‘Tomorrowland’: Disney’s newest sales pitch

It was long weekend, but for various reasons I saw only one film — "Tomorrowland" — and despite the film's earning a cool $33 million, I had mixed reactions. My two main problems are:

1, It feels like a commercial for Disney, specifically for Disney theme parks. As a West Coast kid, I always felt a closer tie to the original park, Anaheim's Disneyland. And Tomorrowland was my favorite spot, even before Space Mountain, what with the Rocket to the Moon E-ticket ride (which, for a kid in the 1950s, seemed like pure fantasy). So "Tomorrowland" is a natural invitation for fans to come out of the movie and to then check out the theme-park spot to see what's new. And, yes, other movies are marketing ploys, too ("The Lego Movie," for example), but the best are satirically self-referential. Not much satire here, even though the movie was co-written and directed by Brad Bird.

2, It offers a naive, kid's-eye view of today's problems. When the Hugh Laurie character explains what he sees as today's reality, the best retort that George Clooney's character (and the film itself) can come up with is to fill the world with "dreamers" who haven't lost hope. No specifics such as eliminating oil and coal production while seeking out cleaner fuel sources, which makes the movie even less relevant to real-world solutions than are offered in your average middle-school science class. If this is the best we can do, then our messaging is becoming an even bigger part of the problem — kind of like kids collecting coins to help end world hunger: It makes us feel good without doing much to solve the basic problem.

Not that I disliked the movie. The special effects Bird comes up with are clever enough. He and his screenwriting team (which includes Damon Lindelof and Jeff Jensen) keep the action moving throughout the complex, multi-character plotline. And even though she ends up not having much effect on the film's climactic events, and looks every day of her 25 years, Britt Robertson does a decent job impersonating a high-schooler.

"Tomorrowland" isn't a bad movie. A lot of people, kids especially, will likely enjoy it. I just wish it had been … well, better.