TOMORROWLAND DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: Join former boy-genius Frank (Clooney), optimistic, science-minded teen Casey (Britt Robertson), mysterious Athena and the brilliant David Nix in a world of pure Disney imagination. Tomorrowland transports you on an inspiring and magical journey of wonder and adventure to a place where if you can dream it, you can do it.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Very much liked Prometheus, Tomorrowland is an ambitious sci-fi flick gone wrong. Coincidentally, both come from the brain of Damon Lindelof (co-creator of Lost and other sci-fi related movies).

For the uninitiated, Lindelof has the tendency to create interesting premises and inspiring vision. But his stories never really have a great ending and tend to fall apart in the final act after hell lot of building up. And Tomorrowland even with the great Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol) at the helm can’t really salvage an uneven story and the heavy-handed concept.

The narrative for a start is slightly complex so bear with me. A tech-savvy teenager and daughter of a NASA engineer, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) stumbles upon a mysterious pin, which allows her to be transported to a place called Tomorrowland. It’s a temporary vision which only those who possessed the pin can see. It turns out that Athena (Raffey Cassidy), an audio-animatronic droid from the future has sneaked Casey the pin. Her mission now is to look for Frank Walker (George Clooney), a grizzled, paranoid inventor and together they must save the world from a worldwide catastrophe.

Tomorrowland more than often slow to a crawl especially with too much mumbo-jumbo about the confusing future and stuff. It’s Damon Lindelof doing most of the scribing (with Bird credited as co-writer) so you expect muddling deep narrative than plain old straightforward storytelling. It’s kind of hard figuring out why the leader of Tomorrowland, Nix (Hugh Laurie from House M.D.) wants to see the world burn but since this is a DVD, you can rewind and rewatch at your conveniences.   

Other than that gripe about the laborious story, Tomorrowland is actually a very fun flick to watch. The famous “It’s A Small World” attraction in the 1964 New York’s World Fair is a hidden portal to the future while the iconic Eiffel Tower has a concealed rocket under it. There’s also an exhilarating gun fight at a memorabilia store whose storeowners are droids by the way. If you are feeling a bit nostalgia over The Rocketeer, there’s a pretty neat jetpack sequence as well.

When it comes to the cast, Britt Robertson at the age of 25 plays a very convincing teenager while Clooney plays a very convincing grouchy old man. Laurie on the other hand lends some weight to the production with his unforgettable British accent and young English actress Raffey Cassidy is amazingly believable as a droid surpassing Haley Joel Osment’s performance in A.I.  

In the end, all the visual excitement can’t really compensate the lacking of a coherent story. Tomorrowland is not the destined sci-fi classic it ought to be instead it’s just an action flick recommended for the elaborate visuals.    

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Brad Bird Production Diary NASA talks about filming onsite at NASA

Blast From The Past is a fake commercial for the memorabilia store seen in the movie. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Visually speaking, Tomorrowland looks fantastic on DVD. Colours and details are solid. Ambient sound is well placed, the action sequences are immersive with occasional strong loud effects across the speakers and dialogue is clear.   

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee