Tomorrowland
Directed by Brad Bird6.449%50%6.3
Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.
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- ShaydeknightMarch 28, 2026Tomorrowland is, oddly enough, based on a Disney theme park area. That already gives you a sense of the problem. The film starts with a place, not an idea, and then tries to reverse engineer meaning into it. The premise, not the plot, is basically Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The best minds in the world quietly step away and build their own hidden utopia rather than keep fixing a society that refuses to be fixed. Scientists, artists, visionaries - all of them opt out. I kept waiting for a John Galt figure to emerge and he never really does. The idea hangs there, half formed, which is frustrating because it 's actually the most interesting thing in the film. The cast isn't the issue. George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, and Hugh Laurie all do solid work. Everyone is professional. Everyone understands the assignment. Nobody embarrasses themselves. But none of that fixes the core problem, which is that the film keeps pushing a feeling that never quite lands. Technically, it looks great. Big sets, polished effects, shiny futurism. It's visually expensive and you can tell. But the whole thing just sort of repels rather than draws you in. There are very few moments in the film that connect with the viewer. It keeps insisting that you should feel inspired, and instead you start thinking about your own missed chances, the things you never built, the dreams that quietly expired. It's meant to be motivational but ends up feeling accusatory. You don't finish the film wanting to change the world. You leave thinking the world already moved on without you. You didn't get to take the ring to Mordor, nor study at Hogwarts. You're not an Atreides nor an Everdeen. You're just you, and evidently, that's not good enough. At times it felt closer to The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoevsky or The Door in the Wall by H. G. Wells. A glimpse of a better world, then back to reality, and reality feels worse afterwards. I don't think that's quite the effect Brad Bird was aiming for. It's more melancholy than hopeful, more loss than promise. I kept thinking of Oisin seeing Tir na nOg and then having to come back. You get the idea. Once you've seen something you can't attain, everything else feels grey. Yes, I'm saddling my review with emotional baggage. LOL Then there's the audience question. If this is for adults, it's strangely bleak. If it's for kids, it gets uncomfortable for two very specific reasons. First, robots casually disintegrate people. The body count is surprisingly high. No blood, but plenty of murders. It has that Disney trick of sanitizing violence while still piling it up. I wouldn't let a young child watch this. Second, we have an uncomfortable relationship. When he is a child, the main character (Frank Walker) falls in love with Athena, who is a robot built to look like a girl. Those feelings never really go away. Within the logic of the film, fine. She is immortal, not actually a child, and the emotional bond is frozen in time. On screen, though, you still have a middle aged man emotionally tied to someone who looks like a kid. It's awkward. Not scandalous, just a bit, well, odd. Especially in a film that might be watched with children who then ask questions you didn't expect to have to answer. So yes, the film's biggest problem is that it never decides who it's actually for. Adults may find it depressing and kids may find it confusing or a bit too harsh. The message is about hope, but the delivery feels pessimistic. By the end, I found myself half agreeing with Laurie's character. Maybe the world is broken. Maybe we should let it burn and build something better elsewhere. Thanos was right. I don't think the film intends that reading, but it's hard to avoid. It's polished, well acted, full of ideas, and somehow still leaves you cold. Which might be the strangest thing about it. It wants to ignite optimism. Instead, it quietly drains it.
- XiedaNovember 21, 2024This movie was a lot of fun. And while the underlying theme of ecological and social issues has been done a lot in recent years, Tomorrowland focuses on a different angle than most which is refreshing and hopeful. And if people found it preachy then they're likely not part of the choir.
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Tomorrowland Trivia
Tomorrowland was released on May 20, 2015.
Tomorrowland was directed by Brad Bird.
Tomorrowland has a runtime of 2h 10m.
Tomorrowland was produced by Damon Lindelof, Brad Bird, Jeffrey Chernov.
Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.
The key characters in Tomorrowland are Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), Frank Walker (George Clooney), Athena (Raffey Cassidy).
Tomorrowland is rated PG.
Tomorrowland is a Science Fiction, Action, Adventure film.
Tomorrowland has an audience rating of 5 out of 10.
Tomorrowland had a budget of $190M.
Tomorrowland has made $209.2M at the box office.