Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland is directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Mission Impossible 4), and if you are a fan of his work, you will watch this movie and see Brad Bird all over this film. Despite its shortcomings, this movie is full of imagination, big ideas, and fun, so I can forgive many of the mistakes it made. Brit Robertson and George Clooney may have top billing as the stars of Tomorrowland, but the breakout performance comes from Raffey Cassidy, who was almost invisible in the marketing. It was impressive to watch this 13 year old girl act alongside George Clooney, and stand out as a character. However, despite the acting talent involved, I still look at this primarily as a Brad Bird movie. As I said earlier, his fingerprints are all over this film from his direction to the storytelling. One extremely inventive scene (that I won't spoil) takes place within Tomorrowland (the place, not the movie) and is incredibly imaginative and thought provoking, despite being in the movie for only 5 or 6 seconds. While still being entertaining and fun, Tomorrowland does have it's flaws; the visual effects are beautiful, but the action itself is forgettable, and the story deals with some heavy handed themes that are going to divide audiences. I also found the "destination" the movie was working towards not nearly as exciting as I had hoped, as the real fun in Tomorrowland isn't "where you're going" but "how you get there." A great score by Michael Giacchino really brings out the sense of adventure that the movie is trying to convey. Overall, Tomorrowland is fun and tackles some important and thought provoking themes with some great visual metaphors and character speeches that drive these points home. The movie is visually impressive and full of imagination but some of the storytelling is uneven, and some of the dialogue seems to miss the point. While the third act is not as fun as the first two, Tomorrowland as a whole is an entertaining movie. I'm not going to tell you that you HAVE to see it, but it honestly isn't a bad way to spend two hours.