“Tomorrowland” arrived with much promise – a wholly original sci-fi film starring George Clooney and more importantly developed by a wondrous filmmaker by the name of Brad Bird, he of “The Iron Giant” and “The Incredibles” fame. His second live-action film after the hugely entertaining “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” this was supposed to be the antithesis to the same old, same old, an antidote to the parade of boring installments of mega franchises that regularly populate the multiplexes this time of year (and now seemingly year round). Tired of comic book movies and film adaptations of old television shows and remakes of movies that were perfectly fine to begin with? Then “Tomorrowland” is supposed to be your answer. So why did it just land with the most resounding of thuds?

“Tomorrowland” is the story of Casey Newton (Britt Robertson), who lives in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and is trying her best to fight against the dismantling of the space program which employed her father for many years and which inspired her long ago to look up at a starry night with wonder. This determination and hopeless optimism gets her on the short list of people who are granted access to Tomorrowland, a sort of alternate dimension place designed by geniuses and meant for society’s best and brightest, a place for them to experiment and develop their radical ideas and attempt to make the world a better place. She spends a short amount of time in Tomorrowland, which looks mostly like The Airport of The Future, and then spends most of the rest of the movie trying to get back there. In order to get back, she is introduced to Frank (George Clooney), who was a citizen of Tomorrowland when it was first conceived, but found himself excommunicated from the place for reasons not made entirely clear outside of “ideological differences.” Frank is a total grump, but he reluctantly agrees to help Casey go back to Tomorrowland in an attempt to “save the world.”Continue Reading …