SNAPSHOT
Directed by Brad Bird, “Tomorrowland” centers on a jaded scientist (George Clooney) who helps a bright teenager (Britt Robertson) travel to a high-tech wonderland somewhere in time and space. Their goal is nothing less than to “fix the future,” according to a grave-sounding Hugh Laurie, but the clock is ticking. (synopsis via and (c) LA Times)
Disney never ceases to amaze me.
First it takes one ride at its theme park, The Pirates of Caribbean, and manages to turn it into a fun, rollicking adventure of a franchise that, though it is now suffering from a sever case of diminishing returns, nonetheless turned out to be far more entertaining, thanks in no small part to Johnny Depp’s outrageously out there Captain John Sparrow, than anyone expected it to be.
And now it has taken an entire section of Disneyland, the retro-futuristic Tomorrowland, which envisages a destiny for humanity writ large with 1950s all-the-world’s-problems-solved hopefulness, and spun it into a film that, on the strength of its teaser trailer, and now first full-length trailer, looks like it will be every bit as good.
Featuring George Clooney as a man with a hermit complex and a rocket ship bathtub – frankly it would make bath time a whole heap of fun, not to mention facilitating narrow escapes from mysterious men in black when they come a-calling – and a teenager who discovers quite by accident, as they always do, that she is the “chosen one” who might be able to fix the future which is ebbing away rather too fast for the comfort of the good guys (quite why the bad guys are happy to let things sink into oblivion isn’t made clear in the trailer), it has a lot of really cool stuff going on.
“What if there’s a place — a secret place — where nothing is impossible? Miraculous place where you could actually change the world. You wanna go?”
And that’s quite apart from the gorgeous visuals which render Tomorrowland as the absolute epitome of the breathlessly announced cities of the future that we were all supposed to be living in by now.
Why there are the flying cars we all imagined would be ours to own in the 21st century, the curving skyscrapers made of light and glass, and happy citizens blissfully walking along curvilinear skyways; in short the sort of place many of us dreamed we would be able to call home sooner rather than later.
That reality may still be some way off, if it ever arrives at all, but for now we can glory and bask in the splendid evocation of everyone’s favourite vision of the future, brought to life by the talented team of director and co-writer Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol) and writer David Lindelof (Lost, World War Z), and in a still largely mysterious plot which looks set to have us moving along at breakneck speed.
It promises a great deal but all indications so far are that it will deliver too.
It had better do so – the future, by its account, depends on it.
Tomorrowland opens 21 May 2015 in Australia and on 22 May in USA and UK.