'Tomorrowland' Review: Too middling for an adventure story

Film: Tomorrowland
Director: Brad Bird
Cast: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Raffie Cassidy, Britt Robertson, Tim McGraw
Rating: **1/2

Teen rebel and persistent tinkerer Casey Newton wants her NASA engineer dad to be happy. Loner and genius-in-exile Frank Walker is content being left by himself to his own devices. A badge and a robot return them to a futuristic utopia one desperately wants to visit and the other wants no part of.

'I know how stuff works' or 'I can make it work' shouldn't be allowed to feature on the resume of possible child geniuses. Obviously, you need to have more than just that.

But try telling that to their recruiter Athena (Cassidy). Through the span of the film, you're introduced to Casey (Robertson) a girl who trespasses on NASA's launch sites due for demolition using a drone and some basic devices and gets into trouble for it. And she was able to recite names of known stars as a child, so there's that. Then there's Frank (Clooney) who got picked up as a kid (played by Thomas Robinson) and got taken to a futuristic world called 'Tomorrowland' for doggedly building a carry-around jet pack that didn't actually fly at first. He's later exiled for a pretty stupid reason (one I'd rather let you figure out for yourself). But that doesn't stop him from keeping an eye on this utopia from another dimension.

That is until an unwitting and should-know-better-than-to-poke-around Casey gets drawn into a trap laid by robots who want to kill her. Athena steps in, in time and saves her and sends her to Frank. That's when the running starts getting serious and more of a risk than a plain rumble-and-tumble.

It's Raffie's Athena and not Britt's Casey who catches your attention. In the years to come, this girl will be an actress to watch out for, provided she doesn't make bad film or life choices. She's a scene-stealer, has the best lines and despite playing a robot, comes across all too human. 

The film, based on the famous theme ride in Disneyland, is one that sprung from the imagination of its creator Walt Disney. You like what you're looking at -- it's all slick and everything -- but it doesn't blow you away. 

But the film does have its moments. The Eiffel Tower scene. The bathtub scene. And there's that spectacular attention to detail each time a trip to Tomorrowland is made and top marks to production design and costuming. You've got to love the ideas that spring up here and that what-if-it-were-real feeling stays with you long after the film. That's a win in my book for the way the story was told.

But as story goes, that's where the buck stops. You know the aforementioned declarations won't be enough. There's got to be more to the story, right?

Here's the thing: Clooney is relegated to secondary status in a film that's riding on his name. He looks tired, feels tired and doesn't really seem that interested in the goings-on. It doesn't help that he comes close to the second half either. Hugh Laurie (of House MD fame), also, has precious little to do in the first part. And the immensely talented Keegan-Michael Key (of Key and Peele fame), too has to be content with a short role.  Their roles end up being more cardboard cutouts/caricatures than real people. 

Most of the characters don't stay in memory and that's always a bad thing. One really feels that the minds of Damon Lindelof and Brad Bird while being wildly inventive couldn't really pull out all the stops in a film of this scale. And why did they have to throw a bit of preachiness in the mix?

That being said, this film is worth one watch at least. If you're a geek/nerd/science enthusiast, you'll be swimming through bones to pick. If visual razmatazz is more up your alley, this is the ticket to ask for this week.