By Flynn Geraghty
Have you ever wondered what would happen if all the great filmmakers decided to make a movie that was so good it would change the world for the better? Well, I’ll tell you one thing: not a single one of them worked on “Tomorrowland.”
The movie focuses on a young girl named Casey Newton, played by Britt Robertson. She is getting out of jail (for breaking into Cape Canaveral no less) when she discovers a pin has been placed with her belongings. When she touches it, she is transported to a futuristic utopia called Tomorrowland. However, the pin soon stops working. So, through various hijinks, Casey meets up with Athena, played by Raffey Cassidy and Frank Walker, played by George Clooney, in order to go back to Tomorrowland.
If I can give the film credit for anything, it is for being very optimistic. It has this cheerful and determined vibe that makes you believe that worldly problems like famine and natural disasters can be fixed. And, sometimes, that’s what people need to hear in order to get the ball rolling. However, in this movie, it takes a long time to get there.
“Tomorrowland” is 130 minutes long, and around 40 of those minutes are actually plot-driven. The rest is a long, loud, special effects fest, and when you’re constantly throwing that at your audience, the effects lose their luster, become annoying and almost seizure-inducing.
Granted, some of the special effects, like the jetpack scenes that were in the trailers, are nice. But, sometimes the effects aren’t even that good. At certain points, I had to ask myself if I was watching a 190 million dollar film or a better rendered version of “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.”
However, the nonstop effects aren’t the film’s biggest flaw; that would be its pacing. The majority of the film depicts the main character being amazed by all the whimsy in Tomorrowland and fight scenes that were too choppy to be any fun. This drags on with very little substance, and it gets real boring, real fast.
There were a lot of scenes where I would ask, “What was the point of that? What did we gain?” The saddest part was occasionally the story would pick up, and I would think, “Oh, good! We’re finally going places!” Then, after five minutes of actual storytelling, we were back to nothing of interest happening.
The film is also surprisingly confusing. For instance, when the the main characters are getting to Tomorrowland, they don’t just need to touch a pin like the trailers would have you believe. No, they need to travel to France, get on a rocketship that’s hidden in the Eiffel Tower and travel to another dimension. It sounds more like a Mad Lib than a movie.
While it isn’t completely terrible, I wouldn’t spend movie theater prices on it. And if you do get dragged to see it, I’d recommend doing what my mom did: leave your seat halfway through and read a book in the lobby. I guarantee you’ll have a better time, and you’re less likely to have seizure. It’s a win-win.
