Second Thought: Tomorrowland

The idea behind my Movie Reactions is to get exactly that: my reaction. I specifically avoid calling them reviews even though that's what they are because I want it to be my immediate reaction to a movie. It's the style I like best. For most movies, it doesn't matter. A month later, I still think Mad Max Fury Road is incredible. I still think Age of Ultron is imperfect and enjoyable on a large scale. Occasionally, there's too much clutter to sort out a movie initially or with one viewing.

Such is the case for Tomorrowland. I'll start off by admitting that I let a review or two I'd read beforehand color my opinion going into the movie. That's the danger of reviews. While normally they prepare me for what I'm going to see, sometimes they end driving what I focus on in the movie, like I'm trying to reverse engineer what the reviewer saw. I'm not sure if that's the result of writing reviews myself or if other people have that issue too. Normally it isn't a problem for me. For Tomorrowland, it sort of was. Tomorrowland is a movie with a lot to unpack and I couldn't shake it. I thought about it long after my writing my Reaction to it, which normally means, when the dust settles, that's a movie I really like. For those reasons and others, I decided to see it again.

I really like this movie. I assume it'll be in my top 10 by the end of December. I haven't done a Second Thought piece like this before, so I wanted to make that point clear before I get into what could be a rambling mess.

 Cast

I enjoy this cast. It's small. It's cohesive. It isn't normal. The leader of the three amigos is the youngest looking one. The most childish one is the oldest. The hero is a teenage girl without a hint of a love interest.

George Clooney has the toughest job of the three. He has the most untold story of anyone. Frank is still a kid, except now he's older, disenfranchised, and angry. He's literally haunted by his childhood in the form of Athena, still exactly the same as the day he met her. Clooney manages to be a grown man, playing a boy who is still infatuated with this girl without it seeming a little creepy. That's impressive. Frank never wanted to be the crank he's become and watching him come out of his shell is thrilling in the small moments. I particularly like when he starts getting carried away talking about Tesla and Edison. It takes work for him to stay angry and reclusive all the time.

Raffey Cassidy has the best role. She's the fun one. She's the little girl who knows the most, can fight other AAs like a boss, and still gets to be vulnerable. Despite being a robot, Athena's very much a person how the movie treats her. She clearly has her own motivations, but it's never made clear if that's something in her programming (You can't command a toaster to not toast if you turn it on and leave it plugged in. That same applies to a recruiter-bot) or if there's inherently something more or special about her. I'm glad the movie doesn't get too caught up on this, although I do want to know more. I'll go ahead and admit now that at least 20% of the effectiveness of the character for me comes from her being British. I'm American. She sounds smarter. That's just how it is.

I'm the most torn about Bitt Robertson as Casey. Casey is a great character. She's smart and optimistic and motivated. This isn't some random "chosen one" story. In a way, the whole movie is a test for her and she passes. I'd still like to know what the test she scored a 73 on was all about though. Her great strength is that she doesn't give up. She's the motor of the group. Robertson, I can't figure out. I think this is kind of like when I saw Shalaine Woodley in The Descendents: I need to see her in something else before I can fully appreciate what she is doing here. I need that contrast. As it is, I'm missing the thing that makes Casey interesting on a human level. I'm still looking for the grace notes that round her out. They may be there and I still haven't caught them.

There's not enough time in the movie to make Nix interesting. I love Hugh Laurie. He does what is needed here. He's basically a plot device though. There needs to be a villain to get to this larger message and he's that guy. I know almost nothing about him and I'd like to know more.

Plot

I stand by my initial stance that there is more to this movie than its run time can fit. David Lindelof and Brad Bird clearly put a lot of thought into this and I'm certain there's much longer drafts out there and all sorts of side information prepared in not included. There must be a good novelization out there or on its way. It's pretty great when a movie is like that. The world feels fully formed and not in a way that's begging for a sequel.

At times though, there just too much. It feels like trying to explain the quadratic equation in a tweet. The movie struggles to find a way to get it all out there, which is why there's so much speechifying at the end.

And, I'll outright admit. I still don't understand Nix's plot. Is he trying to destroy the Earth or does he want to save it? Did he originally intend to save the Earth by broadcasting the future? How does that machine work exactly (I'm with Casey's initial assessment of it. You can't know with certainty when you are going to die). I get it in the broad strokes, but it is very confusing. There's a lot of smaller points in this movie that aren't answered that are pretty frustrating.

This is a big picture movie though and the big picture is a great one.

The world's not going to save itself. Tomorrowland puts out a call for exceptional people, which is a standard Brad Bird concept, except with the tweak that really, "exceptional people" are simply the ones not content with leaving the world for dead. It doesn't do any good to assume we're doomed and that's what entertainment thrives on these days. That becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It so refreshing to see something that is so decidedly optimistic. As cool as Mad Max Fury Road is, Tomorrowland actually causes me to leave the theater wanting to do something productive.

 Tomorrowland

A gut response to the movie both times I saw it is that I want more Tomorrowland. It's a fun ride to get there. There's just not enough time actually spent in Tomorrowland for the part of me that wants to see that realized world. Especially when you look at the cost of the movie (just shy of $200 million from what I've heard), it's hard to understand why so little time is spent there.

Tomorrowland an allegory though. It's a future that we can look forward to. It's not the movie. It's the destination. Bird very deliberately leaves the audience wanting more. It's almost like he's saying "Do you want to see more jetpacks? Then go make one."

 Blockbuster

This is not Bird's best action movie. That would be Ghost Protocol. Nothing in Tomorrowland is as well staged as the island sequence in The Incredibles either. It's still a plenty exciting movie. There's the fight in the collectible shop and the escape from Frank's house for example. Even though the fight at the end has an iffy geography, it still has Clooney and Laurie fighting in a believable manner (See 'messy' and 'unskilled')*.

However, the dirty little secret is that it's not really meant to be a popcorn blockbuster. It has the price tag of one. So does Interstellar. SciFi done well is expensive. It's a pretty small movie in a lot of ways and that works for it. I just wish Disney could've found a better way to sell it to people. They tried. It didn't work.

*Sidenote: One of my favorite small moments in the movie is when the portal to Tomorrowland closes with Frank and Nix still on the island. They immediately stop fighting because they realize there's no point as long as it's closed. That's one of those details that wins me over in a movie.

I like to end my Reactions where I sum everything up. Often, that part ends up longer than the rest of the post, thus undermining the concept. Still, I like the idea of succinctly breaking my assessment down to something simple. And, despite all my examination of this movie, when I get down to it, it's pretty simple.

I like this movie because it makes me feel good.

Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend