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Tomorrowland: A World Beyond is a film which looked intriguing from the trailer and clips I’d seen, but was ultimately flawed in its execution, not least because you felt like you’d seen the best of it before stepping foot into the cinema.
It centres around a futuristic pin which, if the owner touches it, transports them to a utopian place known as Tomorrowland, and as I left the cinema, I learned that Sepp Blatter had been forced out of FIFA – so it can work!
Unfortunately, you’ll also be wishing you were somewhere else while watching there. There’s a fair few great visuals on display, but after the first 45 minutes, this mostly gives way to present-day surburbia and a plot which either twists itself in knots or goes in directions which make you feel like screenwriters Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird and Jeff Jensen were making it up as they went along with a load of random ideas thrown together, until it reached the point where events descended into a dull lecture about global warming, going down the oft-quoted route that it’s all mankind’s fault. What a load of old fanny!
For a film that was clearly aimed at young children in its looks, I was curious to know why it had a 12-certificate. This was mostly for cartoon violence – which I won’t go into detail about as it would give spoilers – but it’s the sort of thing which shouldn’t be any worse than a PG-cert given how those scenes proceed.
Tomorrowland is led by George Clooney as inventor Frank Walker, acting exactly as Clooney always does. He’s fine, but just doesn’t push the boat out, here. His character doesn’t like people touching his stuff – I can understand that as I hate that, too. Keep your hands to your own stuff, you noseybonks!
However, there’s promise in the two lead actresses – Britt Robertson as Casey Newton, who finds herself in possession of one of these pins, and Raffey Cassidy as Athena, whose background you will learn while you watch the film, and I don’t want to spoil things here.
There’s also Hugh Laurie – not putting on an American accent for a change – as nasty Nix, and that’s another problem with the film – it all falls down into a bog-standard tale between good and bad. Nothing new to see here, folks!
If you read my review of San Andreas, you’ll know the problem I described about trying to watch the end credits (as I stay for these) and then the lights were put on full blast, ruining a particular effect onscreen. This time? They were switched on full around three minutes before the end of the credits, completely ruining the atmosphere and also killing any effect of the post-credits scene. I’ve already complained about that to the Odeon and I shall be following it up with this experience.
Go to page 2 for more thoughts on the film including that bizarre aspect ratio!
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.