Tomorrowland trailer – reaction

Brad Bird has an enviable record. His first produced feature script was *batteries not included, he worked on The Simpsons for ten years, then as a feature director he brought The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille to the screen before switching to live action with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. His latest film sees him teaming with writer Damon Lindelof, who has a more patchy history with scriptwork on Lost, Cowboys & Aliens, Prometheus, Star Trek Into Darkness and World War Z. Security has been tight with only a brief teaser released in October, but now the full trailer is out, showing exactly what Gravity‘s George Clooney, Under the Dome‘s Britt Robertson and Hugh Laurie, Doctor Gregory House himself, have let themselves in for.

Dario Persechino – Oooooh. Having heard nothing about this I was going in blank, other than once being to Disney’s Tomorrowland (and loving it because I am, of course, a big kid).

It looks pretty and it looks fun! The glimpses of Tomorrowland look beautiful as does the technology in our land. Clooney’s ‘lab’ had buttons, dials and even a vacuum tube countdown clock! How gorgeous was that? It all makes a nice change from the ubiquitous holo-screens so many visions of the near future are plagued with.

Tomorowland looks like a realised vision of the future from the Chicago World’s Fair and just for that I would watch this, but it also seems to have a lot more going for it.

George Clooney and Hugh Laurie are always worthy of attention and the trailer just seems to have that old style sense of adventure which seems rare these days. I have no objection to ‘the chosen one’ trope as long as it is done well, and I like the fact that this time it’s a young woman as the hero to save the future.

Definitely one I will be watching on release in all its cinematic glory.

Garry Mac – I’m not sure about this. On one hand, it look like a cool romp through a retrofuture city and reminds me a little of the Bioshock games.

On the other hand, it is a gigantic Disney advert based on its own Tomorrowland theme park. Hmmmm.

I’ll stick with what I know just now – the trailer looks cool, and I’m intrigued. It feels like part of a new wave of sci-fi that’s based on a more optimistic approach to imagining the future, and I’m all for that.

Les Anderson – WOW!!

That was so good I stopped watching it so as not to spoil the film. Cannae wait.

Owen Williams – So… here we have the trailer for a film that is not based on a book or comic. It’s not a sequel, a remake or remaining and isn’t based in a pre-existing cinematic universe.

I’m sold!

Other than the trailer I know virtually nothing about Tomorrowland, which is similarly unusual in a world where films are hyped from pre-production through to the opening night with seemingly endless tweets, updates, set photos, rumours and leaks which frequently make me sick of an upcoming movie months before it is due for release.

And doesn’t that trailer look glorious? It told me enough about the film to perk my interest in it, without really giving away the plot other than for tantalising hints of what it might be. The special effects look outstanding, the pacing is well timed and any threat that is escaped via the use of a rocket-bath gets a big tick and a smiley face from me. We know the calibre of the acting will be high because The Clooney is in it.

I can’t wait for this one to come out.

Michael Flett – So, what do we have this year? Mad Max, the end of the world with a bang, Avengers which will be grim destruction and angst, Jurassic World, Terminator Genisys, Poltergiest, utterly unwanted sequels and remakes and whatever.

Then slap bang in the middle of it, Tomorrowland.

I’ve never been a Disney person, even as a child – the only films I ever liked were 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Black Hole and Fantasia, perhaps the most atypical films the studio ever produced. I always found them artificial, selling a dream that was never going to come true. Well, maybe I’m so old now that I need some of that dream, because buy me a ticket or find me a magic badge, because I’m going to Tomorrowland.

They’ve teased us with what it may be then they hit us with this trailer, and I am sold. I need something to look forward to, and this is it. It presses all the right buttons, it’s retro, reminding of an age when optimism wasn’t looked on as foolishness, when the future really did look bright, and it looks forwards, outwards, to space, to possibility.

Dario mentioned the Chicago World’s Fair of 1933-34, but I’m thinking of Aimee Mann’s song about the New York World’s Fair of 1939-1940 –

Fifty years after the fair
I live in tomorrow town
Even on a wing and a prayer
The future never came around
It hurts to even think of those days
The damage we do by the hopes that we raise

I think everyone’s dreams got crushed along with mine, and now we’re afraid to hope for something better. We live in a time where optimism is unfashionable. If Gene Roddenberry proposed Star Trek now he would be laughed out of the meeting. Much as I love Battlestar Galactica, and it does represent the world we live in than Star Trek, I need my Trek too. And am I the only one who thought Thunderbirds when the floor opened up under the bath?

For too long in the world and in cinema intellectual pursuit has been looked down upon, and this promises to celebrate the best and the brightest. I need something bright to look forward to, and I think the world needs to be reminded that it’s okay to hope, and that if we forget how to dream we’re already lost. I just hope it doesn’t disappoint, because I want my jetpacks and my giant rockets.

Hannah Nicol-Rowe – I’m with Les. Waitin’ for the big screen feels. Unexpectedly impressed that a trailer could grab my attention within ten secs and not give away all the major plot points. Cannae wait either.

Matthew Rutland – Too early to be terribly excited by it, hope they dont give too much away before its eventual release. I’m already tired of seeing the Force Awakens trailer and thats a good nine months away.

Kevin Gilmartin – Yup, that actually looks pretty good. Unlike Les and Hannah I did sit through the whole trailer – I figured somebody ought to – and it looks quite exciting throughout. It does look effects-laden, but I trust Brad Bird to keep the narrative on track rather than fall back on flashy set-pieces.

My only sight worry is the appearance of Hugh Laurie. Yes, he’s a cracking actor and, yes, he was dead good in House, but I simply cannot watch him without seeing the posh bumbling idiot George from Blackadder Goes Forth. I know it’s unjust, but really it’s his own fault for being so bloody good at it. The movie won’t suffer for his inclusion – quite the opposite, I should think; this is I burden I carry alone.

Having said that, you’re normally guaranteed two things with Hugh Laurie:

1. The thing you’re watching isn’t crap – I hear he’s quite selective these days.

2. You’re probably about to have, as Lieutenant George, might say, “a right ruddy rollicking jolly old time!”

I reckon I’ll part with the ticket price for this one; it’ll be nice to see George Clooney getting a part that doesn’t involve women stealing his tiny coffees.

Gordon Robertson – It looks like the sort of thing I would take my thirteen year old niece to see…and you know what…it looks AWESOME…massive fun and the sort of thing she’ll love.

Tomorrowland is scheduled for release on 22nd May 2015

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