Tomorrowland
Given how emotionally attached I am to the Disney attraction, and how betrayed I feel by their recent "updates" to it, and the general "meh" from critics, I didn't expect much from this movie. But I still had to see it.
But it opens with a teenager in Florida, repeatedly breaking into the Kennedy Space Center, to sabotage the equipment dismantling lauch pad 39A. O. M. G. That's me! Or, rather, that's the me I wish I was. My disapointment with the direction of the Tomorroland attraction is a personal tragedy. The dismantling of our space program is a National one. Right away they've lodged harpoons into my heart and pulled me into the film.
I won't exactly say it got better from there. But it did go on just as good. Soon we meet a boy with high hopes and stars in his eyes. Another wish-I-was analog. Then a phenomenally cool but-kicking self-confident pre-teen girl (with a classical name) that's everything I wish my daughter to be. I'm jelly at this point.
And the acting is actually quite good. You put two highly experienced actors like Clooney and Laurie against two kids and you expect some kind of disparity. But the kids to a really good job. There's a scene where the Clooney and Cassidy characters are reunited after a complicated past, and there's almost no words for thirty seconds or so. Just sidelong glances and expressions that convey a wealth of emotion and content.
I'm clearly being emotionally manipulated in this film. That doesn't usually end well. But in this case, the film ends on a hugely inspiring get-out-there-and-do-something note. These characters are who I wish I had been. The film's central message is to go and be that sort of person. It's all the inspiration that the original Tomorrowland was to me as a child.
So, in a roundabout way, the movie really does share the same roots as the attraction. About as much as Pirates of the Carribean shares the same action/adventure roots as the attraction it is based on. Tomorrowland will probably not be as popular. In the same way that the anime series Evangelion's central message "put down the comics and get a life" was not well received by fans. Tomorrowland's central message of "don't passively accept the doom and gloom of immersive entertainment, go out and make a difference" probably won't ressonate amongst those that it would do the most benefit for.
But it may awaken some dreamers. And they may make a difference. I'm very, very glad I brought my 7-year-old to see it.