George Clooney… mega movie star, sex symbol, political activist, but most importantly, former box office draw card.
Clooney’s fan base are aging and are no longer between their late teens and early 30s. The majority of his fans don’t want to see him in action movies or movies with other old men, they want to see him in a romantic comedy or a drama with some heart in it. But mostly, he’s no longer the cool drawcard that he once was for the younger demographic, which the action movie is targeting. Don’t get me wrong, I still adore the prankster, I just am not going to pay to see him in a movie that doesn’t tell me much.
I first encountered Tommorrowland’s trailer over six months ago. To say it was boring was putting it mildly. It was the trailer where you see the girl pick up her belongings after being released, claiming that the pin isn’t hers, only to have it transport her to a field in a futuristic land. Having George narrating some guidance dribble, and flashes of Tomorrowland, it just wasn’t appealing. Was it an action movie, was it a moral tale? I didn’t know. After watching it and tuning in and out, I concluded that it was essentially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with George as the Willy Wonka, the girl whom I did not recognise as Charlie, and the weirdo future was the Chocolate Factory. And well, the pin is obviously the golden ticket.
So with this “buzz generating” preview, I decided that I didn’t care for the movie at all. It wasn’t something I even deemed conversation worthy amongst my friends. It was only in a discussion of movies that failed to capture our imagination did I bring up this movie. Trying very hard to remember the name of it. I described it as “The one with George Clooney in it, but you don’t actually see him. I think he’s some kind of weird recluse.”
I have seen many action movies in the last 6 months, and Tomorrowland failed to capitalise on the cinematic audience from my experience. They didn’t offer a trailer which was action packed, indicating what this movie was about. In fact, I hadn’t actually seen an action trailer until today, a week after its release. Whether it was their lack of market, or my lack of interest from their bad marketing, I can only say this to Disney, find yourselves better editors and marketers.
The amount of times I have been suckered into watching a nonsensical movie because the trailer looked cool as a young adult amazes me. Tomorrowland missed the mark on every level. It tried to hard to be some kind of artsy movie, trying to draw us in with its lack of information, hoping that our curiousity will make it a talking point. The problem there is that, you made George Clooney sound like a reclusive Willy Wonka who is offering the girl the future to control.
Having seen the “action” version of the trailer, it looks nothing like that. George is a reclusive scientist trying to hide from killer cyborgs. And even then, it’s appears to be an entire sequence from what might be the opening 5 minutes. Again, you’re not giving us much to mull over.
I am sick of the formulaic superhero genre, but, you’ve taken it one step too far and tried for an artsy action movie… bring it down a couple of notches, leave artsy movie crap for the low budget hipsters who want to comment about America’s consumeristic culture and environment killing corporate America.
Tell a story that makes sense, tell a story that has plot twists and intriguing characters, tell a story that is original. Or better yet, tell a story that’s a rip off of a cool Korean, Japanese, Hong Kong or French action movie. You’ve got plenty of source material, just make it with bigger stars and a bigger budget. Or, just make Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It’s an awesome twist to a fantastic classic.
Rating: NA/10, I am not going to see this movie, it just doesn’t appeal to me.
See it again: No, but I might go see it if someone else really wanted to go and we had absolutely nothing else going on that day.
Worth my time: No… trailer sucked ass.
Take my mother: Nah, she’s not so into Clooney.
Talking points: Do your fingers get a little fat in the mornings? Sorry, what? This movie? Meh.
Annoyance factor: 9/10, whoever did the initial ‘teaser’ should be fired, they failed to portray anything cool in that ‘teaser’. You made it look like a stupid rip off of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory dude. Time to go back to film school and watch a couple of films.
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