characters and some good action. With a more rounded finish, a better bad guy and less Parisian over-exuberance it could have been a classic. It tries hard to inject a little hope and inspiration into the movie going experience, and to a large extent it’s successful, but it overshoots things a little in terms of the overall delivery, despite the fact that it’s heart is definitely in the right place.
Tomorrowland review: 3/5
