Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (12A.)
Directed by Brad Bird.
Starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Judy Greer, Raffey Cassidy and Tim McGraw. 130 mins.
Remember when the future was a good thing? The latest film from the evil megalomaniac corporation Disney is a paean to optimism, creativity and originality. It's a film about hopefulness and getting out of the rut of cynicism. Good luck with that. The two trailers shown before the film were for Disney's other big budget offerings: Marvel's Ant-Man and the new Star Wars film.
The Tomorrowland of the title is a place where all the smartest people have gone to design a better future. In the opening credits its shiny spires replace those of the traditional Disneyland castle which is appropriate because, aside from taking its name from the areas in Disneyworlds where the Space Mountains are, it is full of traditional Disney, utopian ideals such as World Fairs, jet packs and the NASA space programme. Its big theme is massive and weighty – how mankind (or at least the first world) has turned away from utopianism to dystopianism. It is film of ambition and wonders; but one you maybe admire more than enjoy.
The story features Clooney as a now disillusioned inventor who once visited Tomorrowland; and Britt Robertson as the feisty and relentlessly positive young girl, “who knows how things work” and is desperate to get there. Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, provides plenty of spectacular sequences but the film is never quite as funny or exciting as it should be and at over two hours the pacing always seems just a touch sluggish. And though it looks shiny, it isn't always so neatly constructed. The script takes lots of dubious shortcuts and shrinks certainty responsibilities. For example, at the start, the film is set up as a video message sent by Clooney and Robertson, who interrupt each other and bicker about who should tell the story. But we never see the message completed, that framing device doesn't make it all the way round the picture. (That the script has a sense of not being fully thought through will no doubt be put down to it being partly the work of Lost and Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof.) Plus for a film that preaches breaking away from the tired and unoriginal, it is uniquely disappointing when it falls back on standard action movie tropes, such as countdowns to explosions and killer robots.
Disney has gradually been gaining an almost monopolistic hold on the world's box office. It's got Pixar and its own animation studio, it's got the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe production line and, most importantly, the new Star Wars trilogy and its spin offs. They are making it increasingly tough for the other studios to compete. Still, their last experience with an original idea, the massive flop John Carter, has probably scarred them. We all bemoan the number of sequels and the lack of original films, but watching Tomorrowland you can see why studios avoid them. Original ideas take a lot of explaining: Robertson's role seems to be just to ask questions all the time. At one point Clooney responds to one of enquiries with the line, “can't you just be amazed and move on?” She probably could if she were watching a sequel. Sequels these days tend to be better written; the writers know the voice they have to write in and how to pace it because they've had the practice or seen how others did. They run smoothly. Tomorrowland's script always seems to be just on the verge of really hitting its groove but never does. By the end it is still asking questions and largely failing to answer them.
The film suggests that mankind's problem is that we have been perversely seduced by apocalyptic thinking, that hopelessness has become comforting. Probably something similar is behind the rise of franchise and sequel cinema. Ultimately it may be what the audience has trained themselves to enjoy.
Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (12A.)
Directed by Brad Bird.
Starring George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Judy Greer, Raffey Cassidy and Tim McGraw. 130 mins.
Remember when the future was a good thing? The latest film from the evil megalomaniac corporation Disney is a paean to optimism, creativity and originality. It's a film about hopefulness and getting out of the rut of cynicism. Good luck with that. The two trailers shown before the film were for Disney's other big budget offerings: Marvel's Ant-Man and the new Star Wars film.
The Tomorrowland of the title is a place where all the smartest people have gone to design a better future. In the opening credits its shiny spires replace those of the traditional Disneyland castle which is appropriate because, aside from taking its name from the areas in Disneyworlds where the Space Mountains are, it is full of traditional Disney, utopian ideals such as World Fairs, jet packs and the NASA space programme. Its big theme is massive and weighty – how mankind (or at least the first world) has turned away from utopianism to dystopianism. It is film of ambition and wonders; but one you maybe admire more than enjoy.
The story features Clooney as a now disillusioned inventor who once visited Tomorrowland; and Britt Robertson as the feisty and relentlessly positive young girl, “who knows how things work” and is desperate to get there. Brad Bird, director of The Incredibles and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, provides plenty of spectacular sequences but the film is never quite as funny or exciting as it should be and at over two hours the pacing always seems just a touch sluggish. And though it looks shiny, it isn't always so neatly constructed. The script takes lots of dubious shortcuts and shrinks certainty responsibilities. For example, at the start, the film is set up as a video message sent by Clooney and Robertson, who interrupt each other and bicker about who should tell the story. But we never see the message completed, that framing device doesn't make it all the way round the picture. (That the script has a sense of not being fully thought through will no doubt be put down to it being partly the work of Lost and Prometheus writer Damon Lindelof.) Plus for a film that preaches breaking away from the tired and unoriginal, it is uniquely disappointing when it falls back on standard action movie tropes, such as countdowns to explosions and killer robots.
Disney has gradually been gaining an almost monopolistic hold on the world's box office. It's got Pixar and its own animation studio, it's got the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe production line and, most importantly, the new Star Wars trilogy and its spin offs. They are making it increasingly tough for the other studios to compete. Still, their last experience with an original idea, the massive flop John Carter, has probably scarred them. We all bemoan the number of sequels and the lack of original films, but watching Tomorrowland you can see why studios avoid them. Original ideas take a lot of explaining: Robertson's role seems to be just to ask questions all the time. At one point Clooney responds to one of enquiries with the line, “can't you just be amazed and move on?” She probably could if she were watching a sequel. Sequels these days tend to be better written; the writers know the voice they have to write in and how to pace it because they've had the practice or seen how others did. They run smoothly. Tomorrowland's script always seems to be just on the verge of really hitting its groove but never does. By the end it is still asking questions and largely failing to answer them.
The film suggests that mankind's problem is that we have been perversely seduced by apocalyptic thinking, that hopelessness has become comforting. Probably something similar is behind the rise of franchise and sequel cinema. Ultimately it may be what the audience has trained themselves to enjoy.
