By Bob Garver<\/p>\n
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\u201cTomorrowland\u201d is an uneven film. It gets off on the wrong foot, builds promisingly, has a terrific middle, but then stumbles and meanders its way toward an underwhelming conclusion. Let\u2019s get the worst scene out of the way first. At the 1964 World\u2019s Fair, young Frank (Thomas Robinson) presents a homemade jetpack to the judge of an invention contest (Hugh Laurie). The judge asks him what purpose of the jetpack serves. Frank responds, \u201cWhy can\u2019t it just be fun?\u201d The line is supposed to paint Frank as a wise, whimsical dreamer. The problem is that a jetpack is going to have a much higher purpose than just fun. Frank has theoretically revolutionized transportation with a device that allows man to fly independently of an airplane, and here he is assigning it the same purpose as a pair of novelty chattering teeth. It\u2019s hard to take Frank seriously as a genius after that.<\/p>\n
The film manages to pick itself up. Frank is given a mysterious pin by cryptic child Athena (Raffey Cassidy), who invites him to stealthily follow her. He stows away in a prototype of an iconic Disneyland ride (ironically one not located in the Tomorrowland section of the park) and winds up in the intellectual paradise of Tomorrowland. Flash forward to present day. Teenage science-lover and perpetual optimist Casey (Britt Robertson, too old to be playing a high-school student) is given one of the mysterious pins. The pin gives her a vision of Tomorrowland and she is so entranced that she goes on a cross-country adventure to find out how to get there. Eventually she teams up with Athena, still as cryptic and childlike as ever, and an older, jaded Frank (George Clooney), who thinks that Casey might just be the key to saving humanity.<\/p>\n
The trio does make it to Tomorrowland around the film\u2019s two-thirds mark, but the best stretch of the film is the time between Casey\u2019s imagined trip and the actual trip. The early visions of Tomorrowland are spectacular (think of an entire city designed by World\u2019s Fair architects with people dressed in the most extravagant futuristic fashion), the three characters are funny and endearing in their chemistry, and we get some mature action sequences for a kids\u2019 movie. Casey is hunted by some evil robots who turn intrusive humans to dust, and Frank doesn\u2019t think twice about absolutely brutalizing the killing machines. Even Athena takes a nasty hit that\u2019s shocking to see happen to a child. I\u2019m not necessarily saying that kids won\u2019t be able to handle this violence, just that violence is definitely present.<\/p>\n
The movie winds up in Tomorrowland, which has lost its luster under the leadership of Governor Nix (Laurie). Nix has been sending out a doomsday prophecy to all of humanity, and rather than do anything about it, we\u2019ve all subconsciously chosen to accept it. He, in turn, has long since accepted that we\u2019re not going to do anything about it, so he\u2019s not going to do anything about it either. But at least our heroes are determined to do something about it. The message of the film is that you shouldn\u2019t just accept that the world is doomed, but you also have to make an effort to save it. It\u2019s a good message turned annoying by being hammered in too frequently.<\/p>\n
There were parts of \u201cTomorrowland\u201d where I thought it was going to go down as one of the best movies of the year. It has some of the best sequences of the year, especially Casey\u2019s initial vision of the city (which is going to get some Oscar nominations for about two minutes of screen time), but the movie as a whole loses its way toward the end with a convoluted \u201cmankind is dooming itself\u201d storyline that you can get from any number of recent action movies. It\u2019s an ambitious movie that doesn\u2019t quite live up to its potential.<\/p>\n
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Two Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTomorrowland\u201d is rated PG for sequences of sci-fi action violence and peril, thematic elements, and language. Its running time is 130 minutes.<\/p>\n
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