TOMORROWLAND : Wednesday 3rd June 2015.

I think that the great man himself, Walt Disney, would be very proud of his Studio's latest offering - the US$190M Sci-Fi futuristic utopian action adventure 'TOMORROWLAND' which I saw earlier this week. Directed by Brad Bird whose Directing credits also include 'Mission Impossible : Ghost Protocol', 'The Incredibles' (and its long awaited sequel currently in the works) 'Ratatouille' and 'The Iron Giant', this film has the pedigree, the budget, the talent and the story to make this big, really big! Brad Bird also co-Produced, wrote the Screenplay and came up with the story too together with Damon Lindelof, based on the Disney theme park future world attraction that first appeared at Disneyland in the mid-50's.

And so to the film itself which is very impressive looking in its CGI imagery of a future utopian world where technology is so advanced that almost anything is possible. As the film opens we have a middle aged Frank Walker (George Clooney) talking to you as though into a camera filming a message to the world, but being interrupted by someone off screen who is constantly correcting his speech.

This sets the scene as we are then taken back to the 1964 New York World's Fair where a young Frank Walker as a budding inventor and child genius is seeking to present his own invention, a jet propelled back pack, to a panel of judges to win an inventors cash prize. The judge in question is David Nix (Hugh Laurie) who chides young Walker for his inventive failings and sends him on his way, but not before he has caught the sight of young Athena (Raffey Cassidy) who sees something in Walker that clearly Nix does not. She persuades the young lad to secretly follow her into the 'It's a Small World' ride after she has presented him with a small pin on which is embossed a stylised letter 'T'. On the ride his pin is scanned and he is transported to 'Tomorrowland' eventually and after some technological high jinks falls at the feet of Athena and Nix.

The action takes us forward next to the early 21st Century and to a suburb close to Cape Canaveral where resides Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) a teenage engineering genius of a girl who just 'knows how things work' and her father Eddie (Tim McGraw) a soon to be unemployed engineer decommissioning a NASA launchpad at The Cape, and younger brother Nate (Pierce Gagnon). Casey seeks to sabotage the decommissioning of the launchpad to prolong her fathers employment, and in doing so one evening comes across a similar pin to the one given to the young Walker forty years earlier. When she touches it she catches glimpses of 'Tomorrowland' which at first frighten her but then draw her in with her inquisitive, probing and adventurous mind.

Over several occasions she visits 'Tomorrowland' each time learning and experiencing more until the battery in the pin runs flat and she can visit no more. Needing to find a new battery she locates a toy memorabilia store in Houston and makes off with the pin and all the enthusiasm in the world, but at the store everything is not quite as it seems, resulting in the re-emergence of Athena who comes to Casey's rescue. At this point too we learn that Athena is also not all she seems to be, which in turn results in Casey meeting a world weary down trodden rejected and now much older Frank Walker.

What follows is an impressively realised chase sequence though the house and grounds of Walkers home as a bunch of US Secret Service Agents give chase with the aim of dispensing with both Newton & Walker because of what they both know of 'Tomorrowland' and those they have had recent dealings with (albeit unwittingly). Thwarting their quarry, they meet up with Athena again, and Casey learns from Walker the story behind 'Tomorrowland', his involvement with it and why he was forced to leave it all behind in the 80's. She also learns that there is a device invented by Walker that has the ability to see into the past and the future, and from that they know the world will end soon . . . very soon!

From here we are transported in an instant to Paris and the top of the Eiffel Tower, which is also not all it seems, and in fact is a launchpad for a steampunk type rocket that propels them out of Paris and in to the atmosphere only to plummet back to Earth but into another dimension, which takes them all to 'Tomorrowland'. Crash landing in a now desolate, largely abandoned futuristic landscape they are greeted by Nix who oversees 'Tomorrowland' and explains why Walker was banished all those years ago, and what is in store for Earth's future - ravaged by war, conflict, poverty, greed, obesity, famine, climate change, population growth and all that bad stuff!

Seeing this, Newton realises that this future vision is not certain, but more a prophecy of what might happen without intervention, and they have the means there now to intervene and save the world. Nix though has his own agenda and is not interested in saving the world - he is seeking to rebuild his perfect utopian world of 'Tomorrowland' instead. He seeks to arrest both Walker and Newton and have them returned to Earth through a portal bridge to see out their last days before the global apocalypse. A fight ensues which ultimately results in good overcoming evil, but not at any cost as Nix and Athena perish, but the world is saved, and 'Tomorrowland' can live on with a brighter future too.

On one level I really enjoyed this film - it has stunning visuals and effects, is a solid story albeit a tad disjointed at times, and a good adventure yarn, well delivered, fast paced, ambitious, and it raises a few morality questions that are worth debating after the credits have rolled. On the other though I found the Athena character very annoying as delivered by young Raffey Cassidy; teenage engineering genius Casey could have done with a little more teenage angst and rebellion; George Clooney looked at odds with his role too on occasion and I'm not sure he is entirely cut out for this type of action fare; and as for Hugh Laurie as the criminal mastermind of the piece he just didn't do it for me and we didn't get to learn enough of his back story and how he came to be what he is.

This film is worth seeing on the big screen for sure, and at the time of writing this the critics have been less than complementary about 'Tomorrowland' giving it a mixed bag of reviews, and it has so far grossed US$142M which is also below expectations. The film deserves to be so much more, but under delivers in the final analysis leaving me somewhat disappointed given the expectations around this Disney would-be blockbuster. As for Walt looking down on us all, he will be pleased I'm sure by this modern take on everything he believed in and which formed the foundation of his empire and his legacy.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-