Mystery can only take you so far, and then there needs to be some
kind of payoff. Since the very beginning, back when the project was known
simply as "1952" and was supposedly one of Walt Disney's lost
projects, Brad Bird's Tomorrowland has been shrouded in an incredible
amount of secrecy. Sometimes that works to the film's benefit when audiences
are finally let in on what all the cloak 'n dagger were about. And then sometimes
it all amounts to nothing. Tomorrowland unfortunately falls in the latter
category. Like the Disney theme park from which its name derives, Tomorrowland seeks to inspire within us a hope
for a brighter future full of invention and imagination, but all it really
needs to do is tell a cohesive story and that's where the experiment sadly
fails.
To be fair, Tomorrowland is often the glorious wonder it
aspires to be, tapping into the little kid in all of us who dreams of a
fantastical future of jet packs and robots. However, an awkward, labored
narrative structure derails any chance for Bird and co-writer Damon Lindelof to
explore the progressive concepts they're so keen to introduce. In essence, it
becomes a film solely about one important but overused message about building a
better tomorrow in the here and now. Great idea, but the adventure designed to
make that message resonant is unremarkable and pretty boring.
Perhaps the most disappointing thing is
that, really, there's no actual mystery to the story. The film is EXACTLY what
we already knew it was. George Clooney plays Frank Walker, a former boy genius
who is now a cynical and jaded middle-aged man. He connects with the whip-smart
Casey (Britt Robertson of The Longest Ride) and the unusual Athena (Raffey
Cassidy) on a journey to Tomorrowland, a futuristic world Frank was invited to
while attending the 1964 World's Fair. The film opens in aggravating fashion,
with older Frank attempting (and failing miserably) to explain the dire
circumstances that have led to their important mission. The film then
goes through an extended flashback, two of them actually, and by the time the
story's setup is finished nearly an entire hour has passed. For a film about
progressing into the future Tomorrowland is often stuck going nowhere.
By the time the story truly begins it's
difficult to care because we know the ending can't be satisfying. There isn't
enough time left for it to be. That's not to say it isn't a visually dazzling
spectacle. There are individual scenes that are jaw-dropping and everything we
hoped the film would be. Tonally it often resembles the retro whimsy of Sky Captain and
the World of Tomorrow, both evocative of the past and embracing of the
future. There are cool robots, space ships; buildings that look like something
out of The Wizard of Oz,
practically everything a little kid could dream up comprise Tomorrowland's
gorgeous structure. However, the vast majority of the film isn't spent in Tomorrowland;
it's in the present where things are pretty bland. It's like making a Matrix movie and not spending any
time in the Matrix. Oh wait, that did happen in two terribly-received sequels.
That combined with no clear nemesis or goal to achieve other than "get to
Tomorrowland", and the film seriously lacks any kind of clear agenda for
audiences to latch on to. We know who built Tomorrowland, but are never given a
clear idea of how or why.
That the finale amounts to a hammering
rant about our obstinate response to global climate change, while offering no
clear solutions, only goes to show how poorly this was all put together. This
should be old hat for those familiar with Lindolof's work on Lost, a
show he had plenty of great ideas for and zero notion how to pull them off. Tomorrowland references geniuses like Thomas
Edison, Nicola Tesla, and more; all men who dreamed big and turned those dreams
into reality. Unfortunately, while the film was clearly inspired by these
architects of the future, it doesn't do much to live up to their innovative
ideals.
Rating: 2. 5 out of 5
