Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Tomorrowland Blu-ray Movie Review

The world of tomorrow, the picture and sound of today.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 13, 2015

Tomorrowland asks much of its viewers and offers little in exchange. Faith in story, belief in characters, and awe in setting altogether return a rather dull affair, surprisingly and unfortunately, in a movie that has its heart, and its budget, in the right place. Yet it ultimately fails to launch in a trajectory anywhere approaching a deeply meaningful destination. The picture has no problem blasting off and building momentum in its first act but it struggles to maintain it in the second. The third act's revelations tie the story together very well and nobly effort to bring some much-needed depth and insight to the story, but it's a case of too little, too late for a film with a burdensome weight and lethargy that are significantly more dense than the buoyant gravitational pull around it, too heavy to maintain uphill momentum, and certainly too bulky to make the otherwise startlingly beautiful visual effects more than ancillary curiosities. There's a better movie in here somewhere -- a leaner, more precisely shaped, more finely honed picture with story depth to spare -- but Director Brad Bird's (The Incredibles) film stutters more often than it soars, feels lost more often than it points true, seems content to bombard the senses but largely ignore the heart.

Revelations.

Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) can't stand to see the future vanish in front of her eyes, and for her, that future is outer space. She does what she can -- sabotage, namely -- to at least slow down the dismantling of the space program, but her actions get her arrested. When her father (Tim McGraw) bails her out, she finds a strange pin amongst her personal belongings. But it's no ordinary pin. When she touches it, she's instantly transported to a beautiful, grassy plain on the outskirts of a dazzling futuristic city. She seeks out more information on the pin which leads her to trouble but also leads her to meet Athena (Raffey Cassidy), an individual from the future who has chosen Casey to help save the world from assured annihilation. Her journey leads her to another individual who has seen the future: Frank Walker (George Clooney), once a child whiz kid whose time in the future was cut short when he learned the sobering truth about what it holds. Now, he, Casey, and Athena must make their way back to the future in order to save it.

There's no denying that, on its surface, Tomorrowland is a spectacular treat. The movie nearly overcomes its dramatic hurdles, the storytelling snafus, and the lack of real character intimacy -- even when it tries its hardest at the end to wring out some legitimate heart -- by sheer force of its spectacle alone. The film is a beautiful testament to both the grace and fluidity of 1950s-style future-thinking design meets the exactness, cleanliness, and vivid detailing of the modern digital age, giving it a polish and completeness that was always missing from retro-future design. The combination is nothing short of breathtaking. Yet even an interestingly absorbing opening act and the promise of so much to come cannot mask the quick downhill dive the movie takes as it settles in for the drawn-out duration.

Amongst the reasons that Tomorrowland never reaches its destination in one smooth maneuver is an absence of cohesion that doesn't materialize until, quite literally, the film's final minutes. It begins with two similar, yet in many ways disparate, stories of adventure, first of a young Walker journeying to Tomorrowland and, later, switching to, and focusing on, Casey's own adventures both in her present and the Tomorrowland future. Both introductions are fantastic -- Walker's a little tighter than Casey's -- but the film cannot build on them with the same precision and audience absorption due largely to a story that waits too long to explain even some of its broader details. It's not that this, or any, movie should spoon feed its audience, but a sense of aimlessness dominates the movie to the point that it's hard to get behind the ideas that tie it all together at the end. Most of the problems lie within a drab, heartless middle stretch found between an extravagant, breathtaking open and a more to-the-point finale. By the time the film reveals its secrets -- and the revelation actually happens to be satisfying, if not a little generic vis-à-vis its commentary on the human condition -- the picture has lost much of its momentum under the burdens of that rather dark, sluggish middle stretch in which the film plays its cards a little too close to the vest and at the expense of momentum and audience interest.

If nothing else, however, the film will leave audiences with a thought provoking bit of psychology and insight into modern culture, if only because the movie ends there and the rest of it isn't particularly remarkable beyond its core visuals. The film's finale delves into several concepts, none of which are foreign to longtime moviegoers but that, within the film's contextual prisms, make for an interesting study on ideas of fate, the ramifications of technology on mankind, the similarities and differences between perception and reality in a world where lines have been blurred by entertainment, and man's ambivalence towards the future and his failure to learn from past mistakes. Ideas of hope and determination and how those qualities may be able to halt the figuratively inevitable drive off the cliff are central to the film's core themes. It incorporates them with a moderately heavy hand at the end, but at least if there's a saving grace to the otherwise clunky structure it's that the audience isn't bludgeoned by the movie's central themes for the duration. Instead, they're presented bluntly but at least within a contextual frame the rest of the movie provides. Tomorrowland won't change the way man looks at his future and one another, but the movie at least puts its cards on the table in a "don't blame me when it all goes south" maneuver.

Tomorrowland Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Impeccable. Tomorrowland's 1080p transfer is a magnificent example of Blu-ray at its absolute best. The image is startling in every facet. Clarity is amazing. The digital source photography leaves nothing to the imagination, bringing out the finest intimate details throughout the film, real or digital, simple of complex, near or far. Whether the tall, dense grasses outside of the future world, trinkets in a Sci-Fi themed shop, the clean lines of the future city, or the wear and tear around Walker's present day house, Disney's transfer yields an unending thrill ride of rich details that are accurate down to the absolute finest, most intimate level. General elements like skin and clothes are just as impressive, too. Every line and bit of stubble on Clooney's face is revealed. Each freckle on Raffey Cassidy's are countable. It's a breathtaking example of pristine definition that hugely impresses even approaching a decade into the format's lifespan. Colors are just as satisfying. The palette is diverse yet intimately accurate. Broad shades dazzle, and no matter the push -- whether future cool, 1960s warm, or modern day neutral -- the entire spectrum is absolutely breathtaking in accuracy, down to the finest little touches in the most inconsequential corners of every frame. Black levels are pristine, revealing perfect depth and detail. Flesh tones are likewise impeccable, influenced only by each scene's lighting scheme. The transfer never suffers from any banding or macroblocking, even in the toughest of conditions, like a dense, cloudy fog that's prominent in one early sequence. Minuscule amounts of noise are visible in lower light shots but hardly enough to merit a mention. This is a truly striking and unforgettable image from Disney.

Tomorrowland Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tomorrowland's DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack is every bit as impressive as its 1080p video counterpart. The track is endlessly active and precisely so. The big details dominate the experience. Things like jet packs zip and zoom around the stage with startling intensity and weight to the effect while maintaining an effortless flow that practically does away with the speakers and places the listener in the movie. Future gunfire is also hefty and precise, with the effects strikingly defined even with the added oomph. Music is beautifully presented. It plays with seamless stage immersion and impeccable detail in every note, high to low and in between. Ambient effects, like pedestrian chatter, PA announcements, and wavy grasses are perfectly immersive and positioned. Dialogue is lifelike and smartly positioned in the center (save for an opening "dialogue" sequence in which a second voice speaks off-screen to natural effect). Prioritization is never a problem. This is a dazzler of a listen from Disney.

Tomorrowland Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Tomorrowland's extra content is comprised of various featurettes and several deleted scenes. A DVD copy of the film and a Disney digital copy voucher are included with purchase.

• Remembering the Future: A Personal Journey Through Tomorrowland with Brad Bird (1080i, 7:09): A Brad Bird monologue (mostly) that covers the film's parallels with current reality and the real Disney amusement park area. It ends with a look at the cast and crew's witnessing of history.
• Casting Tomorrowland (1080p, 7:27): As the title suggests, this piece takes a look at the process of casting the film's major players, the characters they portray, and the qualities the main cast brought to the movie.
• A Great Big Beautiful Scoring Session (1080p, 6:03): A glimpse inside the recording process with Composer Michael Giacchino, who also shares some memories and enjoys some time with one of his heroes, Composer Richard Sherman.
• The World of Tomorrow Science Hour - Hosted By Futurologist David Nix (1080p, 5:08): Outtakes from a 1965 educational program developed for Disneyland's Tomorrowland attraction.
• Animated Short: The Origins of Plus Ultra (1080p, 3:26): From the disc: "The origin and purpose of this short film, which appears to date from the early sixties, is unknown. It explains the history of an organization called "Plus Ultra," and its narration suggests that it was created in conjunction with a 'World's Fair' from that period." The piece shares some obvious similarities with the Tomorrowland film. An option is included to play this short ahead of the movie.
• Brad Bird Production Diaries (1080i): A two-part feature that includes The First Day (1:47) and NASA (2:46). In them, Bird guides viewers through the sets of, in the first, the 1964 World's Fair and, in the second, at Cape Canaveral.
• Blast From the Past Commercial (1080p, 0:41): A fantasy ad for a store featured in the film.
• Deleted Scenes with Filmmaker Introductions (1080p): Joking on the Eiffel Tower (2:21), Young Casey vs. The Volcano (2:44), Doomsday Living Room (3:38), As Originally Written Casey the Downer (7:27), What Happened to Tomorrowland? (2:58), and What is Tomorrowland? (4:17).

Tomorrowland Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Tomorrowland is a decent enough entertainer, but it's a heavily flawed entertainer. The film's spectacle and visual majesty carry it well enough, as does an immersive opening act. A sluggish middle and a shrug-of-the-shoulders third -- damaged less by what it does and has to say and more by way of the empty characters and vapid middle stretch -- keep the movie down. A leaner pace, a more tightly developed character roster, and a bit less ambiguity before the end would have done wonders, but as it is Tomorrowland never quite gets over the hump (it does play better on a second viewing with a better understanding of where it's going and why). Disney's Blu-ray, however, is something special. Supplements are rather average but the 1080p video and 7.1 lossless audio stand at the top of the format heap. Tomorrowland isn't a bad watch, just a case in missed opportunity. It's a fairly enjoyable ride that could have been more. Worth a rental for sure and a purchase on a good sale.