Tomorrowland, Blu-ray (2015)

by | Oct 12, 2015 | DVD & Blu-ray Video Reviews

Tomorrowland, Blu-ray (2015)

Cast: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures 127601 [5/22/15] (2 discs)
Director: Brad Bird
Story by: Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, Jeff Jensen
Video: 2.20:1 for 16:9 1080p color HD
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, English, French & Spanish PCM stereo, English descriptive audio
Dubbed: French or Spanish
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: “Remembering the Future: A Personal Journey Thru Tomorrowland with Brad Bird,” Short animation: The Origins of Plus Ultra, “Casting Tomorrowland,” “The World of Tomorrow Science Hour with David Nix,” Deleted scenes, more
Length: 120 min.
Rating: ***1/2

Brad Bird should stick with his excellent Pixar animations such as the Toy Story series, whch had straightfoward plots, rather than this incredible family visual trip with an imaginative but completely confused plot and storyline. Clooney plays the former little boy wonder jet-pack inventor who for most of the film grouses over science-minded teenager Casey and the mysterious Athena – an android from Tomorrowland.

Casey breaks into to sabotage a NASA spaceship compound being taking down, and finds a little pin from the 1964 World’s Fair, which she discovers that touching the pin takes her to Tomorrowland until the battery runs out. Casey and Athena end up visiting a Houston space memorabilia store to find out about the pin and meet up with two crazed robots who eventually blow up.

Frank Walker, the grizzled inventor played by Clooney, finally agrees to take the two girls back to Tomorrowland, which earlier had kicked him out. That involves lots of strange devices, a historic rocket inside the Eiffel Tower, and various secret hidey-holes. They are also being chased by robots disguised as Secret Service agents who want to kill them. When they finally get to Tomorrowland, Clooney and villian Hugh Laurie battle it out and each states their rationale. The former David Nix is not a bad villian at all. Clooney’s (and Bird’s) smacks overmuch of Ann Rynd-type philosophy, and sometimes Laurie seems to make more sense. The apocalypse is going to soon happen, and Athena wants to save the world while Nix has given up on it. The key is to destroy the “Monitor” of Tomorrowland, which they eventually do. I was blown over to learn from Wikipedia that the young people in the final scene after the big explosive finale are actually androids going out to bring other “dreamers” to Tomorrowland. Good luck.

—John Sunier

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