Casey (Britt Robertson), a young girl in Florida, is arrested for a petty crime, and when she gets her possessions back from the police, she has a little badge she never saw before. When she touches it, she’s transported to an amazing future world of jet packs and sky trains and rocketships. It turns out the badge is the gift of Athena (Raffey Cassidy), a robot girl from this city of tomorrow.
Before the robot-girl can explain why she gave this badge to Casey, the chase is on. Dangerous robots are on their trail. The two girls escape to the house of reclusive, whiskery scientist Frank Walker (George Clooney), who knows Athena from his childhood. Our three heroes get chased from New York to Paris then back, finally, to the world of the future.
Turns out that the Tomorrowland ruler is pissed at the humans of today because they’ve been trying to warn us of our planet-wrecking ways, and we just make cool video games out of it. What the hell is our problem, anyway?
Twelve-year-old Cassidy is terrific. She’s good enough to remove any hint of pedophilia from the love story inside Tomorrowland—how Frank never healed from the broken heart she gave him years before. It’s just the Peter Pan story with the sexes changed, but one recalls Humbert Humbert’s inability to get over youthful sorrow.
Tomorrowland has serious girl power, but the endorsement of positive thinking is as thick as a bad TED talk. It’s a reminder that the real Tomorrowland’s sponsors were companies like Monsanto and Lockheed, neither exactly in the business of liberation. This Tomorrowland is a place where people go to get away from government.
‘Tomorrowland’ is playing in wide North Bay release.
