Tomorrowland 5-22-15

[The Wormhole]

Yeah, I had been wondering about Casey's mother, aside from that flashback scene to when Casey was a child, you don't see her mother again in the movie and nothing is mentioned. I guess we're meant to infer she died, but it seemed kind of sloppy just ignoring her existence after one scene. It's actually good to know there are deleted scenes, I can assume an explanation for why we don't see her in the rest of the movie is provided.

 

[Nightowl1701]

^ Well, dead mothers and Disney movies seem to go hand-in-hand...

 

[Lakenheath 72]

I haven't seen the film. I have seen reviews of the film on YouTube. One of the reviewers, Grace Randolph, on Beyond the Trailer expressed her opinion that the relationship between Clooney's character and the girl android was creepy. She felt that it showed that Clooney's character had arrested development and contrasted it with the relationship between Wendy and Peter Pan. (Hollywood is strange. A woman who is 37 is considered too old as a love interest for a 55 year old man. And, here we have a grown man who is in love with a child.)

I am hearing that the third act diverges drastically from the rest of the film, and that there is an elitist message in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc4iYNMYwjA

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I haven't seen the film. I have seen reviews of the film on YouTube. One of the reviewers, Grace Randolph, on Beyond the Trailer expressed her opinion that the relationship between Clooney's character and the girl android was creepy. She felt that it showed that Clooney's character had arrested development and contrasted it with the relationship between Wendy and Peter Pan. (Hollywood is strange. A woman who is 37 is considered too old as a love interest for a 55 year old man. And, here we have a grown man who is in love with a child.)

I am hearing that the third act diverges drastically from the rest of the film, and that there is an elitist message in the film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc4iYNMYwjA

I don't intend on seeing this movie for many other reasons, but I reluctantly keep up with Grace Randolph and she really comes off as a complete moron. She thinks Luke should turn evil in episode 7 and is banking on it. I wouldn't trust her reviews, but other reviews are saying that this movie is pretty bad. Maybe Grace finally nailed, I guess. I trust the other reviews and normally I would do the opposite of anything Grace said, but yeah, it looks like a stinker. It's unfortunate because it looks like a great concept, but Lindelof is involved so I'll pass for now.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I thought Governor House was also a robot (thus why he didn't age) and the line about chocolate shakes was just sarcasm?

I think he would have bounced back a little better from getting his leg crushed if he were a robot.

Hmm, I suppose. To be honest, at that point I had already lost all interest in the movie. It was literally "oh look, the bad guy is defeated, movie must soon be over."

It's not a movie that inspires a great deal of feeling. It's not worth arguing about.

 

[The Wormhole]

I haven't seen the film. I have seen reviews of the film on YouTube. One of the reviewers, Grace Randolph, on Beyond the Trailer expressed her opinion that the relationship between Clooney's character and the girl android was creepy. She felt that it showed that Clooney's character had arrested development and contrasted it with the relationship between Wendy and Peter Pan. (Hollywood is strange. A woman who is 37 is considered too old as a love interest for a 55 year old man. And, here we have a grown man who is in love with a child.)

I knew it was inevitable someone would make a comment like this. But really, I don't find the relationship between Walker and Athena to be as creepy as it appears at first glance. Walker first met Athena as a child, developed a crush on Athena, who at the time appeared to be relatively close in age to him. He tried to pursue a relationship, she rejected him, he turned bitter and resentful over having his heart broken. Maybe it's sad that a man in his 50s hasn't gotten over having his heart broken by a childhood crush, but well, there we are. Walker certainly isn't a pedophile (in fact, Athena's likely a lot older than he is) he just has feelings for someone in a child's body.

But, yeah, in light of that whole thing with Maggie Gyllenhaal being allegedly too old to be someone's love interest, and reading an article that points out that movie relationships often feature male actors significantly older than the actresses playing their lovers kind of did draw my attention to the obvious age gap between Clooney and the actress playing Athena.

 

[DWF]

I don't think the movie makes it clear that Athena rejected Frank, but he was certainly put off by the fact that she was a robot. But I do think it is clear that he still loves her, it never felt creepy to me though. Although any possibility of a relationship sailed a long time ago.

 

[Romulan_spy]

I have two questions:

1) Why was tomorrowland so dilapidated and deserted when our characters reach it in their apollo capsule? I don't the movie really explained it. Was it just that the inhabitants gave up hope when they realized their mission to save earth was futile, so they decided to leave? But then why would leave a futuristic utopia to return to a doomed earth?

2) I understand Nix's motivation to amplify the machine's doomsday predictions to Earth with the hope that it would motivate humans to change. That made some sense. But why keep it going even after the plan to scare humans to change had failed? I feel his motivations were not very clear.

 

[DWF]

I have two questions:

1) Why was tomorrowland so dilapidated and deserted when our characters reach it in their apollo capsule? I don't the movie really explained it. Was it just that the inhabitants gave up hope when they realized their mission to save earth was futile, so they decided to leave? But then why would leave a futuristic utopia to return to a doomed earth?

2) I understand Nix's motivation to amplify the machine's doomsday predictions to Earth with the hope that it would motivate humans to change. That made some sense. But why keep it going even after the plan to scare humans to change had failed? I feel his motivations were not very clear.

1) I think Nix was letting the place go for at least the last 30 years or more in the hopes of preserving himiself when the world ended.

2) Nix didn't quite understand that the future could be altered, he thought the end of the earth was a cetainty and as long as he was safe in Tomorrowland he didn't really care. In some ways it's hard to see him as a clear cut villain, but he was a pretty selfish guy though.

 

[Mr Light]

I really wish we learned more about Tomorrowland and the people who lived in it, but sadly they left all that out. In the modern day, the only inhabitant who got any screen time was Nix. What about the rest of them? Were they in on it? Did they feel the same way he did? Who knows?

 

[Romulan_spy]

1) I think Nix was letting the place go for at least the last 30 years or more in the hopes of preserving himself when the world ended.

Not sure I follow. How does letting tomorrowland waste away keep Nix safe when the world ends? Tomorrowland is in another dimension so it would be unaffected by our earth coming to an end.

2) Nix didn't quite understand that the future could be altered, he thought the end of the earth was a certainty and as long as he was safe in Tomorrowland he didn't really care.

If the end of the world was inevitable no matter what then turning the machine off would not change that. So why not turn the machine off since it won't change anything?

In some ways it's hard to see him as a clear cut villain, but he was a pretty selfish guy though.

Totally agree. At first, I assumed Nix was going to be your stereotypical villain who is out to conquer the world but when he explained that he was using the machine to try to scare humanity into changing their self-destructive ways, I thought he was not completely bad.

I actually came up with a possible alternate ending that I think would have been better than the ending we got. In my alt ending, when our main characters land on tomorrowland in the apollo capsule, they don't find a wasted place. Instead, they find a technologically marvelous place a lot like the pin vision that Casey saw. We get to see a lot of tomorrowland. We see limitless clean energy, safe automated transportation, amazing virtual reality entertainment, educational system that is tailored to each person's personality in real-time, etc... Casey wonders why these technologies are not shared with Earth in order to make a difference. Frank explains that during his stay, an ideological rift occurred in Tomorrowland. One camp wanted to share the technology to help earth. He was exiled because he supported that camp. The other camp, led by Governor Nix, believed that Earth was inevitably doomed, so tomorrowland should focus inward, keep its tech to itself and make sure it continues to prosper. Casey agrees with the first camp and starts speaking up. We see that tomorrowland has a darker side. People are relunctant to speak their mind. Flying drones spy on everyone. Nix has a police state hold on tomorrowland. Everyone is happy as long as they agree with Nix. Frank, Casey and Athena meet up with the underground, those who agree with the first camp that technology should be shared, and they lead a revolt against Nix. After a struggle, Nix is defeated and tomorrowland ceases to be a police state and much of the amazing technology is introduced to earth, albeit slowly so as not to shock people. We see clips of TED talks, and someone looking like Elon Musk introducing the next Tesla product.

 

[Samurai8472]

Apparently Brad Bird is begging people to see Tomorrowland on his twitter account

https://twitter.com/bradbirda113

 

[Grendelsbayne]

1) I think Nix was letting the place go for at least the last 30 years or more in the hopes of preserving himself when the world ended.

Not sure I follow. How does letting tomorrowland waste away keep Nix safe when the world ends? Tomorrowland is in another dimension so it would be unaffected by our earth coming to an end.

2) Nix didn't quite understand that the future could be altered, he thought the end of the earth was a certainty and as long as he was safe in Tomorrowland he didn't really care.

If the end of the world was inevitable no matter what then turning the machine off would not change that. So why not turn the machine off since it won't change anything?

In some ways it's hard to see him as a clear cut villain, but he was a pretty selfish guy though.

Totally agree. At first, I assumed Nix was going to be your stereotypical villain who is out to conquer the world but when he explained that he was using the machine to try to scare humanity into changing their self-destructive ways, I thought he was not completely bad.

The way I saw it was that this was exactly the point - that he wasn't really evil, just really fallible and bitter. Basically he turned on the machine to make people aware and he seemed to succeed, except that aware people reacted exactly the opposite to what he had expected. I'm sure he spent years watching and hoping that they would finally wake up and do something. But no one did, and I think the bitter failure of that (which belonged to both him personally and the human race in general) drove him to the point that he honestly started to despise people and maybe (just a little) look forward to the day when they killed themselves.

By the time we see him in the movie, he's grown so angry at the human race and so sure of the inevitability of the apocalypse that even though he doesn't (can't) believe what they're saying is true, he still can't allow them to test the theory because if there's even the tiniest chance that they're right, it would completely invalidate everything he's grown to believe and it would mean that fault was with him all along, and not with anyone else.

He's actually kind of a fascinating villain to me - I thought he was really different and unique, with a great performance from Hugh Laurie. It's just a shame he didn't have a little bit more development actually in the film.

 

[Romulan_spy]

even though he doesn't (can't) believe what they're saying is true, he still can't allow them to test the theory because if there's even the tiniest chance that they're right, it would completely invalidate everything he's grown to believe and it would mean that fault was with him all along, and not with anyone else.

Thanks. You explained it perfectly and helped me get it now.

 

[Mr Light]

Romulan Spy, I much prefer your ending!

 

[Snaploud]

Romulan Spy, I much prefer your ending!

Ditto

 

[Unicron]

I actually came up with a possible alternate ending that I think would have been better than the ending we got. In my alt ending, when our main characters land on tomorrowland in the apollo capsule, they don't find a wasted place. Instead, they find a technologically marvelous place a lot like the pin vision that Casey saw. We get to see a lot of tomorrowland. We see limitless clean energy, safe automated transportation, amazing virtual reality entertainment, educational system that is tailored to each person's personality in real-time, etc... Casey wonders why these technologies are not shared with Earth in order to make a difference. Frank explains that during his stay, an ideological rift occurred in Tomorrowland. One camp wanted to share the technology to help earth. He was exiled because he supported that camp. The other camp, led by Governor Nix, believed that Earth was inevitably doomed, so tomorrowland should focus inward, keep its tech to itself and make sure it continues to prosper. Casey agrees with the first camp and starts speaking up. We see that tomorrowland has a darker side. People are relunctant to speak their mind. Flying drones spy on everyone. Nix has a police state hold on tomorrowland. Everyone is happy as long as they agree with Nix. Frank, Casey and Athena meet up with the underground, those who agree with the first camp that technology should be shared, and they lead a revolt against Nix. After a struggle, Nix is defeated and tomorrowland ceases to be a police state and much of the amazing technology is introduced to earth, albeit slowly so as not to shock people. We see clips of TED talks, and someone looking like Elon Musk introducing the next Tesla product.

I'd have liked to see this sort of portrayal as well.

 

[Romulan_spy]

Thanks to everyone who like my alt ending idea. It came to me as I pondered how to fix two issues I have with the movie. 1) the movie fails to really show us the real tomorrowland. We get flashbacks and glimpses but we have to wait 3/4 of the way through to see the real tomorrowland and when we do see it, it is wasteland. So, my ending would show us a lot more of the real tomorrowland, the amazing techs, what the people are like, the values etc... 2) I feel like the movie deals with the question of what a makes a utopia too superfically. Is technology enough to create a utopia? My ending seeks to examine those questions a bit deeper by showing the "police state" side of tomorrowland and the ideological divide, to show that technology is not enough to make a perfect society.

 

[JD]

Before I saw Tomorrowland I was planning on watching Prometheus and was really hoping I would like it despite the reviews and fandom reaction, but now I'm less hopeful. It sounds like Prometheus and Tomorrowland share a lot of the same issue, most likely due to Lindelof's scripts.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Prometheus, for all its MANY faults (that I won't get into again here), is a gorgeous looking picture with an ominous tone that doesn't relent. If you're a fan of Ridley Scott's work or the Alien franchise, you should definitely see it. It's not a bad film so much as it is immensely disappointing given the amount of excitement there was that Scott was returning to the Alien universe again. It's better than any Alien/AvP universe films that followed the first three (I'd put it on par with the third), IMO, though I should say that it's primarily about the Space Jockeys/Engineers instead of the Aliens so I'm not misleading. The Aliens barely feature, and in significantly altered ways.

I certainly wouldn't put it in the same category as Tomorrowland, despite Lindelof's involvement in both. Tomorrowland really doesn't have much in the way of redeeming factors at all, and is utterly forgettable. Prometheus has a ton of structural/logical problems and characters who behave erratically, but it's memorable, the scenery and production design is amazing, and it has some excellent performances.