Tomorrowland

Now we all know that Brit Robinson is cursed, kind of in the same way my guy Leonardo Di Caprio is, they're doing everything right but for some reason they just still aren't getting it.

I have a few question for you all.

Who doesn't love the idea of a parallel universe? Where the greatest creations birthed from our most wild and outlandish theories can be explored and created? Can come to life and live? To allow you the opportunity to try and fail in a warm environment with like minded individuals? 

Boring idiots that's who. 

The idea of Tomorrowland is an interesting concept to say the least, one that we are invested in from the very beginning as we follow young and eager Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) as he takes his latest invention; a Jet Pack, to the New York Worlds Fair. We are supportive and swept up in his Can-Do, Young Believer attitude, and wish him nothing but success, candy, rainbows and all his hearts desires - Yes, the love for little Frank that was strong, the love for Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) on the other hand - not so strong. Not that we didn't admire her unearthly optimism, it's just one thing for a ten year old to be blindly optimistic and adorably naive, but for a peppy blonde chick who seems to be pushing 21? Not so much.
Luckily Casey's overall juvenile behaviour is shadowed by the presence of the sweet and delightfully British, Athena (Raffey Ccassidy) and George Clooney. The former plays the role of guardian/muse to both Frank and Casey as well as clearly being part ninja preforming some pretty unexpected moves on a couple of foes, whilst the latter did a very convincing job of playing the seemingly unwilling, grumpy and thus pessimistic, crazy and so paranoid, genius.

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In retrospect, the singular aspect that really confused me was who the bad guys were. In a sense the bad guys were to a certain extent the good guys too, tainted in our eyes by the way they allowed their belief in Survival of the fittest to direct their objectives, no matter how selfish it seemed. I suppose at the end of the day Tomorrowland is a Disney movie, and so to much emphasis on a really "Bad" character who didn't seem either a little camp, or over the top stereotypical stroke my curled moustache cue evil cackle, wouldn't make a Disney movie what it was.
A greater insight into what Tomorrowland actually does, in terms of it's aim and even origins would have been nice, even if it was in a casual sentence would have at least given the audience a general scope of the story-world, really solidifying that Tomorrowland could actually exist in the viewers world. Linked to that the film could have really explored some of the great inventions Tomorrowland prodigies had churned out. It seemed as though the film had so much to give and so gave a little bit of everything which summed up to a whole lot of nothing leaving us with an insatiable need to know more, and an upsetting realisation that we never would.
Overall it is a shame this film wasn't well received, and even though figures are still rolling in, this film hasn't been given a fair chance at success, this time I may have to leave Brit alone, as this films marginal failure can be chalked up to a lack of proper marketing by Disney, who are clearly still to busy cashing in their cheques from Frozen to really devote any attention to anything else.

Now that I've said my peace, it's up to you whether you want to blame the general presence of Britt Robinson for Tomorrowland not doing so well Today.

Jurassic World

Don't be fooled by Chris Pratt's get up -  this isn't an Indiana Jones remake.

I won't lie, it's been a long long time since I have watched Jurassic Park, I would even go as far as to say it was sometime in the late 90's, but I still very proudly possess the VHS copy of the film - somewhere - so please excuse the lack of comparative remarks between the 1993 to 2001 films.

When brothers Zach and Grey Mitchell (Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins) get what I can only describe as banished, to Jurassic World you begin to question if their parent knew that there was a chance they wouldn't come back alive. I say this taking into consideration that they are sent to spend time with their Aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) the parks Operation Manager, who if by nothing but her sharp haircut, you can tell has a million and one other things to do than watch a pair of kids she barely knows. In particular monitoring the progress of the Indominus a captivity made and bred dinosaur, assured to bring in revenue for the already popular tourist attraction.

Well clearly the only fan of  Notorious B.I.G was Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) the parks Velociraptor trainer, otherwise more people would have held an air of caution when it came to engineering the weirdly named Indominus - with a name like that, it's no wonder that thing was so misunderstood... not that that excuses it's behaviour. Owen Grady is full of mystery, we are given no back story about our knight in dull khakis (perhaps being saved for the potential sequel?), all we know is that for whatever reason he trains velociraptors and has been previously acquainted with Aunt Claire. Despite the fact that these two butt heads, when the clock starts ticking and the hunt is on, he is the first person Aunt Claire turns too in her time of need as their foes creep about both within the extensive Park and inside their own walls.

I think my main issue with Jurassic World, is that my inner emotional dial didn't quite know where to point. One second the music is all new frontier, happy go lucky 1960's sunshine adventure, then it flips on you to dark and twisty, jump at every shadow nail bitingly foreboding. It was as if the producers couldn't decide whether to make this film a 12A or a 15 and so tethered ever so carefully on the line that divided the two, when in all honesty they should have taken the plunge - No guts no glory.

Overall this movie was boss, there was clever and humorously placed references to the original Jurassic Park trilogy, (special shout out to Jake Johnson for that) but not he the point that first timers were left lost. The actors they used - minus the overbearing and over emotional mother - worked for what it was, meaning that it felt fresh, no massive names to already slightly taint your opinion on the film, or to expect a certain style of acting of filming. But at the end of the day the most important thing was that the film was good enough to have me by the end, wishing that I could skip off to Jurassic World to have a gay.... and potentially life threatening ol' time.