Dreaming of a better film

Director: Brad Bird Screenplay: Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, Jeff Jensen Cast: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffedy Cassidy, Tim McGraw

_Tomorrowland: A World Beyond _is in the running for year’s most pointless subtitle. It exists only for the UK, with every other territory simply being treated to the original title of Tomorrowland, sans subtitle. It’s a needless addition that tries to define the film further while failing to actually explain anything about what’s going on. It’s an apt metaphor for the film, to be honest.

_Tomorrowland _(we’re just calling it that from now on) is the latest film to be based on part of the Disneyland theme parks, joining the illustrious likes of Pirates of the Caribbean and… the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. The other films to be based on Disney rides don’t really bear talking about, unless you want something to complain about.

It’s got a far amount of promise on paper despite that slightly worrisome heritage, though. Brad Bird is the director responsible for Pixar’s classics The Incredibles and Ratatouille, before making the leap into live-action with the joyous Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. The cast features the likes of George Clooney and Hugh Laurie. The script was co-written by Bird with Damon Lindelof, one of the main men behind LOST. That’s pretty much where the promise starts to dry up, really. At least on paper.

Britt Robertson gets her first major role in this film, and she absolutely kills it. She plays Casey Newton, an optimist in a world going downhill, and a girl who sneaks onto the NASA launch site at Cape Canaveral, disabling the machines dismantling the pad. Robertson is a revelation, displaying deft comic timing and infectious enthusiasm. She makes some absolute clunkers of lines sound hilarious, and she pushes the film through several of its struggles. She lights up the film around her, which is why the way the script ultimately treats her character is such a crushing disappointment.

"Her special power is (drumroll please) the power of positive thinking."

Casey is constantly set up throughout the film as being ‘special’. Everything appears to focus on her, and with the help of Raffedy Cassidy’s Athena she’s the main driving force of the plot. Quite why she’s special is never fully outlined for most of the running time, although it slowly becomes clear that her special power is (drumroll please) the power of positive thinking. And if you think this is a somewhat pointless special power that has no ability to push a plot forwards, then don’t worry. The filmmakers appear to agree with you.

Casey is completely side-lined for the film’s finale. That whole section of the film is absurdly rushed – from the moment Casey, Athena and George Clooney’s Frank Walker arrive in Tomorrowland itself, the plot barrels towards an inevitable “let’s blow everything up” finale. Sod positive thinking. We have explosives.

"Tomorrowland completely misses its thematic football, and ends up sprawled in the dirt."

Those explosives signal the death knell for any hope that Tomorrowland might pull itself together in the home straight. Hugh Laurie’s villain gets an entertaining speech that pulls off the marvellous trick of actually convincing you that the villain might be right (which admittedly, when the heroes are as full of absolute fluff as the heroes of Tomorrowland are, doesn’t require a huge amount of effort). George Clooney’s natural charm is allowed to shine through as his character starts to warm up. There’s some semi-decently shot action. It could all work, and then Tomorrowland stumbles across its thematic football. It takes a run-up, aims, and then completely misses and ends up sprawled in the dirt. It’s such a waste.

_Tomorrowland _is an enjoyable ride, it should be said. It’s enjoyable, but heavily flawed. It never quite understands what its own message is, and during the few moments where that message does start to flicker into life it’s complete nonsense. Most of the acting is excellent, but it’s forced to cope with an inadequate script that has forgotten what it’s trying to do, and how it planned to do it in the first place.

This is a film to watch, once, enjoy, and then forget about. It doesn’t say anything worth hearing. It fails to stick in the memory, and that’s honestly a good thing. It’s so painfully confused that it’s almost upsetting. There’s a lot of good work that went into Tomorrowland, from the sumptuous visuals to the sterling efforts of the cast. It’s just buried beneath a pile of meaningless junk.