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| George Clooney |
Wes's Grade: D+
Bland sci-fi epic "Tomorrowland" a joyless Disney misfire
Timbuk3's infectious 1980s pop song "The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" seemed to define a generation bound for success. The opposite seems true in the joylessly vapid new science-fiction movie "Tomorrowland," a gloom-and-doom misfire lacking inspiration that probably seemed much more interesting on paper. Bound by a shared purpose, former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), jaded by disillusionment, and Casey (Britt Robertson), an optimistic teen bursting with scientific curiosity, embark on a danger-filled mission to unearth the secrets of an enigmatic place somewhere in time and space known only as "Tomorrowland" that could forever alter destiny. Directed by Oscar-winner Brad Bird (of "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille"), co-written by Bird and Damon Lindelof, "Tomorrowland" is a slick, big-budgeted Disney movie with stellar production values, an intriguing premise and decent special effects seriously hampered by a story that rings very false and manufactured. The film, about an exclusive futuristic society, must've looked and felt great in development, especially with the addition of Oscar-winner Clooney and a promising newcomer in Robertson ("The Longest Ride"), but it's a prime example of how a movie can go wrong in execution and post-production (plus, Disney is known for its meddling in things like this), as the end product is a doomsday-and-robots mess lacking any sense of excitement or wonder. "Tomorrowland" is also an example of how a movie is something completely different than what you get from its trailers, the sense of joy when you discover something new, and outside of its first 20 minutes, it's a muddled, mostly incoherent tale of saving us from a dark future. Not all is completely lost on "Tomorrowland": the first act is OK, the special effects are energetic, and there are a couple of talented young actors with a bright future - Raffey Cassidy, as the young machine Athena, and Thomas Robinson, as the young Frank - both of whom add some much-needed amusement and outshine the rest of the main cast. Robertson is a pretty yet bland heroine too inexperienced to carry an big movie like this, villain Hugh Laurie is miscast, while Clooney, who is OK but lacking some of his usual charm, is mostly just a grump. After spending so much time on a gloomy future, its new-agey, let's-hold-hands-and-sing-Kumbaya style ending is a little baffling and seems so, well, Disney. Don't call me Nostradamus, but my prediction for "Tomorrowland" is it will be the first major box-office disappointment of the summer movie season (and probably not the last).
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