(Again a)
problematic third act
I really
liked this movie. It was a fun ride, had a great opening and some fabulous
action sequences.[1]
But, unfortunately, the film doesn't work. Now the main reason for this is the
flat third act. The minute the heroes actually (re)enter Tomorrowland (far too
late in the movie) the whole house-of-cards that the filmmakers painstakingly
built de hour and a half previous comes tumbling down.
The main
problem I have with this third act is that it is only then when the problem is
posed to the characters (Spoiler: the
end of the world – again). The hour and a half before that they were simply
trying to get to Tomorrowland, like a road movie. Moreover, the minute the problem
is posed, thirty seconds later the 'solution' is plucked from the air and our
heroes know and decide what to do. You could have made that choice ages ago.
Now it just lands like a ton of bricks.[2]
The
following action sequence doesn't really amp up the tension because there
wasn’t time for me –the audience- to come to terms with the problem. It’s just
like: “Hey…problem” “We need to destroy that machine.” “Okay let’s do it.”. It
feels like a stamped-on finale (turning Hugh Laurie’s character into the
villain in the last moments). And the
little-girl robot scene. Well, I was actually hoping it wouldn't happen because
I have seen this so many times before and it hardly ever works.
Two movies
in one
I would
actually have preferred a few more scenes between young Frank and the girl
because here we have all kinds of themes to explore (can robots love?, What is
it like for an outsider to fit in?, etc.). I did like the -gender reversed-
Peter Pan take between the two.
But that's not the main story. And I think that is part of the problem. This movie
is also a bit two movies in one. The flashback story (far more interesting -and
it holds all the answers about the magic of Tomorrowland) and the main
road-movie story (that has a direction but doesn't really add to the plot).
Don’t show
it if you don’t need it
Another
little thing that bugged me was the trip to Paris. In this movie we have a girl
traveling by bus, travelling by car, getting George Clooney, travelling by car
again, travelling in Brundlefly teleporter, entering space rocket, going to
space and returning to another dimension...phew...finally
Tomorrowland..."where is everybody?".
It was a
bit much (and to be honest, the only reason they wanted to use the Eiffel tower
was for that rocket-scene...couldn't they use the one in Vegas?). They should
have cut the Paris sequence (even though it is very cool) and just kept the
movie in the USA.
Why this
need to kill everybody?
Ah-I knew
there was a fourth little thing- the murders of innocent humans. I don't care if
an evil robot gets killed. But killing humans simply to show how evil the
robots are (like the black suits weren't a big enough hint)? This is a Disney
movie targeted on children. And I'm perfectly fine by showing some death and
scary stuff to the kiddies (the corpse in the freezer in The Goonies). But it
has to be necessary. Why kill those cops if you could just as easily have used
your robot superpower to make them forget they ever saw anything?
But, still,
apart from these little problems it is a great fun movie. It just comes crashing
down the minute they actually arrive at Tomorrowland.
[1] Maybe the title card should have been shown the minute the boy enters Tomorrowland - it would have made a nice prologue/introduction.
[2] Heck, they could have made
George Clooney wanting to destroy that machine and that was the reason why he
got banished. A simple solution to two lingering questions.
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