![]() ![]() Of meta-interest to the movie will be the renewed opportunity to speculate on Brad Bird's politics. They'd still need to return to Tomorrowland so they can convince Governor Nix (Hugh Laurie, getting to remind Americans that he's British) to help avoid a terrible future.Ĭasey isn't really a critical part of any of that other than that having a young woman headlining a movie aimed pretty squarely at teens is better than a 54-year-old George Clooney.Īfter a slow start, once adult Frank joins the fun, things pick up speed towards an explosive climax that could have used a bit more grit if not for trying to stick with a PG rating. Athena's role in events will not be spoiled in explaining that thw two met when Frank was young and have since both been evicted from Tomorrowland. If that happened, then it would just be the story of Frank Walker and his friend Athena (played well by 12-year-old Raffey Cassidy). It is easy to envision a version of the movie where her character and storyline are removed completely without harming anything. In action sequences you can generally believe she is acting to a tennis ball on a stick. But it is all visual fluff with nothing offered as to what it would actually be like to live there.Īnother problem is that, unfortunately, Britt Robertson isn't really up to the task of a lot of acting against green screens. The 10-year-old version of Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson played as an adult by George Clooney) gets a thrill flying around in a jetpack but we just watch, waiting for something to happen.Ī big reason for this as that Tomorrowland is never really presented as a place with tangible existence, but mostly only in soaring and sweeping camera shots meant to present gee-whiz visuals like a Space Mountain replica, fancy monorail, or gravity-defying swimming pools. As a result, as an audience member, you end up watching characters experience wonder without really feeling it. Tomorrowland is supposed to provoke wonder, but it's simply not present enough in the movie. That is the peril of unmet expectations, though merely OK becomes a disappointment. That's a very high bar, so it doesn't mean Tomorrowland is a bad movie for being the least of them. Even when he moved to live action and took on a summer action franchise, he produced the best of the series with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. ![]() So far, each has been great- The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille are all major achievements in animation. ![]() This is Brad Bird's fifth feature film as writer and director. © Walt Disney Pictures.įrom there, the rush is on to learn how she got the pin, who the myserious person is that gave it to her, how to get back to Tomorrowland in a more permanent way, figure out why a group of smiling androids really wants to stop her, and finally, how to change the horrible dark side of things learned along the way. Even more instantaneous than that though, is her acceptance that this must be a real place, and not that she's having some psychotic break with reality. Touching this pin, she is instantly transported to a new world-and back just as instantly when she lets go of the pin. She also indeterminately young, in that grey area between getting in trouble if she's caught sneaking back into the house in the middle of the night but old enough to just leave home for a couple days with no more than a voicemail for her dad saying she's going camping.Īfter being arrested during a late night of industrial sabotage intended to delay the looming job loss for her father (Tim McGraw), Casey discovers a mysterious pin among her returned possessions. A mechanical prodigy, Casey just knows how things work. Tomorrowland is primarily the story of Casey Newton (Britt Robertson). Instead, the question being answered is, "What if you learned that the Illuminati really is behind everything in the world, and rather than being upset by this, you're annoyed they won't let you join?" It turns out that the movie really doesn't make any effort to explore that question. The commercials for Tomorrowland are asking, "What if there was a place, a secret place, where nothing was impossible…" This is proof that commercials lie. ![]()
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