Tomorrowland is probably best known as the film Brad Bird left Star Wars Episode 7 for.  And, quite likely it will go down in history as the film that Brad Bird left Star Wars Episode 7 for. For a movie about the future, Tomorrowland is stuck in the past; a feature that’s dated, poorly written, and preachier than a church full of ministers.

 

I really do love Brad Bird, the visionary director behind The Incredibles and perhaps my all-time favorite animated film, The Iron Giant, and I’m happy Disney was willing to invest $200,000,000 into a new and unproven intellectual property, rather than go down the trend of endless remakes and reboots that plague the industry. But ultimately it’s all for naught if the final product is garbage. And Tomorrowland, while not the smelliest skeleton in Disney’s closet, could’ve been so much more.

 

Loosely (and I do mean loosely) based off the iconic theme park, Tomorrowland tells the tale of an alternate world, located in another dimension, inhabited only by the best of our world. All the Einstein’s and none of the Honey-Boo-Boo’s, in one spectacular technological haven; sounds like paradise, right? Well, for all its wonders, the utopia has a dark underbelly, and only a teenage girl, an android, and George Clooney have to power to stop it!

 

First and foremost, even when the story dips, the characters themselves are actually pretty great. None are going to win awards for originality, but the spunky teenage Casey is a lot of fun, and the main trio (Casey, little-girl android Athena, and cranky old inventor Frank) get a lot of fun interactions together and play off each other well.

 

Perhaps most surprising is the genuinely heart-moving relationship between the now decades old Frank and the little Android he fell for years ago. It’s not nearly as creepy as it sounds and shows a side of love I’ve never seen before in a film. A great performance from the normally stellar Clooney doesn’t hurt anything either.

 

But the strong characters are weighed down by an awful script. Unlike many films, it’s actually pretty easy to name the two spots where Tomorrowland really went wrong.  Problem number one is the lack of Tomorrowland; the spiraling metropolis is barely in the film. And, when we finally arrive there after an extremely long buildup (more than ¾ through the film) we only see one small section of what’s supposed to be the most magnificent displays of human innovation ever made. To say it’s a letdown is an understatement.

And top cap it all off, Tomorrowland features one of the most grown worthy, Disney-fied endings I’ve seen in a while, one that trades logic for a false sense of happiness and hope. It’s a bad ending to an overtly mediocre film.

 

It’s a shame that Bird’s latest isn’t better than it is. But likable characters and good acting are icing on the rotten fish that is Tomorrowland’s story. People love to whine and complain that nothing original comes out of Hollywood these days, and while in many ways they are correct, when original ip’s release to theaters and tank, it’s a testament to why original stories aren’t being told. Tomorrowland could’ve been a shining beacon of hope, but alas it’s just another disc added to the forgotten pile.

 

With Disney rolling in the dough with Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, I doubt Tomorrowland’s failure will derail their success. What it will do is convince them to stick with sequels and rehashes, and that is perhaps the biggest disappointment of all.

 

2 out of 5 stars