I hate it when one of my most anticipated films of the year
ends up being a dud. And this year, that appears to be the case in a number of
instances. I was excited for this film. I love Brad Bird and think that he’s an
amazing filmmaker. I was looking forward to seeing what he had in store for
us. I mean, the man turned down a Star Wars film to make Tomorrowland, so it
had to be something special, right?
Yeah, not so much! That’s not to say that the film is bad,
because it’s not. It’s just that it is not what I (or a number of others, I'm
sure) thought it was going to be. The marketing for the film was interesting
and promised something special. What we got was a pretty generic Disney film, through and
through, fully aimed at a family/younger audience. And that’s not a bad thing…
it was just completely unexpected.
Visually, the film is lovely. The actual shots of Tomorrowland
itself were amazing, and I would expect nothing less from Bird. And the cast
does a great job with what they are given. I had heard rumblings that many
thought George Clooney was miscast, but I don't see it. I thought that he
did a good job and his character had a nice little story arc that came full circle. Britt Robertson was pretty dynamic as the lead and I look forward to seeing what she has in
store for us next. For me, however, the show was completely stolen by Raffey
Cassidy. Her turn as Athena is fantastic and worth the price of admission
alone. A bright spot in an otherwise uneven story.
Aside from the fact that it wasn't what I
expected, the film suffers from a weak script, especially in the third act. A
film that could have been revolutionary felt kind of generic, hitting all the same beats and tropes as any other family film. The villain was weak and the macguffin was so contrived it was almost laughable.
Everything was set up so that it could all be explained in the allotted 2 hours, whether
it truly made sense in the grand scheme of things or not.
Overall, the film was a letdown for me, mainly because I
think I had such high expectations going in and I really wanted to love it. The
probably 12 year old girls who were also in my screening, absolutely loved the
film and couldn't stop gushing about it, so apparently I'm not the demographic.
If Disney had marketed the film properly, as the family friendly film that it
is, they might have seen a slightly better box office draw. As it is, the film
will go down as a pretty big disappointment to many. At least this
means that Brad Bird can turn his focus to things that matter, like The
Incredibles 2.
Tomorrowland 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment