I jumped into the cinema for this movie right after seeing Mad Max: Fury Road because honestly I liked the whole wide-eyed wonder vibe of the trailer. Never mind that I’m not the world’s biggest George Clooney fan; the movie looked fun and seemed to hold a lot of sci-fi street cred, with Damon Lindelof (of the Prometheus, Lost and Star Trek Into Darkness fame) being one of the screenplay writers.

Here’s the round up of Brad Bird’s (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) Tomorrowland.

Please note that there may be spoilers. Read at your own risk.

THE STORY:

Casey Newton (Britt Robertson – The Longest Ride)’s father, Eddie (Tim McGraw – The Blind Side) is about to lose his job as an engineer at NASA because the launch pad they’re trying to build has been decommissioned and is set to be torn down. Casey, ever the stubborn optimist, goes through any lengths to stop her father from being fired, even if it means nightly trips to the launch pad and sabotaging the rigs, therefore ensuring that the engineers will have something to fix. This delinquent behavior of hers attracts the attention of a mysterious little girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy – Dark Shadows) who, after sneaking a pin coded with Casey’s DNA in her belongings, rats Casey out to the cops.

Casey discovers the pin after her stunt in jail and is shocked to find herself transported to a futuristic land whenever she touches it. When the timer on the back of the pin runs out, Casey is more than a little bit addicted to the high of endless possibilities the future present. She eventually ends on the doorstep of a grumpy recluse named Frank Walker (George Clooney – The Monuments Men) who might be her only hope of getting back to that magical place.

THE GOOD:

1. The special effects. I was amazed at the (what seemed to be) seamless transition between the “real” world and “Tomorrowland”. Disney definitely knows how to bring the big guns with the CGI.
2. Raffey Cassidy. I would’ve preferred it if she’d been placed in the lead role; the screen literally lighted up whenever she was on.
3. Everything that happened in the 60’s. The first ten to fifteen minutes of the movie when they were just laying down the groundwork for how “Tomorrowland” came to be definitely was the most interesting part. The young kid actors – Raffey Cassidy and Thomas Robinson – were infinitely more interesting to watch than the adults.
4. The action sequences were actually kind of good. I mean, they were all PG-13 but they still held enough tension to keep me on the edge of my seat.

   

5. Everything that was in the trailer. Because they were basically the best bits of the movie.

   

THE BAD:

1. The waste of talent, AKA Hugh Laurie. Why did he even agree to this??
2. The thinly written characters. It’s a kid movie and all but they didn’t even bother fleshing out the characters. Was Casey really exceptionally smart? Was she really into the science-y stuff? What was the deal with Nix? How did he become Tomorrowland’s Governor? What was his motivation?
3. The whole movie was obviously just a giant ad for the Disney Land ride. I guess they’re trying to recreate the Pirates of the Caribbean magic, but they forgot to write a good story and interesting characters when they were doing it.
4. Britt Robertson, while stunningly pretty, just wasn’t strong enough as an actress to hold the film together.
5. That skeevy moment when you realize that George Clooney’s Frank has the hots for the young Athena. It sort of makes sense in the context of the movie, but that climactic sacrifice at the end even had me going ‘eww’.

   

THE UGLY:

1. The movie was just one long condescending sermon about global warming and how we should all get off our asses and stop it. It’s a noble cause and definitely a worthy one but god, there was absolutely no grace or subtlety about how they went about it. I walk in, expecting to watch a kid friendly movie and instead I get a barrage of in-your-face lectures about how the earth is going to end soon. Talk about false advertising.
2. The total lack of science. At least, I was looking forward to hearing the explanation as to how Tomorrowland was even possible.

All in all Tomorrowland was a disappointing movie. While the action sequences were entertaining enough for the most part (and even were sometimes fun), the acting was subpar and the story was just shit. If they really wanted to go preaching about the earth’s destruction, perhaps they could’ve used another movie as a vehicle – one that isn’t a walking, talking advertisement for a theme park ride.

THE VERDICT: 4/10.

*All photos are lifted from Tomorrowland’s IMDB page.