Is this the kind of world director Brad Bird was trying to prepare us for in Tomorrowland? A world where we’ve become so socially detached that this is actually considered normal behavior in a public setting?
I certainly hope not but maybe I have this creeper look to me that I am only now becoming aware of. Maybe this is the reason why I stopped getting invites to my friends’ birthday parties for their kids once they turned four. I always thought it was because that was the age the parties stopped being for the adults and it actually became more about the kids. But who knows, I could have that face that makes strippers put in a request that I put my hands behind my back before they actually agree to give me a lap dance.
Oh well, all I know is that I didn’t get instantly arrested upon my arrival to the theater to see the PG rated Tomorrowland and that the woman I mentioned earlier definitely left my place fully satisfied the other night; so I have that going for me. I’m so joking about the last part! I’m not creepy Rob Lowe, I have DirectTV!
Tomorrowland is the second live action film that director Brad Bird has made since he left the world of animation. He made some of Pixar’s best movies in The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and The Iron Giant (can’t remember if that’s Disney or not). So he was the perfect mind to reach out to when it came to making a film about a place that exists in another dimension where every inventor or positive thinker’s dreams can come true.
Tomorrowland is a place where robots, who were created by humans, recruit the world’s most mechanically inclined dreamers; people who actually use their mind to try and do good in the world. Well one day this teenage girl named Casey gets arrested for breaking into NASA in an attempt to save her creepy dad’s job. I say creepy because Tim McGraw plays her dad and for whatever reason, all Country music stars look like total molesters when they start acting; look at Dwight Yoakum.
Upon her release however, she is given this pin; and the second she touches it, she gets access to this futuristic world. It’s a world that’s full of jetpacks, hovercraft trains, rockets, and people who dress like a mix of Captain Neo and the people in Spike Jonze’s Her. Everyone is happy as they see their dreams coming true and everything truly does seem possible. But after a while, the pin’s magic goes away and this is where Casey goes on a mission to find its origin. Along the way she is introduced to violent robots, an old looking George Clooney (who is a former child genius himself), and an unexpected fate for the world. So overall, not a bad story.
Brad Bird does the best he can with Damon Lindelof’s script, one he co-wrote with him, but everyone should know from the Lost and the Leftovers series that Lindelof is great at coming up with ideas, he’s just has no idea how to execute them. The movie runs way too long and there are some really odd moments in the movie that just make you uncomfortable; such as the creepy relationship that exists between Clooney and his 12 year old recruiter. I wont ruin the movie for you by going into detail, you’ll just have to experience it on your own. The fights between with the robots are cool and every scene that takes place in Tomorrowland makes you wish that you were a kid again because it does look exactly how you imagined the future would look when you were a kid. So from perspective, kids will love this film as children are doing lots of cool stuff in it; like flying in jet packs or blowing up robots. But as an adult you just wonder why it’s taking so long to tell the story.
Tomorrowland isn’t a bad movie, it’s just that it falls well short of what it could have been. Plus Hugh Laurie gives this long, drawn out sermon at the end that sounds like it was written by an unfunny Bill Maher; this is where I make my joke about there not actually being a funny Bill Maher in existence. If you have kids and you want to get them out of the house, then I suggest you check this movie out; if you don’t, then you’ll probably want to pass. I rate this movie as kind of WEAK.
By the way, if you do wind up seeing the movie and you find yourself thinking that young Casey is actually pretty hot; it's ok, in real life she's actually 25 years old. Just saying.
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