In an age of dark, grim visions of the future Disney's Tomorrowland is a delightful throwback to upbeat adventures of the 60s and 80s, a retro sci-fi film for the whole family to enjoy.
Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) is a bright and optimistic high school student who does not share the pessimistic views of elders. When Casey discovers a mysterious pin that shows her fantastic world and sets out to find the futuristic city with the help of a jaded inventor, Frank Walker (George Clooney) and Athena (Raffey Cassidy), an English-accented Audio-Animatronics.
Tomorrowland is a deliberately old-fashioned film both its tone and visuals: the film was loosely based on the Disney ride of the same name - considering that Disney were able to turn Pirates of the Caribbean into a billion dollar film series. Bird was a wise choice to direct and co-write, The Incredibles had a 60s style sci-fi look to it and he brought that look to Tomorrowland. It was bright and colourful with its showing of various technologies, from robots, jetpacks, lasers and a steampunk rocket.
Brad Bird has already shown himself to be a capable action director with Mission Impossible: Ghost Portrayal and with Tomorrowland he had much better CGI. There are some cool fight sequences, especially with Athena - it is awesome to see a little girl beating up fully grown men and giant robots. Tomorrowland is visually spectacular especially when we get to see the city in all its glory for the first time. Bird certainly brought out a sense of awe, whimsy and wonder.
Tomorrowland also has a great trio in the leads: Clooney, Robertson and Cassidy are terrific together, having many witty moments together when they are travelling and there is a zip in their interactions, like when they use a knock-out tool. Although Robertson's look too old to be a high schooler she pushes off the necessary enthusiasm. But it was Cassidy who stole the show: she was a revelation as Athena, playing a character who was older than she actually looked and at times acts a Terminator. She personally reminded me of Saoirse Ronan when she was younger, just with dark hair.
Although Tomorrowland had a talented director at the helm it also had a screenplay with Damon Lindelof's fingerprints, a man who has poor reputation as a screenwriter. As an adventure Tomorrowland is excellent but when it goes to the science fiction the film gets bogged down with mumbo-jumbo about time particles and destiny. This part needed to be expanded and more refined. When it's revealed that Tomorrowland was a place for exceptional people to come to where they would not disrupted by government or civil society. Essentially this is similar to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, a controversial sci-fi work that abdicates the philosophy of Objectivism, or if you prefer it's the ideology of Andrew Ryan in Bioshock. The prologue at the 1964 World's Fair could have been cut and it would have made the reveals more impactful.
Tomorrowland is a good of romp of a film, providing plenty of laughs, action and visual spectcle. It was rated a 12A in the UK but it is on lower scale of that rating and could easily be enjoyed by children younger than that age.
