Review: Not even George Clooney can save Tomorrowland

REVIEW: It’s got an all-star cast and visual treats galore. But Tomorrowland is a bloated and confused mess that not even George Clooney can save.

Tomorrowland (PG)

Director : Brad Bird (The Incredibles)

Starring : George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy.

Rating : **

This word from the future is already yesterday’s news

-----------------------

There’s a scene in Tomorrowland where a cranky inventor played by George Clooney gets exasperated for about the 44th time, and barks this at a bystander: “Do I have to explain everything? Can’t you just be amazed and move on?”

Clooney, as is his wont, treats this dialogue as just another of his character’s many throwaway outbursts.

Scene from Disney film TOMORROWLAND Frank Walker (played by George Clooney). Ph: Kimberley French. ©Disney 2015

However, once you have made it to the end of this messy, confusing movie, you will recognise these words for what they really are: a revealing howl of frustration by the makers of Tomorrowland.

They have a lot of stuff to show you. And a lot of it is indeed amazing.

But when it comes to making head or tail of what this ambitious, retro-futuristic adventure is really trying to say to us, well .... a little explaining might have gone a long way.

I won’t further any risk of brain-breakage by attempting to do the job myself. It is hard enough merely sifting the lumpy plotting down into a pile of something coherent.

There’s this place called Tomorrowland. You won’t find it on any map. Mainly because it exists in an alternate universe, to which you can only gain admission if you own a magic badge.

And you only get a badge if you are one of mankind’s best and brightest. Once inside this utopia for overachievers, you will notice all real-world problems do not exist. As a result, you will become even better and brighter than before.

Got all that? Good.

Clooney plays Frank Walker, a perpetually paranoid gizmo guru who somehow sneaked into Tomorrowland as a kid, but was soon kicked out.

Now a young woman named Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) is knocking on his door wanting to know more about the visit to Tomorrowland that traumatised him so long ago.

Casey has also just come into possession of one of those magic badges. Will Frank go on to help or hinder his optimistic new friend, and maybe heal some old wounds while he’s at it?

Yeah, probably.

If you can somehow shove this blocky, lead-weighted tale to one side — I haven’t even mentioned the time-travelling robot assassins that drop in here occasionally — then there are some rather spectacular visual treats to savour.

An early flashback to a key moment in Frank’s childhood at the 1964 World’s Fair is beautifully done.

Impressive ... Tomorrowland features an all-star cast including Hugh Laurie.

Same goes for our first few samplings of the magic badge in action: the mere touch of the trinket can switch its owner immediately in the Tomorrowland dimension. Never for all that long, sadly.

However, once we have slogged our way through to the final act, it has become difficult to appreciate what (if any) big reveal Tomorrowland could possibly hit us with.

Director Brad Bird may have made three of the greatest animated films of the modern era (Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille), but he’s really come up short in the live-action arena this time around.

Though Bird’s cast remains unswervingly committed to his hazy vision of a perfect future shaped by an imperfect past, the audience will never shake off the feeling they’ve missed some vital information that could have made all the difference.