Preface/Premise

• Tomorrowland is the new Brad Bird theme park movie that’s about…
• Well, actually I’m not gonna tell you what it’s about because you know very little about this movie from the trailers, which makes going in an even more fun time.

 Cast and Characters

• So the lead in this movie is Britt Robertson, and she does a good job in the movie.
  • She kinda reminds me of B-List J-Law, but she was likable enough.
  • And she plays her role well too. Her character is this really brainy but daring science kid, who Robertson seems to have fun portraying.
• Then we got George Clooney in the movie, and this isn’t really a spoiler but George Clooney is in surprisingly less of the movie than I thought he would be.
  • You know who he is off the bat, but I was surprised when we got halfway through and that’s when his character got introduced.
  • I don’t know, I mean he got advertised as the lead so maybe that’s just bad advertising…
  • His character was good though, and you know George Clooney is gonna play him well because George Clooney plays everything well (that doesn’t have the word ‘Batman’ in the title).
  • I thought the guy he was playing was a really cool character, and a really fun one to see with these other characters.
• And then the other star worth mentioning is a little girl named Raffey Cassidy.
  • I won’t tell you what role this little girl plays in the movie, but I thought she was really cool and functional.
  • Chances are you’ll either walk out and think what I did (that she served the plot well and worked over all), or you’ll walk out and hate her, thinking she was annoying. I totally understand that, but for the movie I personally just think she worked well.
  • And either way, she’ll get more work after this movie.
• One of my issues with the movie though is that you have these characters, yet none of them really develop over the course of the story.
  • You could argue that George Clooney’s character does change, but none of them develop.
  • And in my mind’s eye, development is what keeps characters interesting and relatable.
  • When that development wasn’t there, it just didn’t feel all that special.

Originality

• Now I gotta say that I really liked the first two-thirds of this movie because of how mind-bogglingly original it truly was.
• There were so many concepts in this movie that I was watching and was just astounded by.
• I could have just imagined 5^th or 6^th grade me watching this and loving it, just appreciating how original and out of the ordinary it was.
  • 10^th grade me still really liked it!
• It was just rewarding seeing completely original characters interacting with one another, and having no idea what was going to come next or where the plot could possibly go.
• It kind of reminded me of Meet the Robinsons with the fun and mystery of National Treasure.

Direction

• Brad Bird knows how to direct movies.
• All the action in this movie was great, the scope was terrific, and everything felt real.
• This is a pretty futuristic and unbelievable premise to, but Brad Bird brought it to life (I’m sure a lot of other directors could have tried and failed).
• I was really impressed how every shot in this movie was so fully realized and such a vision to see in the theater.

The Problem

• But there is one noticeable problem with this movie: the third act.
• No spoilers, don’t worry.
• Most of this movie is the actual road getting to Tomorrowland, but when they actually get there the movie seems to slow down a bit and take a different direction.
• The characters start to become a little too preachy with the underlying (well, overlying after they finish…) tones and the actual resolution to the conflict is a bit convoluted.
• And ultimately, they try to do one or two touching moments which do work, don’t get me wrong, but the touching “moment” goes on for like 4 solid minutes, and at that point I was checking my watch and wondering how much longer we had in the movie.
• Ultimately, the VERY end of the movie was good though and seemed like an interesting possibility for a sequel or spin-off or reboot (cuz we gotta have one of em off an original property nowadays!), but it could just be left as is because it was a solid ending to stand on its own.

In Conclusion

• In Conclusion, Tomorrowland was a very original premise that was executed very well.
• The characters were all really fun, though I wish they were developed a bit more.
• The originality factor was off the charts, and the script and direction were great.
• The third act got a bit too big for its own good and seemed a little over-the-top, but ultimately Tomorrowland was a good time and worth checking out while in the theaters.

3.8/5

***

Well guys, those are my thoughts on Tomorrowland! Have you guys seen this movie, and if so, what are your thoughts on it? Let me know in the comments down below, and as always, thanks for reading guys.