Back to the Future
To say that Disney have done reasonably well this year in terms of both cinematic revenue and, more importantly, critical success would be something of an understatement, with Cinderella and Avengers: Age of Ultron two of the many Disney distributed films that are set to be released in 2016 already doing fabulously well in both categories. If I was to pick a favourite in terms of its' critical appeal out of the two so far, then Cinderella would take that gong at this very moment in time, but maybe not for long, with Brad Bird's Tomorrowland causing a potential upset for Mr. Branagh and his little glass slipper. I mean come on, George Clooney and time travel. what more can you want?
After being arrested for trespassing on a defunct NASA operative base, heroine Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) comes across a pin which transports her to the magical world of Tomorrowland, a utopian dimension of life where Frank Walker (George Clooney) has been exiled due to his creation of an algorithm designed to determine the future of those who wish to see it. When such algorithm determines that the Earth is set to destroy itself within the next 66 days, Casey and Frank are tasked with saving it by Athena (Raffey Cassidy), a girl who may not be as she seems. Firstly, a film which basis itself on a theme park is destined to have restrictions from the get-go. Take the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise for instance, where the first may have been rather good-fun, if overlong, but then sank into depths of darkness with its' sequels where plot points ran thin and characters' became tiresome, even if they continued to still take bundles of cash. Where the first Pirates was good fun and entertaining, Tomorrowland at times, is arduous and obvious in its' direction and intentions, with its' main morale standpoint of 'move to Disneyland when the shit hits the fan on Earth', questionable to say the least.
Aside from questionable underlying themes of utopia, which for some youngsters may be a step too far, Tomorrowland does feature some solid acting, particularly from Raffey Cassidy, who aside from sounding startlingly like the evil sentient AI from the first Resident Evil film, is the standout performer as young-un Athena, who even out-acts Clooney at times, who although gives it his best shot as Frank Walker, is reduced to cliche'd adventure-film lines throughout most of his time on-screen. In fact, all of the child-actors in Tomorrowland do a solid job in comparison to their elder co-stars, even Pierce Gagnon. last seen as spooky child Cid in the wonderful Looper, as Nate Newton, whilst Hugh Laurie is given way too little screen time to embrace himself in the role of the evil David Nix. The visuals may look top-notch, and so they should for a Disney film, but they also seem vacuous, something of which is now common place in a lot of 21st century films due to the magic of CGI. Does anyone still remember stunts? Aside from George Miller that is.
Muddled in its' morale standpoint, messy in its' exploration, Tomorrowland seeks to assert the notion that good things come to those who buy Disney products are good themselves, featuring some rather excellent child-actors, whilst strangely wasting the combined talents of both Clooney and Laurie. Cinderella, have no fear. You are still the top Disney dog of the year so far.
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