Tomorrowland MPAA Rating: PG Entertainment: +2 Content: +2

George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidey, Hugh Laurie, Tim McGraw. Sci-fi-action/adventure. Directed by Brad Bird.

FILM SYNOPSIS: Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor, now a grumpy unshaven hermit, embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory. The title comes from the futuristic section of Disneyland.

PREVIEW REVIEW: My reaction through the first half hour of Tomorrowland: The magic of Close Encounters, the heart of E.T. Alas, the 130 minutes of magical gismos began losing their luster soon after that first act, and the heart took on a decidedly manufactured or perhaps robotic synthetic feel. There’s a message in the meandering narrative, given by the semi-bad guy nearing the end in a far too long diatribe. I’m keeping that last sentence, because while it is badly written, it’s much like the film: the elements are all there, it’s just not well constructed.

The teenager (played by a woman in her mid-twenties) is good, the little girl/robot is very good, and Clooney is, well, Clooney, still likable under the gruff and grizzly exterior. He’s a true movie star, but there’s nothing special in his performance and the part could have been played by nearly every man in Tinseltown. In fact, the film takes on a different mood when he is introduced and somehow it loses its wonder. How a film loses its wonder with the introduction of the biggest movie star in the world is a mystery, but that’s what happens. He’s a little too cynical and much too antagonistic.

Though only rated PG, I found the jolting violence to be excessive, the director knowing just how far he could go with action and language before crossing over into PG-13-land.

The trailer was exciting and promising, but the production fails as a movie, as a message and as a commercial for the theme park.

DVD Alternatives: E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Metropolis, Forbidden Planet, Star Wars, The Iron Giant.

Preview Reviewer: Phil Boatwright
Distributor: Disney