I’ve been in theater yesterday evening to watch Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland, and i liked it a lot. I think it’s a great film done with talent and courage and it was needed to do a movie on this subject, not so easy to transform in a movie. And, although there is plenty of action, that’s why you have sequences of « talks » which are needed to explain what is going on. By the way it’s also probably the reason why the story was kept secretly as it was probably impossible to really explain it and make sure it has been well understood without any misunderstanding. On the « paper » it’s pretty simple and one of the good idea is that the movie stands on a feeling that almost all of us have: why the future looked like a bright, big, beautiful tomorrow in the 1960’s and is now looking so dark, if not « no future »? The film has its own explanation which fit well with the story ( but not for the « real » reality ) with a secret society called Plus Ultra created by great visionaries like H.G Wells, Jules Verne, Edison, Einstein, and Walt Disney among others, and Brad Bird does a good job, as well as each actors, all perfect, to keep the story “believable“ - if i can say.
The film, though, miss greatness by a few inches but Brad Bird is not to blame because, although the movie concept is fascinating and there is a lot to say and write about it, it’s extremely hard to create a story out of it. And i know what i’m talking about as i’m myself trying to do a script since years which would talk about why the world is getting mad and i don’t succeed to find the way to transform it in something which can make a film. And i think that probably no one can do it, except may be Stanley Kubrick who unfortunately passed away. The reason why is that we’re talking here about something which belongs to the part of the “invisible“ in life and it’s very hard to transmit that in a popular movie. Kubrick did it wonderfully in Eyes Wide Shut, a movie talking about what it really is to be a couple and the invisible link between two people, but he had the chance to have found the perfect story to tell it.
To come back to Tomorrowland which talk about the future i think that Brad Bird and his co-writers really did the best they could do to transmit this message about the future, and what we must do, even if Tomorrowland is not really a "film message“ in the intellectual meaning of the word. But Brad Bird find also his limits in Tomorrowland and, with all the respect and admiration i can have for his films - i loved all of them - he is not Kubrick and don’t have this ability to reach and transmit a fifth dimension that Kubrick had. That said, Tomorrowland is full of idealism and even innocence and it’s the most charming part of it, with of course the great visuals. I’m curious to see how it will work at the box office and what people will think of it. I think it will be fifty / fifty but that’s not important as i’m sure that you will take great pleasure watching it.
Picture: copyright Disney
