Science fiction giving an insight into the future is a theme that many filmmakers in Hollywood have delve with. Each giving a thoughtful insight to the future and most of the time, in turn, making us value the present. Director Brad Bird’s latest offering ‘Tomorrowland’ gives a glimpse of a similar utopian world full of optimism, dreams and creativity.
The film begins with boy wonder Frank visiting the world fair in 1964 in New York. Frank (played by the bright Thomas Robinson) shows his jetpack at the fair which fails to soar, primarily because it is made of a vacuum cleaner. Nevertheless, owing to his genius mind and his vision, he is given a pin which is a key to the future- a land commonly known as ‘Tomorrowland’ – which is full of innovation and optimism.
Cut to present day world, Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), daughter of Nasa engineer, is a curious teenager who is undoubtedly the smartest kid in her class and who has a lot of faith in humanity and its ability to imagine and invent, chances upon a similar pin and gets an insight into the magical Tomorrowland. Confused and eager to find the truth, Casey decides to go to New York to get to the bottom of it and chances upon bizarre human-robots and meets Athena (Raffey Cassidy) who leads her to Frank, now older (George Clooney) and much more negative than before. Frank and Casey are poles apart and make for an uncanny pair but the two have a certain gift which can help them save the world from ultimate disaster.
Bird, who is credited for making films like ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘The Ratatouille’ perhaps had a great vision and it reflected well on paper. But sadly its implementation leaves much to be desired for. The film’s main plot takes too long to unfold on the screen and the actual point of the story is revealed only at the fag end of the film.
Sci-fis are known for the visual extravaganza. The stories may have several loopholes, but visually they leave the viewers spell bound. ‘Tomorrowland’, on the other hand, has no such exhilarating visual at all. The said place in the future looks not too different from a regular mall in any of the big cities of today. And even as Britt Robertson pretends to marvel at the sight that beholds her, it doesn’t really look that impressive.
The film’s main problem perhaps lies in the fact that the screenplay loosely ties all the threads that despite commendable performances by the lead actors, the film tends to slacken specially in the second half.
George Clooney, much like his on screen character, looks tired and unconvinced throughout. But Clooney makes the senior Frank very believable nevertheless. Robertson’s upbeat approach to all things new and weird is annoying rather than endearing but it is Raffey Cassidy who stands out in her role as robot Athena. She gets her expression just right and the British accent just ads to her charm.
While the film endorses optimism, imagination, innovation and to dream big; it falls flat mostly in the technical aspect and weak screenplay. Nothing that is shown in the film really leaves you spellbound and the second part of the film drags laboriously to a practicable ending.
Ratings: 2/5
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