Tomorrowland: A World Beyond

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (12A)

USA 2015 130 mins Dir: Brad Bird Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Thomas Robinson

Endearingly wide-eyed, optimistic and more than a little naïve, Disney adventure Tomorrowland: A World Beyond is clearly not a movie made for a marketplace where dark, brooding and introverted currently brings in the big bucks. Add to that it’s an original story (albeit one that draws inspiration from a Disneyland attraction) and you have a tough sell for audiences inured to franchises that revel in shades of grey. Indeed, the movie’s relatively disappointing USA box office opening seems to bear this out, a pity as the movie is a genuinely enjoyable, if somewhat rickety, ride.

It’s a film co-written by the man behind Lost and Prometheus, Damon Lindelof – so as one would expect, it’s a structural mess and the narrative frustratingly refuses to answer the many questions it raises. Props to the Tomorrowland marketing department: the movie’s awkward narrative, heavily reliant on an exposition-packed final quarter, must have made fashioning the trailer an absolute headache. However, there’s an upside to this: it’s a movie in which at least 75% of the narrative hasn’t already been spoiled by the adverts. Remember those days?

And that’s just one of the ways in which the movie proves to be a pleasurably old-fashioned experience. The movie begins by presenting us with differing attitudes towards the future, one bleak, one optimistic. Former boy genius inventor Frank Walker (George Clooney), first introduced talking directly at us through a monitor, reveals how, as a young boy (played with winning enthusiasm by Thomas Robinson), he stumbled upon the wondrous futuristic world Tomorrowland whilst attempting to show off his malfunctioning jet pack at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. A place of gravity-defying, chrome architecture, robots and other irresistible futuristic gubbins, it’s eye-opening and joyous, all the more so when combined with the brassy brio of Michael Giacchino’s nostalgic score. But Frank’s memories of the place are tainted by a sense of melancholy and regret that it wouldn’t do to spoil here.

Contrasted against this is the relatively sunnier outlook of teenager Casey (Britt Robertson). The daughter of a NASA engineer, Casey is baffled by a world in which looking to the future is tainted by a sense of doom. Why are we prophesising disaster whilst also refusing to do something about it? Through convoluted reasons, she ends up tracking down Frank via a mysterious pin that confers upon her the ability to see Tomorrowland. Casey wants answers and realises that she must travel with Frank to Tomorrowland itself. But there are robots – nay, killer robots – in pursuit.

Although the movie ultimately, unfortunately bogs down in relatively generic world-saving shenanigans, Bird’s zippy sense of energy for the most part keeps things barrelling along. A veteran of animations The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Bird has the wonderful ability to treat his live action projects (he also made Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) like cartoons, his stories zipping and darting around with a palpably physical energy. A brilliant sequence in which Frank’s house is invaded by the aforementioned robots demonstrates this wonderfully, one that expertly straddles the line between dramatic menace and tongue-in-cheek silliness. Faced with this wonderful world of grinning androids, laser guns and much more besides, it’s all Clooney and Robertson can do to keep up but they respond with breezy, likeable performances, even if the show is ultimately stolen by young Raffey Cassidy as robotic child Athena, whose somewhat off-kilter comic timing melds perfectly with the quirky world Bird establishes.

It’s also got a wonderful message for the youngsters: when faced with so much pessimism, it’s important to remind ourselves that the future is surely set to bring with it incredible things that will expand our imaginations even further. The movie may be flawed and clunky but surely Uncle Walt would have approved of its big, beating heart.