Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland, the latest film from director Brad Bird just confirms what I have always thought of him as a director, that he should stick to directing animated movies. His live action films (there have only been two and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol was his first) have always left me wanting for more. His animated work like The Incredibles and The Iron Giant on the other hand were highly entertaining. He needs to go back to that art form because Tomorrowland is only getting two buckets of Killer Korn and that's me being generous.












Tomorrowland's marketing campaign had me curious about checking out this tepid film. The trailer was genius, okay genius may be too strong a word but it was very smart. Casting George Clooney as Frank Walker the irascible old man was undoubtedly a coup but even he couldn't save this slowly sinking ship and hey, this ship be sinking. George stars opposite Britt Robertson who plays Casey Newton and their dynamic bordered on annoying. There's also Athena, an all knowing recruiter for Tomorrowland played by Raffey Cassidy. Now to be quite honest none of this movie made any sense and the plot holes were immense.

Written by the slightly less than talented Damon Lindelof whose only really decent credit on his resume was being a writer the hit TV series Lost. He also wrote Star Trek: Into Darkness and Ghost Protocol but outside of those two projects his other works are too weak to mention. Brad Bird and Jeff Jensen also had a hand in this $190/240 million dollar capsizing wreck. Basically this was Disney trying to turn another ride of theirs into a movie (Pirates of the Caribbean was the first attempt) and they failed miserably. I really can't see Disney turning a profit on this one. It rates a zero on the Matthews' shits and giggles scale.

Tomorrowland doesn't make you laugh, cry, or make you feel anything at all. There's very little suspense or thrills and even the kids in the audience (and there were quite a few) found it boring and they were obviously the targeted demographic. Maybe in the hands of another studio this movie could have been something interesting but it had that kid friendly Disney feel all over it and kids today are far too sophisticated for that. They are watching Daredevil on Netflix and Game of Thrones on HBO (when mom and dad aren't around) and Tomorrowland can't compete with that on any level. The movie is not even visually or emotionally arresting and I found myself looking forward to the end. Oscar award winning composer Michael Gacchiano put together a rather good score without much to work with and sadly it was wasted on this schlock. Skip this tepid movie and see Mad Max: Fury Road again, trust me you'll be happier and I'll see you at the theater.