Tomorrowland (AKA Tomorrowland: A World Beyond)

Dir: Brad Bird

2015

**

I think any film that is essentially based on a theme park is going to be a tricky idea to sell but Brad Bird's Tomorrowland isn't half as bad as it could have been or indeed as it's initial box office takings would suggest. It's no masterpiece though. Loosely based on ideas Walt Disney had in his later years of an experimental prototype community of tomorrow (EPCOT for short) and influenced by childhood dreams and inspiration felt by many during 1964's New York World fair (indeed, many a western country had their own version during the 50s and 60s). It's a pretty neat idea based on a pretty neat idea. The visual effects, re-creation of the World Fair and the way the rides and attractions of the land found at all of the Disneylands are featured is very impressive. However, stylistically it looks a little bit disjointed, like there were two teams of designers working on the same film, which is probably the case, it's just that the opposing styles don't always fit together that well, the past's vision of the future looking far more futuristic than the future's, for example. The same can be said of the script and story. The George Clooney character's origin story is cartoonish and became incredibly tiresome quite quickly while Britt Robertson's character is handled in a far more mature and rewarding manner. All but one of the action sequences are a bit too heavy handed, although the one great action sequence (whereby Clooney and Robertson have to escape from his house in the woods) is easily the best part of the film. The pin badge scene is also very clever and shows a very skilled level of editing, which is actually quite frustrating, as the rest of the film is so poorly structured. The introduction to the film (Clooney and Robertson introducing the story via home video) is horrible and put me off the rest of the film if I'm being honest, even though the rest of the film was pretty good, I was expecting the worst right up until the end credits. There wasn't anything wrong the performances but I felt that Britt Robertson gave way more than everyone else and her's was the most entertaining. The humour often falls flat and there are a couple of times in the movie whereby the audience is meant to feel sad but I'm afraid I felt nothing. Disney have essentially asked a group of film makers to make a movie out of one of their commodities that really isn't right for the big screen. All things considered Brad Bird and team do the best they can, and the ideas is very clever, it just never clicks into place. I wanted to enjoy it so much more than I actually did.