User reviews

That's what Tomorrowland is about. Hope. And imagination. It's a film that makes you believe in the future. Sadly, it seems that many of the reviewers here have lost that belief, and blame that on the film. Tomorrowland is not about how to change the world - it's about believing that we can. And we need that belief more than ever in our depressing modern society.

Tomorrowland is about the power of believing. It's not a blueprint for how to change the world - because the point of the story is that there is no blueprint. It's up to us to believe in the future. That's not too vague for me, and it shouldn't be too vague for you. This film makes you believe in the possibilities of the future. Watch it and tank up on hope and imagination.

I didn't really have any high expectations for this movie, since the initial impression I got from the poster/description reminded me of movies like "The Golden Compass" which is basically just a bad children's fantasy movie.

But I were definitely brought to shame by making that comparison.

The movie spends quite a lot of time, establishing the entire foundation of the story, which makes for a rather convincing storyline, and even though it's a fantasy, and a lot of it is science fiction, it actually makes a lot of sense. The only downside of this thorough introduction is; I could have used a 30min longer runtime in the end (the end felt a bit rushed).

But I walked away having genuinely having enjoyed watching it.

Why on earth didn't it get good reviews?

A story if hope and consequences, we must sort ourselves out if the world is to survive.

Brilliant special effects, good story line, well written and acted and my two favourite actors, what's not to like, please re-release it and promote it! It's just what we need in these dark times

Okay, after reading many of the reviews of this movie on this site-many of them on the negative side-here's mine: It was mostly quite thrilling and touching and a little thoughtful and occasionally humorous and it was awesome seeing it on an IMAX screen! Perhaps it was a little long for a family film but, still, I think many kids would be a little enthralled in this with the way director Brad Bird movies things along most of the time. George Clooney and Hugh Laurie perform well in their roles and that girl robot and teen girl also were pretty good, character-wise. I suppose I have to admit that the story took awhile to get together but when it ended, I sorta thought it made enough sense by that point. But I don't blame anyone who wasn't too thrilled by this movie not getting it. So on that note, Tomorrowland is at the least, worth a look.

I like this movie, well to say that I mean I like the movie up until they get to Tommorowland. The movie up until they get to Tommorowland is richly original and fun to watch. I thought it was cool seeing our characters traveling across the country and encountering sci-if stuff contrast to the homely city location. It was just such a fresh take on sci if and I was loving how it looked, but then we do go to Tomorrowland and it sucks. That's when things are confusing, and don't really excite as much as the first 60-70 minutes. I'm not saying removing the arrival to Tomorrowland would've made a more interesting movie, the movie just needed to make the Tomorrowland segment more interesting. But for the film they are getting across I liked it fairly well. After all this movie's heart is in the right place with a hopeful message.

Overall: Not as great as Pirates of the Caribbean, but not as terrible as The Country Bears either.

My quick rating - 6,0/10. Unfairly dogged in the theater but it does have its flaws. The story itself is contrived and really doesn't try to explain itself to well. Then again, it is fantasy ad summer blockbuster so why am I bothering being critical. The movie looks fabulous as expected (200 million in budget will do that) so at least the movie broke even (not even close with marketing). Britt Robinson(female lead) does a very good job in her acting role and is very believable as the apprehensive young kid. Nice to see some good wholesome kid sci fi that still entertains adults, this is why I think it didn't get a fair shake. Parents should've been rushing their kids to a little more mature sci fi film but I guess the marketing just didn't hit the right audience. To be honest, by the marketing, I personally saw it as another George Clooney vehicle which it wasn't. Oh well,still an enjoyable film that stands up even with its flaws.

Disney's "Tomorrowland" may be a hot mess of ideas and ambition, but it's bound to inspire something in many viewers that few films today do, and that's visual wonder and imagination without a direct assault on the senses. A few weeks back, I saw "Avengers: Age of Ultron," but the special effects on display in that particular film were used to show a gaggle of superheros waging complete war through cityscapes, making for quite the visual and auditory annihilation. "Tomorrowland" uses its incredible special effects to inspire that complex inside of us that finds itself neglected far too often.

The film opens in the early 1960's with a young Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) attending the New York World's Fair, meeting famous inventor David Nix (Hugh Laurie). Frank has worked to build a jet pack all by himself, though is condemned by Nix for making something that doesn't pose any kind of value for societal improvement. Following his rejection, he meets a young girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy), who gives him a pin with a "T" symbol. Whomever holds this pin is transported to an alternate world known as "Tomorrowland," where all the world's creators, inventors, artists, and geniuses can live free and build whatever they want, unfazed by political/societal restrictions.

Fast-forward years later and we focus on Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), a teen girl who is arrested for breaking into a NASA compound in act of sabotage to benefit her father, who works there. Upon release, Casey obtains this "T" pin and finds herself transported to this fantastical world. Upon further research, which results in a very close call with two collectors, Casey winds up meeting Athena, who informs her of the powers that the pin possesses. They wind up reconnecting with Frank (George Clooney) in the present day, who is preparing for world's end and now bears a cynical attitude after repeated shortcomings and lack of support. Together, the three try to prevent the seemingly imminent world's end as well as rebuild Tomorrowland into what it once was after its downfall.

"Tomorrowland," as a whole, is just as scattershot as it sounds. Co-writer/director Brad Bird ("The Incredibles," "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol") knows what he wants to accomplish on a visual level, and for that, the aesthetic grandeur can occasionally mask the coherency of the storytelling. Bird and co-writers Damon Lindelof ("Prometheus," which explains quite a bit) and Jeffrey Chernov work to predicate the first hour and a half of the film on mystery, catering to your desire to learn more about the fantastical world before you. It isn't until they try and wrap everything up in the end where things get a bit shaky.

However, your overall response to "Tomorrowland" will be dependent on which lens you want to view it through. If you become too hung up on the film's attempts to summarize its world towards the end, you begin to view the film with a pessimistic mindset. If you allow yourself to get lost in the world Bird and company create, admire the visuals, and take in everything that you're handed from the perspective of enjoying an adventure, then, in turn, you view the film optimistically. I break the reception down this way because "Tomorrowland" not only caters to the spirit of cinema we don't see enough of today, but it also reminds us that, when it comes to fantasy films, there are generally two ways to view such films and one of those ways is more fun.

I'll keep this relatively short. I'm a 60 year old, very hard to please Brit. This film, pleased me very much indeed. Hence, the 9 out of 10 score. Those who marked this film down, really do require a reality check. I'm not usually given to writing film reviews, but on seeing this film's current low rating - I felt compelled to write something positive, in its favour. The acting and special effects alone, stand on their own. The film, may well be 105 minutes long, but it's 105 of the best spent minutes I've had, this millennium. I won't delve into the film's storyline, as that has been adequately explained by others. If you want to be engagingly captivated, in a futuristic, make-believe World - where anything seems possible - then this is the film for you. I for one, would love to escape the current mess of a World we live in - to experience the alternative dimension, on offer, in Tomorrowland: A World Beyond

In an age of dark, grim visions of the future Disney's Tomorrowland is a delightful throwback to upbeat adventures of the 60s and 80s, a retro sci-fi film for the whole family to enjoy.

Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) is a bright and optimistic high school student who does not share the pessimistic views of elders. When Casey discovers a mysterious pin that shows her fantastic world and sets out to find the futuristic city with the help of a jaded inventor, Frank Walker (George Clooney) and Athena (Raffey Cassidy), an English-accented Audio-Animatronics.

Tomorrowland is a deliberately old-fashioned film both its tone and visuals: the film was loosely based on the Disney ride of the same name - considering that Disney were able to turn Pirates of the Caribbean into a billion dollar film series. Bird was a wise choice to direct and co-write, The Incredibles had a 60s style sci-fi look to it and he brought that look to Tomorrowland. It was bright and colourful with its showing of various technologies, from robots, jetpacks, lasers and a steampunk rocket.

Brad Bird has already shown himself to be a capable action director with Mission Impossible: Ghost Portrayal and with Tomorrowland he had much better CGI. There are some cool fight sequences, especially with Athena - it is awesome to see a little girl beating up fully grown men and giant robots. Tomorrowland is visually spectacular especially when we get to see the city in all its glory for the first time. Bird certainly brought out a sense of awe, whimsy and wonder.

Tomorrowland also has a great trio in the leads: Clooney, Robertson and Cassidy are terrific together, having many witty moments together when they are travelling and there is a zip in their interactions, like when they use a knock-out tool. Although Robertson's look too old to be a high schooler she pushes off the necessary enthusiasm. But it was Cassidy who stole the show: she was a revelation as Athena, playing a character who was older than she actually looked and at times acts a Terminator. She personally reminded me of Saoirse Ronan when she was younger, just with dark hair.

Although Tomorrowland had a talented director at the helm it also had a screenplay with Damon Lindelof's fingerprints, a man who has poor reputation as a screenwriter. As an adventure Tomorrowland is excellent but when it goes to the science fiction the film gets bogged down with mumbo-jumbo about time particles and destiny. This part needed to be expanded and more refined. When it's revealed that Tomorrowland was a place for exceptional people to come to where they would not disrupted by government or civil society. Essentially this is similar to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, a controversial sci-fi work that abdicates the philosophy of Objectivism, or if you prefer it's the ideology of Andrew Ryan in Bioshock. The prologue at the 1964 World's Fair could have been cut and it would have made the reveals more impactful.

Tomorrowland is a good of romp of a film, providing plenty of laughs, action and visual spectcle. It was rated a 12A in the UK but it is on lower scale of that rating and could easily be enjoyed by children younger than that age.

I almost didn't watch this movie due to the reviews it received here, but I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed it. What I found was that the reviews stating they couldn't follow the storyline, or that it was senseless or boring, or that it used pseudoscience most likely weren't paying attention, know little to nothing about science, history, or quantum mechanics, and like their movies to explain every detail in a nicely wrapped little package with absolutely no previous intelligence required.

This movie does require an ever so slight bit of intelligence to get the most from it. It has historical references. I can almost hear whoever's reading this groan, but you can relax, the references are of historical figures that anyone with an eighth grade education should know. I stress the word should. Now the science and technical references are a bit more advanced, and they don't explain the science behind it, so for someone that barely knows how to work their smartphone I can see the assumption of pseudoscience, plus most people will simply go "SCIENCE" or "TECH" and leave it at that. However for those that are familiar with and do understand the references, such as the use of tachyon particles, it's a nice little hat tip from Mr. Brad Bird.

To sum it up, it's an overall enjoyable movie even if you don't get all the references.

Global warming! Political unrest! Corruption! Despair! Sadness!

These are the ailments of the story of Tomorrowland, and the proposed solutions to them are as heavy-handed as they appear above.

The story is about a teenage girl, Casey (Britt Robertson), who holds herself to be fearless, ambitious, and incredibly bright. She is one of the few optimists left in a world (much like ours today) that is wallowing in despair over dystopian nightmares being realized and where the melting of the ice caps is both figurative and literal. And what's worse, she's the only one to think that there is a solution to all the world's ailments. She is "recruited" by a young girl from Tomorrowland, who shows her a glimpse of an alternate dimension where the best and brightest of the world gather and build a utopian society, or so they think. The problem is that they stopped recruiting when they saw that the world will end using technology they created that could predict the future, or at least see one version of it. In other words, they've given up hope in fixing our world. Frank (George Clooney) was one of their citizens that spoke out against this policy and was banished. He is put together with Casey and they travel to Tomorrowland to stop the world from ending in a matter of months, told by Frank's homemade doomsday clock.

Tomorrowland is a movie that runs on nostalgia and underlying it is a bankrupt moral philosophy on solving the world's problems. Imagine the philosophy underlying TED talks (technology, engineering, and design will solve the world's problems) making a movie for children to watch and be inspired to adopt their meta solution to the world's ailments. The solution is that we don't have enough "dreamers" working together building innovative and well-designed inventions. People don't believe they're special enough, and they give in to their sadness and don't believe in themselves.

What's painfully missing from Tomorrowland is any conscience. Even tonight before I saw the movie I had a conversation with a friend over "Jurassic World" coming out this summer and my fears on what they might do to the story. In the worst case, they make the movie about dinosaurs. In the best case, they carry the theme of the relationship of science and morality that upheld the first movie so well and showed the terror that innovation without a conscience (that word even means "with science" though I know it wasn't coined with that in mind per se) brings.

The only vices in our world, according to Tomorrowland, is being uninventive and a pessimist. Ironically, the movie revels in cliché after cliché, hoping we'll be wowed by the mediocre spectacles that are references to older future-chic tropes.

The theme that runs throughout the movie and eventually shows its own superficiality and impotence is the value of raw optimism. I'll contrast this to the virtue of grit which is the far more superior trait to hold. Optimism is simply being positive where grit is more akin to courage. One is a formation of outlook, the other is drive. Certainly Casey is optimistic, but where the movie gets it wrong is saying that's all we need.

Also there's the assumption that raw talent is what we have as the resource to tap for solving the world's problem. And with this view it shows that there are the gifted dreamers, then there's everyone else. Where the movie is misleading is in how it tells young viewers that believing in yourself and being special is all you need to solve these age-old problems the world is fraught with. Our time is terrible and we need optimists. What Casey never does in the movie, and what any inventor or great thinker will tell you about genius is that it takes a lot of work. They fail. They fail a lot, and they get up and they edit their work. They learn from their mistakes and they build a better invention next time. They learn when to scrap a project, and when to stick with it. Learning that virtue will serve our young people better than mere optimism. Certainly optimism is a part of it, though it's only one facet to a complex set of character traits.

The problem is that Casey never fails in the movie. If anything she waltzes into every situation and seems to know more than everyone else, and she never has to work at anything. You never seen any of her inventions (though she does have a cool security camera disrupting drone she uses), you never see her take a crack at something and it not work. She just bulldozes into situations with overconfidence that smacks of arrogance and somehow the inept adults in the story never thought of incredibly obvious solutions to problems in the story.

In the end, Tomorrowland falls too short to be called anything worth watching. The story has too many uninteresting characters with a plot that doesn't pick up and when it finally does you ask yourself, "Is that it?" You'll feel cheated, much like you would if you thought optimism will solve the world's problems.

Tomorrowland has a lot of fresh and creative ideas, but its ambitions become over reaching, and the movie feel chaotic and out of control at times. There are many wonderful themes that are explored by this movie, but the movie didn't quite expand on them enough in my opinion. There are decent performances from Clooney, Laurie, and Robertson, and there are some funny on screen moments with them. Their overall chemistry just added to the fun displayed on screen. I feel one of the biggest weaknesses, is that the movie wasn't fully developed within its 2 hour timeline. Another problem is that the villain had weak character development and motivations. Overall, this movie is worth a DVD rental, and is worth watching once at home with your family, but doesn't warrant a trip to the theaters.

Bird soars! Disney's fast paced sci-fi adventure is an entertaining package. With a great fantastical story in its vanguard, the flick unfurls into a beauty thanks to powerful performances by Clooney, Hugh Laurie and the brilliant Britt Robertson. What constantly gallops the story is its mystery quotient that unfolds gorgeously with luster, amazement and pizazz. Britt lets you see everything with her eyes of awe as you sit on her saddle to perceive the beauty of an unseen futuristic world that is not only downright advanced but marvelous too.

Tomorrowland is something we have always dreamt of. A place where limits of the mundane don't bind us. We are free to choose our profession and use ideas to build something beautiful without inhibitions from stuff that bring us down – malice, regulations and confinements.

As a kid, I have always wanted to split open the world's mystery and walk, with open arms, into the magical dimension of what-ifs. The possibility of the existence of different dimensions in our own has always beamed me up. The part that follows Britt discovering the pin that shows her Tomorrowland is an excellent reflection of our childhood fantasies. How many times have I dreamt of finding something that took me away from all this! Also the frames that follow Britt literally globe-trotting to see the future are visually majestic.

This movie skims the surface of dimensions, portals, and time travel subtly, without prodding into it like pros. This could be counted as a con to the movie. However, it being a Disney flick the specifics can be overlooked. Also, at times you feel the profundity factor missing from the movie, but not for once does the cast drop its guard. Excellent performances I would say buffed up everything, not to mention the concept that keeps you riveted.

Kabooms happening in the middle of the light and the crowd not caring, people disappearing without people noticing, not capturing the world's reactions are some of the instants that would make you think out loud, "Really?" The dark is completely absent from the movie. There is no time where people sit and brood for a while about the happenings. Even the animation sometimes looks…well really animated. But that was the kind of movie it was supposed to be. A Disney movie! Screenplay is great, with the majority of the melodrama brought in to play by the animate Athena, and Frank taking things up from there. Hugh Laurie as Nix is exceptional with his villainy touch. His reflection on mankind's recklessness was really something.

Overall a good movie! Worth a watch!

Disney's conspicuously insistent ad campaign – more, more, MORE! – suggested a lack of confidence in their product, and while it hasn't sunk like John Carter, the relative failure of Brad Bird's latest is another nail in the coffin of original action-adventure movie-making, already incinerating plans for Tron 3, and likely setting the company's focus solely on stuff with "Star Wars" in the title for years to come.

This is a pity because, while not flawless, there is so much to enjoy in this intelligent, exuberant sci-fi epic, written by Bird and Damon "Lost" Lindelof. It's certainly a darn sight more interesting than that bloated Avengers behemoth in the next auditorium. Perhaps its sequel-less fate will see it claim cult status in years to come.

The luminous Britt Robertson gets the insta-star treatment, playing Casey Newton, a bright young optimist who stumbles upon a pin badge which gives her a preview of a parallel world. That world is Tomorrowland, a place where the greatest minds – scientists, inventors, artists – have created a utopian metropolis. (Old Walt himself was one such mind; overtones of fascism are skilfully evaded here.) Casey tracks down Frank Walker (George Clooney), an ex-denizen of Tomorrowland, now jaded and cynical. Together they are chased by a group of creepy robot agents (think Agent Smith with a rictus grin) into the threatened utopia, and into Frank's sorrowful past. Hope and optimism are all that can save the world.

This is a big, passionate movie, full of energy and earnestness, and never self-mocking. I thoroughly enjoyed its 80s-influenced sense of adventure. Indeed, Bird's direction is reminiscent of a youthful Spielberg, combining simplicity with thrilling flashes of virtuosity. The attack on Frank's booby-trapped house is a dizzyingly inventive sequence on multiple levels.

Tomorrowland is morally upright, although perhaps its heavy central message is a hard sell for youngsters. It's basically a cautionary tale about media responsibility in influencing public consciousness. Hugh Laurie gets a dramatic final speech which is laughably preachy, but the guy has a point; and it puts his character, and the whole concept of Tomorrowland, into an ethical grey area. A two-hour-plus Disney sci-fi movie where the bad guy is the misappropriation of laudable ambitions? Quite a challenge for the marketing guys.

Offsetting this philosophical weightiness is a determined focus on awe-inspiring wonder. Yet Spielberg managed this in a single shot of a lagoon in Jurassic Park, so, without wishing to sound ungrateful, do we really need scene after scene of whooshing, swooping, and whizzing around this exquisite CGI cityscape? Perhaps Disney could have halved the budget – and thus their imminent losses – and focused instead on the ideas and moral quandaries of the narrative. Plot-wise it's exposition-heavy, but this is made up for with bags of visual invention and some engaging characters.

In particular there is a lovely niece-and-uncle chemistry between the adorable Casey and the grizzled Frank. Less well sketched are the relationships between Casey and her father (Tim McGraw), and Walker and his childhood sweetheart, Athena (Raffey Cassidy). But Tomorrowland is all about the central odd couple, and their encounters with Laurie's misguided David Nix. This is where the beating heart of this appealingly imperfect and delightfully ambitious movie can be found: in those who look upon Tomorrowland with very different eyes.

This film is visually spectacular, heartwarming, and motivating. The locations are beautiful to explore with the eyes, the acting is all- around enjoyable, and the message throughout the film is a refreshingly optimistic one despite the many negative things that are happening in this world today.

Tomorrowland is a metaphor for the possibilities that exist if we would only apply ourselves towards reaching for them. Rather than feed the despair and darkness inside of ourselves by resigning to a grim fate and a lost planet, we can accept the film's encouragement to feed the light and hope that is accessible to each person. Even though the main characters face many difficulties and many naysayers on their journey towards completing an impossible task, they press forward with a confidence that is unshakable.

Some have considered this a fault of the film, being that one of the main characters is almost too optimistic. This criticism is not warranted, and it seems that it's more a product of the wave of negativity gripping films and society in general, rather than objectivity. Yes, she is absolutely driven to making a difference in the world and fixing the problems around here regardless of what it takes. And yet, this is not an unreasonable quality for anyone today to possess, and the message is an overwhelmingly positive one. Just as she strives to fix things around her and to think of solutions to the insurmountable problems in the world, Tomorrowland encourages the audience to be optimistic about our ability to engineer and encourage powerful change.

Tomorrowland is not unbiased in its presentation of the optimistic heroine, though, and that is one of its strengths. The other main character trends towards the more pessimistic side of the coin and provides an interesting balance to the setting. It cannot be said that the film is overly gung-ho, being that negative perspectives are expressed during the main characters' interaction with one another. In the end, the film did a great job of exploring the negative attitudes we as a society will face whenever we want to strive for something greater than ourselves. There will always be the naysayers, the Debbie Downers, the Negative Nancys. They will always maintain that your aspiration is impossible and that you should resign yourself to failure. It is in this pervasively common train of thought that Tomorrowland stands opposed. Tomorrowland represents what we can achieve if we collectively put our energy and aspirations to work. We can not only repair a dying planet, but we can build an entirely new one.

It is here that the film loses some credibility, though. At one point it did feel that the film was a beautiful wrapper for a not- so- subtle attempt to force climate politics onto the viewer. Rather than telling the audience that the climate is set to destroy the earth, it would have been more productive to show the damage being done. Towards the end of the film, the constant telling became a tad preachy. Additionally, the conclusion as a whole felt substantially weaker than the first three-fourths of the film.

All in all, the movie is a pleasure to look at, the acting is interesting, the action scenes are done very well, and the over-all message is a positive and empowering one. Regardless of what people say, strive for your dream until you see for yourself what you can realize. Even if there is no hope, there are times when someone has to do something. Instead of waiting for someone else to do what you're waiting for, Tomorrowland encourages you to be the one who makes that difference in the world. Feed the right wolf. Feed Light and Hope, because enough people feed Despair and Darkness!

I very rarely write reviews for movies, but after watching Tomorrowland I've never seen a movie that's been so unfairly maligned by negative reviews,especially considering that this movie was an absolute joy from beginning to end. After watching it, and reading truly horrible, reviews I'm starting to think that somebody hired a few live bodies to slate this movie for their own specific reasons.

The script, actors and directors captured the feeling of endless possibilities perfectly. The FX were fantastic, there were no lulls in the plot, George Clooney did his thing perfectly, the child actors were incredible, and there were just enough twists and turns to maintain the pace.

Please, please watch this movie and make your own mind up - the negative reviews almost put me off, but I'm so glad I actually took the chance.

Actually there's one proviso here - and is probably something consistent with most of the negative reviews: If you lack imagination, or the yearning for a better world, then you'll hate this movie. Or you want to raise kids who aspire to be nothing more than reality TV actors. Or if you're a reality TV actor. Or your kids can't read or write because you don't think it's important. Or if you think science is dumb. Or if you can't embrace hope.

As for me...I loved it. I'll be watching it again and again :-)One of the best movies of 2015, and now on my "favourite movie" list.

In this movie the reason for the entire conflict remains in the dark until the very end, which is a very daring idea. I thought it was pulled off kinda nicely, although it did somewhat frustrate me, but not too much, because it helped me relate to the main protagonist. I thought that was neat. The story was great, the character arcs were solid, the acting was decent, the visuals were good. The only thing I didn't like was that I was sometimes confused about why the focus was on this or that character. I got the impression that some quite important scenes got cut.

At one point - I'm guessing 75-80% into the movie - I was prepared to give a 9/10 rating or even higher. This is very rare for me. I can probably count the movies that I rate higher than 8.5/10 on two hands.

But then something terrible happened... The preaching began. And it didn't end. It went on and on. It just didn't end. Even the final moments were all about the preaching. I got so annoyed that I started cursing. So when I was done watching, my rating dropped a whole three points. You can probably tell, I don't like preachy movies. I don't like them at all. Can you tell? I bet you can tell.

How could this awesome movie get screwed up so badly by unneccessary, relentless, unbearable preaching? Who made this terrible decision? So close. So damn close. I'm so unbelievably disappointed. It could've been one of my all-time favorite movies, it had everything. But they just had to mess it up. They just couldn't help themselves...

The only reason I didn't give it a higher review was that as an avid sci-fi reader, I can't help but notice plot holes and improbabilities in the time travel scenario as depicted. Aside from that, the movie was tautly written and dealt with some pretty heavy themes regarding environmental destruction and war. It was pretty incredible seeing the antagonist deliver some scathing denunciations of our current society, this in a Disney flick. Tautly written, family friendly, kick ass female robot and protagonist, plus George Clooney. Great entertainment with thought provoking, continually evolving plot twists. It is not a dark, depressing movie and doesn't cavil about promoting a positive future available to us as a result of our current choices.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect going into Tomorrowland, and I'm even less sure what I saw coming out of it.

Brad Bird's intensely promoted, George Clooney-led vehicle is sold rather transparently as an advertisement for Disney's not-so-ironically named areas of its famous theme parks. To be sure, there are plenty of fairly plain allusions to Disneyworld and Disneyland elements throughout "Tommorowland." Yet the frenetic and often uneven pacing makes it hard to know exactly where the viewer is supposed to jump on board in this curious if feint morality tale pitting optimism versus pessimism in a blender-like mixture of sci-fi, time travel, cyborgs, and general absurdity. If "Blade Runner", "Star Wars", and "Star Trek" crossed with "Back To the Future" and crash-landed in Orlando, "Tormorrowland" would surely be in the merged wreckage.

Ultimately, however, "Tomorrowland" plays less like a commentary on a avoiding an inevitably dystopian human future than an introspective view of the current state of Disney itself; a utopian notion gone awry without its visionary to guide it. Amid its fantastic visuals and caffeinated storytelling is a much simpler notion - that someone recognizes Disney, itself, is a little bit broken, replacing its simple stories and animations for explosions and grand effects, and aspiring to recruit contemporary visionaries to help it regain its lost way.

Can humanity regain its lost way? Can Disney? In its own, heartfelt and sincere, IMAX-inspired way, "Tomorrowland" aspires to put the question out there. Ultimately, it provides no answer; it offers only the hope of one, and an uncomfortable one at that.