Spoilers and such.
Yeah, but, John, if The Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.
-Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
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Ok, I did like Tomorrowland, for the most part, but it has a few serious problems.
I’ve seen a number of headlines that mention this film’s optimism, so I was a bit surprised to find George Clooney playing a Prepper waiting for the end of the world. I was also a bit surprised to see several cops murdered by smiling happy killer robots. But that pales when compared to Huge Laurie’s character, who is more than happy to see the world as we know it destroyed. True, it does have a let’s all save Tinker Bell ending, and most of the people we see murdered in cold blood are, in fact, Animatronics, but it is still a very violent bit of business. For example, the countless robots that have been living among us since at least the 1960’s self destruct when they are seriously damaged. Funny that no one noticed people randomly exploding now and then. I’m not even going to bother complaining about the nonsense scenes in Paris.
Then there is George Clooney’s One True Love, a robot girl that is forever twelve years old. It’s just a bit creepy, as well as very touching, when they stare lovingly into each other’s eyes. George’s female lead is also a child, though a slightly older one. I found it a bit silly when they squeeze into a bathtub to escape killer robots, she sits beside him in the tub, instead of in front of him as anyone who has ever shared a tub would.
Tomorrowland is stuffed to the gills with product placements, mostly for Star Wars, a film that surely doesn’t need any kind of promoting.
Everyone who grew up reading the Golden Age of Science Fiction is still waiting for such mundane items as flying cars, personal jet packs, interstellar travel, and meals in pill form. What is hinted at as some glorious human future turns out to be an alternate dimension where robots seem to be the dominat lifeform and they really want to make their World’s Fair a big success. Only it doesn’t quite work out that way and they abandon the magical kingdom before it is fully realized.
So what did I like? Well, it does have George Clooney in it. Several of the effects are very good, though several are also terrible. I did like the tender moments between George and his Lolita.
It was another film that wants to be Falsesafe or Dr Starngelove and make us all stop driving cars, eating fast food, and using electricity. As with countless other films, we are the LAST generations and the world will be so much better off once we are all dead and gone. How’s that for optimism?
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