My thoughts:
- First third was excellent. I loved the build-up with young Frank, developing that set-up of Tommowland and all it entails. The shots of the Future Fair were all-encompassing and magical. It set the scene beautifully: a world of creativity, invention, and industry. I love how Casey's character's involvement in the world evolved, and loved everything right up until they got into the bathtub at grown-up Frank's house, after defeating the AA, and then...
- ...when the bathtub fired into the air I expected the main interaction with Tomorrowland and the story to really develop. It didn't - the landed in the lake. Which is ironic, as from that point on the film kinda drowned. The middle third just seemed to drag. You know a film's struggling when they throw in a landmark (the Tower) for no main reason than to distract you from nothing much going on. Saying that, though, I thought the story of the clever folk developing the pins/land was a grand idea;
- The final third for me was somewhere between the first and the second in terms of quality. After getting my head around the notion of what the machine/monitor was doing it all seemed a bit wordy and not exciting. The end talk and subsequent release of recruiters was well shot and developed though.
The film, for me, had loads of excellent ideas that should have formed a solid base for a clever story to be developed. Instead the concepts were let down with a meandering middle that did not really do much for me. The idea of a young robot, unable to age and feel emotion, dying in the arms of an older man who once loved her is clever if slightly uncomfortable for a family film. I liked the concept of the initial pins being merely live-action advertisements for a land that does not exist - a big dark con. Had the film somehow kept the Hugh Laurie character involved right the way through, in addition with more switching between the two worlds, then it would have been much better. But then, as others have said, how much was trimmed out? Also, was there a strict budget that meant only a certain amount of shots would be afforded? In addition to this, George Clooney is far too famous these days to the point that when he appears on screen it's hard to see past 'oh it's George Clooney' and actually see the character he's playing.
For a film I was so greatly looking forward to I was quite disappointed. At least the Inside Out trailer looked great!
