The marketing on Disney's Tomorrowland was the best example ever of the “mystery box” at work. We never really knew what Tomorrowland was actually about before going into the theater, other than the fact that Britt Robertson saw visions of a world of tomorrow and George Clooney looked like he had all the answers.
Sadly, now that the mystery box is opened, the contents aren’t as exciting as the mysterious trailers made them out to be.
Casey Newton (Robertson) is a high school student in the Cape Canaveral area, disappointed that NASA is deconstructing its shuttle program. Her father (country star Tim McGraw) will be out of a job soon, too, since he’s a NASA engineer. So, she spends her nights trying to sabotage the demolition equipment at the landing pad. One night, she is arrested and finds a mysterious pin among her personal belongings.
Her journey to find the answers to this pin - which can somehow send her visions of a “great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day” - takes her to Frank Walker (Clooney), who actually went to this so-called Tomorrowland as a youth. He was banished because he created a device that could look into the future, which is never a good idea. (He obviously never listened to Doc Brown.)
This is all actually part of the exposition of Tomorrowland and considering that Damon Lindelof’s name is on the screenplay, that shouldn’t be surprising. Lindelof is a lightning rod for criticism because so much of what he touches has promise, but they always end up being convoluted messes. Sure, Tomorrowland makes a heck of a lot more sense than Prometheus or Star Trek Into Darkness, but only because so much has is explained. It’s like Lindelof - who came up with the story with former Entertainment Weekly Lost recapper Jeff Jensen - is writing a pamphlet for a tourist attraction before he suddenly remembers that there needs be a plot.
However, with Brad Bird directing, Tomorrowland is guaranteed to be a stylish piece of beauty. When he finds the right moments for bursts of action on the screen, they are brilliantly choreographed. The escape from Frank’s house is the most exhilarating moment in the film. Bird’s work on the script is also clear, helping to define these characters much more strongly. Still, Clooney seems used as an exposition machine, while Casey shockingly gets pushed to the side. For someone who is supposed to help save the world, she does a lot of just standing around. (It certainly would have helped if they gave her that jetpack right away.)
Tomorrowland holds the brakes on storytelling for as long as possible, but not by just coming up with more things that need to be explained to Casey. There must be a message in here somewhere and it boils down to humanity's obsession with the apocalypse and not doing anything to stop it. Hugh Laurie, who plays a villain that looks like he just stepped out of an animated Disney movie, is stuck delivering this droning monologue before Casey and Frank can do what needs to be done to wrap up the movie.
Now that the cat is out of the (mystery) bag, Tomorrowland reveals itself to be a movie filled with missed opportunities. The film certainly looks gorgeous, as Lindelof and Bird created this incredible sandbox. It just doesn’t feel like they were focused on actually playing in it.
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screenshot from Disney Movie Trailers YouTube video