Product placement, context confusion dim visually dense 'Tomorrowland'
Whoa! What has happened to Brad Bird, the genius director whose refreshingly inspired "The Incredibles" gave us an on-target snapshot of an American family coping with superhero issues steeped in Soaring Sixties sensibilities?
And, whose animated "Iron Giant" created a Cold War setting for a surprisingly sincere, 1950s boy-and-his-alien-robot anti-war drama?
If any filmmaker seems perfect to direct a live-action, optimistically inspirational escapist Disney adventure titled "Tomorrowland," Bird would be the guy.
Yet, despite all its inventive visuals, unrelenting action sequences and time-twisty turnabouts, "Tomorrowland" gallops through a gauntlet of pushy product placements and confusing, context-challenged episodic events before nearly browbeating us to death with save-the-planet sentiments and politically correct pleas to embrace the bright side of life.
"Tomorrowland" opens with bewhiskered, Oscar-the-Grouchy Frank Walker (George Clooney) directly addressing us, fumbling to tell a story while a mostly disembodied female voice (Britt Robertson) keeps interrupting. They continue this until the end, adding a labored layer of narrative to a tale already feeling clumsy, cluttered and calculated.
Frank relates how as a kid (a cherubic Thomas Robinson) he invented a pre-"Thunderball" jet pack to take to the 1964 New York World's Fair where he meets a mysterious, British-sounding girl named Athena (a cool, confident Raffey Cassidy). She gives him a tiny lapel button with a large "T" on it.
The next thing little Frank knows, he's been whisked off into the future - Tomorrowland, where bulbous robots, shiny transports and happy people swarm about on Scott Chambliss' sleek production designs, resembling the animated sets on "The Jetsons."
The story shifts to 2003 where Robertson's Casey Newton easily breaks into a NASA launchpad to sabotage equipment brought in to dismantle the pad and keep her dad (Tim McGraw) out of a job. (NASA apparently didn't upgrade security measures after 9/11?)
She finds one of those "T" buttons. When she touches it, whoosh! She's transported into what appears to be a world of wheat futures, or maybe a future with wheat.
She takes her finger off the button. Boom! Back at home.
Athena, looking the same as she did in 1964 (don't ask), pops up and tries to explain things to a startled Casey.
Good luck with that, because "Lost" writer Damon Lindelof co-wrote this screenplay with Bird, and explaining the rules of this strange new universe are not a top priority.
Abruptly, "Tomorrowland" shifts into a banal road chase thriller with Athena protecting Casey from black-swaddled android assassins (all of whom should have been played by Jim Carrey) out to kill her and Frank. Why? It's not clear, but deliberately so.
Good thing Athena possesses some martial arts moves and has obviously seen "The Matrix."
A lot of imagination has been wasted in this project, which sometimes feels like an expensive commercial for Disney World, Disneyland, Coca-Cola, Oreos and the "Star Wars" merchandising catalog.
"Tomorrowland" offers us a few memorable flourishes, among them Casey's initial visit to the future, captured in a seemingly seamless single tracking shot that allows us to ogle the details of this vibrantly teeming metropolis.
Also on the plus side: a synchronized diving contest involving three pools vertically suspended in midair. A visual treat for sure, but like other visual treats, it fails to push the loitering narrative along.
Even Frank's booby-trapped house feels like a gratuitous addition, something extra to stave off viewer boredom. It's not near as much fun as Macaulay Culkin's tricked-out house in "Home Alone" or Mel Gibson's self-sabotaged apartment in "Conspiracy Theory."
Michael Giacchino's caffeinated score does its best to cover the film's hollow emotions and lecturing tone, but the music takes on a generic genre quality, sort of a bland "Cocoon"/"E.T."/"Close Encounters of the Third Kind"/"Signs" stew.
It suits "Tomorrowland" to a "T."
“Tomorrowland”
★ ★
Starring: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie, Raffey Cassidy, Thomas Robinson
Directed by: Brad Bird
Other: A Walt Disney Pictures release. Rated PG. 107 minutes