Brad Bird's TOMORROWLAND trailer, website surprises (1 Viewer)

[Adam Lenhardt]

There are a few minor spoilers of some of the setpieces of the film, but the New York Times has a great article about the extensive research that went into recreating the 1964 World's Fair and Gustave Eiffel's secret apartment atop the Eiffel Tower, as well as fleshing out the film's "nostalgia for that past that imagined that future."

 

[Mark Booth]

Ouch... the review at Variety:


http://variety.com/2015/film/reviews/tomorrowland-review-george-clooney-1201493855/


The Hollywood Reporter review is more encouraging:


http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie/tomorrowland/review/796132


4 out of 5 from The Guardian:


http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/may/17/tomorrowland-review-george-clooney-turns-mr-incredible-as-a-man-genius-world-saver


With 21 critic's reviews counted, 76% at Rotten Tomatoes:


http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tomorrowland_2015/?search=tomorrow


Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Another positive (video) review from Flicks in the City:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bS8YJ3tgoE&spfreload=10


It says it's spoiler free but the review contains a mention of a certain location/business in the movie that I had not heard anything about before, so you've been warned.


Mark

 

[Matt Lucas]

So, I noticed on Brad Bird's Twitter feed that the score is available on iTunes starting today.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/tomorrowland-original-motion/id993013163


Anyone heard it yet? I was holding out for the physical release in a few weeks, but I'm not sure I can wait that long.


matt

 

[Chris Will]

It's also on Spotify here.


I really like the score but, I'm also a big Giacchino fan. If you enjoy Giacchino then you'll enjoy this score. I just get this feeling of awe and wonder with this score, which I'm sure is the whole point considering the movie.


I still think Jupiter Ascending is his best score so far but, this is another good outing by Mr. Giacchino.

 

[Matt Lucas]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm a big fan of his work...at least, SOME of his work, since I'm not familiar with all of it. The UP score is my all-time favorite film soundtrack, but I confess I haven't heard the JUPITER ASCENDING one. Had no interest whatsoever in that movie based on the trailers, directors, and lead actors. In fact, I didn't even realize Giaccchino scored it. Hmm.


Thanks again,

matt

 

[Mark Booth]

Tomorrowland's critic score on RT is nosediving. Down to 54%. The number one complaint seems to be the finale. My favorite critic liked the movie... right up until the final 20 minutes.


I'm still looking forward to seeing it on Saturday. Maybe my lowered expectations will make it that much better?!


Mark

 

[Wayne_j]

I'm seeing the same thing with the critics I follow, they loved it until the final act in which it turns into a different movie.

 

[Matt Lucas]

I've lowered my expectations somewhat.

But then, I've met few critics whose taste falls perfectly in line with my own. Too often, they focus on what THEY wanted a film to be rather than what it is.

And I'm somewhat encouraged---cautiously optimistic, even---by Leonard Maltin's review. He wears his Disney heart on his sleeve, so a mostly positive review from him means a lot.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/all-aboard-for-tomorrowland-20150521

Matt

 

[Mark Booth]

I've lowered my expectations somewhat.

But then, I've met few critics whose taste falls perfectly in line with my own. Too often, they focus on what THEY wanted a film to be rather than what it is.

And I'm somewhat encouraged---cautiously optimistic, even---by Leonard Maltin's review. He wears his Disney heart on his sleeve, so a mostly positive review from him means a lot.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/all-aboard-for-tomorrowland-20150521

Matt

Thanks, Matt! Maltin's review is, indeed, encouraging! I liked his finish:


"And despite its flaws, Tomorrowland is really cool to watch. I hope young people take away the message it imparts: we could use more dreamers and “do-ers” and fewer cynics on this planet."





Mark

 

[Tim Glover]

I've lowered my expectations since the 2nd teaser. Loved the first one but just wasn't sure the more I saw it. Hope i'm wrong.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I saw it tonight, and loved it. It felt like a cross between those old school live action Disney movies like "Escape to Witch Mountain" and those eighties family sci-fi movies like Explorers and Flight of the Navigator and War Games and E.T.


I can see how people found it too preachy, and I can see how people expecting a big action-packed climax would be underwhelmed. But while you can read pacifist and environmentalist messages into the film, it's really message to dream and aspire. It's nostalgic for the future when everything felt possible, when we had world fairs and sent men to the moon and dreamed that tomorrow would be better than today. The slow dismantling of NASA's launch site at Cape Canaveral is the film's perfect metaphor for what ails society as a whole: we stopped reaching for the stars, we stopped embracing challenges and we stopped dreaming the impossible and then doing the work to make it a reality.


I was really impressed with the portrayal of the heroine, Casey Newton. Most movies with really smart characters spend a lot of energy telling us how smart they are. This movie doesn't have to, because it shows us. She grasps things quickly and intuitively, and thinks her way through problems. But rather than her just knowing as the Doctor so often does on "Doctor Who", we are shown how she makes her deductions. I thought Britt Robertson was terrific as the central character on "Life Unexpected", but she's even better here. Like Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network, she pulls off that rare feat of believably playing a character that is smarter than she is. At the same time, Casey has to be optimistic without being naive; she believes a better future is possible not because she's blind to all evidence to the contrary but because she refuses to accept that those obstacles can't be overcome. It's a very "Disney" character, very well done.


George Clooney plays to the seedier edges of his onscreen persona and does a really respectable job presenting this brilliant man who has become grimly convinced that the world is doomed but is desperate to be persuaded otherwise.


Hugh Laurie has a lot of fun as the villainous governor who saw the end of the world coming, tried to warn it, and then grew disgusted enough not to bother any more.


Tim McGraw is surprisingly well cast as Casey's salt-of-the-earth father who's one of the last remaining NASA engineers helping oversee the dismantling of Cape Canaveral. You see that so much of what the movie celebrates about Casey was instilled in her by her father.


Kathryn Hahn and Keegan-Michael Key share a very funny cameo as owners of a collectible store in Texas with a dark secret.


But by far, the best performance in the film comes from young Raffey Cassidy as the "advanced automaton" Athena. She's the driving force of the film, and the balance between her nascent humanity and her machine-like limitations is a fascinating thing to behold. If this film is remembered as it should be, Athena will go down in the pantheon of both great cinematic robots and great Pinocchio figures. It's a performance with immense charm and ambiguity and genuine pathos. Both Cassidy and her director Brad Bird deserve immense kudos for pulling it off.


I also thought it was cool that my movie ticket came with a Tommorowland pin. I wish movies would do cool little tie-ins like that more often.


Hopefully this inspires the next generation of scientists, engineers, writers and artists.

 

[TravisR]

As a closeted optimist, I loved it. After a couple decades of pre- or post-doomsday movies, it was a breath of fresh air to see a movie with a positive message and a hopeful outlook on the future. And I love a good post-apocalyptic movie but the change of pace was just so great to see.

I can see how people found it too preachy...

I think the biggest problem is that the movie correctly places blames on people. A lot of people think it's cool when a movie says "F-big business" but it's tougher for audiences to hear that we're part of the problem too. I'm sure Fox News will soon be doing an expose on how Disney and Hollywood are trying to brainwash our kids.

 

[TravisR]

And fans of Michael Giacchino can spot him (spoilerized for those who want to find him on their own)

Spoiler

working the It's A Small World ride near the beginning of the movie.

 

[Sam Favate]

I liked it. I thought it was very good, not great. Too much left undefined (the calling card of Mr Lindelof, perhaps?), but strong visuals, a good performance from a George Clooney, and a great one from Britt Robertson. I loved that it was a love letter to an optimistic future, and those retro futuristic ideas from the Space Age.

 

[Mark Booth]

Loved it! It did slow down a little bit in the middle, but I had no issues whatsoever with the rest of it. Most of the negative reviews have complained about the last third of the movie. No complaints about the finale from me at all! My wife and our friends enjoyed it as well. It's definitely a movie that will be added to our collection and we will end up showing in the Booth Bijou!

The Booth Bijou gives 'Tomorrowland' 4 out of 5 stars!

The critics are all wet on this one!

Mark

 

[JoHud]

Well, really, this film is at least an advertisement for the Disney Theme Park of the same name, so it was extremely unlikely from the get-go that we would have gotten a dystopian future or even a bittersweet one. It had to have unfettered hope for a brighter tomorrow much like the park did when it was first introduced decades ago.

As a closeted optimist, I loved it. After a couple decades of pre- or post-doomsday movies, it was a breath of fresh air to see a movie with a positive message and a hopeful outlook on the future. And I love a good post-apocalyptic movie but the change of pace was just so great to see.

I've got to agree there. I think even back in the '80s Roger Ebert (partly in fun) took a shot at the genre when reviewing one of several dystopian future movies and asked "why can't the future ever be good?" and Siskel chimed in about how often the genre is a pretentious commentary on what's wrong with the with the present world instead of showing a positive one with what the human race has been doing right.

 

[steve jaros]

Overall, I marginally liked this film, even though (a) the ending went on about 10 minutes too long and (b) the political message was muddled, to say the least, and (c) for a half-second at the end I feared that Clooney and the young girl robot/crush were going to engage in a paedophilic kiss. There were enough moments of cleverness and humor to make it mildly entertaining.


55/100

 

[mattCR]

This was much better than I expected. I liked the overall message of positivity quite a bit; I didn't care for the "feed the right wolf" concept, but I got what they were getting at.. I sat in a packed theater and thought some of the dialog while a bit corny worked "It's easy to quit.."


Solid B

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm getting to feel like an old fart, so for me, this film just felt far too didactic for my tastes, so I wasn't really engaged, even with the cool "Tomorrowland" environment we were shown in the film.


The violence was oddly sanitized, but felt weird and even with the reactions by the cast, it all felt false and calculated. I get it's supposed to echo a type of the old school action serials movie-making genre, but I didn't really care during some of the sequences. I probably need to avoid Damon Lindelof-penned films, his voice doesn't really speak to me, I guess.


I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+, mainly for Britt Roberson and Raffey Cassidy.