Tomorrowland : a convoluted mess

very hard to follow; jumps around all over the place, very non linear (and annoying). every time it builds up a little momentum it goes somewhere else. fyi: i'm a big sci fi buff, and a liberal. but this movie was NOT fun to sit through

Non linear? What was so hard to follow?

The film is a total mess. A complete catastrophe. Questions never answered: why were two robots working in a collectibles shop? If Athena and Frank were exiled from Tomorrowland, why are the robots in black looking for them? Are we supposed to believe that a consortium of scientists around 1900 created a world in another dimension? If so, how was it populated? Frank and Athena and Casey travel there in a rocket concealed under the Eiffel Tower (???) So how did the original inhabitants get there? Was there a fleet of rockets that no one ever noticed in 1901? Or did they just give everyone pins? But the pins don't actually take you there, they just create a virtual experience while you actually (as Casey discovers) walking around on Earth. So how did the people physically get there? Frank has a teleporter in his house that takes them to Paris - why didn't it just take them straight to Tomorrowland? Why did Tomorrowland decay? The "machine" - the origin of which is never explained - in Tomorrowland predicts the world will be totally destroyed in 58 days time but we never find out how or why. No actual cause is ever defined except we see various shots of a nuclear bomb, fires and floods. Are we expected to believe that a nuclear war and worldwide catastrophic natural events were all going to happen on the same day? Frank is supposed to be monitoring the transmissions from Tomorrowland, but those "transmissions" appear to just be CNN type news footage. Nix later says that these transmissions were his way of warning the world of what was going to happen so they would take action. Does that mean that all the stories people see on television aren't actually coming from TV stations and news agencies, they're actually coming from Tomorrowland? 11 year old Frank was heartbroken when he found that Athena was a robot, but the scene of him being exiled shows him as an adult? So why was he actually exiled? Why was she? If Nix drinks a "shake" that stops him ageing, why didn't he make that technology available to humanity? In fact why didn't the community of geniuses in Tomorrowland share ALL their discoveries with the rest of the world (thereby obviating the problems which the world is suffering.) Holy Toledo, what drugs were the writers of this mess on?

I totally agree, nothing is ever explained properly. Why were the robots looking for them. The two robots in the shop, what was that about, did'nt anyone noticed they never aged. Also the rockey under the Eiffel Towernobody noticed when the tower was built that there were digging a great big underground cavern with a rocket, and where did they find the fuel. In modern day Paris..NOBODY noticed this also, what about the sewers, electric cables, these all by passed the tower???? Why was Frank exiled.
The ending..staright out of Disney, don't worry folks, the ordinary people will convince the power mad politichians. Oh and the bad guy again in an American movieBritish again. Amazing

First of all, most complex stories have many unexplained elements. They are unexplained because for the purposes of the story it wants to tell, they don't need to be explained. These are not plot holes. These are nitpicks. With that in mind, I'll do my best to answer many of the questions you've asked. Keep in mind many of these are nitpicks and these answers are really only the most plausible that come to mind. There are actually any number of possible explanations. But since the story doesn't require them to be detailed out in full, they don't really deserve answering, If the movie had bothered to answer all of your questions, it would have been bogged down with exposition overload.

Q:why were two robots working in a collectibles shop?
A: Because they were searching for people looking for answers about the Pin. People who would likely go to a collectibles shop to find answers about it. This was explained.

Q:If Athena and Frank were exiled from Tomorrowland, why are the robots in black looking for them?
A: Because they violated the terms of their exile. Athena kept recruiting even though she wasn't supposed to. this was explained.

Q:Are we supposed to believe that a consortium of scientists around 1900 created a world in another dimension?
A: That's the central premise of the story, yes. The Doctor has a time machine. Westeros has seasons that last for years. Batman is simultaneously a super genius, a super ninja, and super rich. And Scientists from the 1900 found a way to another dimension.

Q: If so, how was it populated?
A: Immigration and sex.

Q: How did the original inhabitants get there?
A: The original inhabitants were super scientists who figured out how to cross dimensions.

Q: Was there a fleet of rockets that no one ever noticed in 1901?
A: Possibly. Nix mentions they do cover up operations to make sure incidents of exposure go unnoticed.

Q: Or did they just give everyone pins?
A: They didn't give anyone pins. Only Athena did.

Q: So how did the people physically get there?
A: A teleportation room. Young Frank used it to get there in the very beginning.

Q: Frank has a teleporter in his house that takes them to Paris
A: Not in his house. Some powerstation facility nearby. Likely because it needs a lot of power.

Q: Why didn't it just take them straight to Tomorrowland?
A: Teleportation rooms require a functioning receiving room, and all the ones in TomorrowLand weren't letting people in. The only way to get to TomorrowLand without a recieving room is with a rocket that can jump dimensions. The only rocket Frank knew of was in Paris.

Q: Why did Tomorrowland decay?
A: A symbolic side effect of the loss of hope. TomorrowLand gave up and closed its doors to earth, so the inhabitants began to stagnate with out the new influx of dreamers.

Q: The "machine" - the origin of which is never explained
A: Frank invented it. "He built something he shouldn't have" This was explained. They even explained how it worked.

Q: Tomorrowland predicts the world will be totally destroyed in 58 days time but we never find out how or why. No actual cause is ever defined except we see various shots of a nuclear bomb, fires and floods.
A: Several causes are posited. But ultimately it's missing the point. If the movie had made a definite cause than the movie would have been about stopping that cause. The movie wasn't about stopping the cause. This wasn't meant to present a neat and tidy packaged solution to all the worlds problems. It was about acknowledging that there are problems, and suggesting that dreamers who haven't given up hope are the ones who can help solve those problems.

Q: Are we expected to believe that a nuclear war and worldwide catastrophic natural events were all going to happen on the same day?
A: 58 days was just the point at which the static begins, giving a period of time in which the catastrophe(s) would occur. This was explained.

Q: Frank is supposed to be monitoring the transmissions from Tomorrowland, but those "transmissions" appear to just be CNN type news footage.
A: He was monitoring the transmissions from Tomorrowland and he was also watching the local news. Presumably so he could watch for the impending undetermined catastrophe.

Q: Nix later says that these transmissions were his way of warning the world of what was going to happen so they would take action. Does that mean that all the stories people see on television aren't actually coming from TV stations and news agencies, they're actually coming from Tomorrowland?
A: Nix was broadcasting the warnings in the form of ideas, like subconscious messages to make people believe that the threat was real. The news was just the news. This was explained.

Q: 11 year old Frank was heartbroken when he found that Athena was a robot, but the scene of him being exiled shows him as an adult? So why was he actually exiled?
A: Do you think Frank was exiled because he found out Athena was a robot? No, he was exiled because he had a difference of opinion about what to do about the catastrophe. He wanted to help the world avoid it. Nix had other ideas. This was explained.

Q: Why was she?
A: She took Franks side. Had feelings she didn't understand. Nix wanted to dismantle her, but she chose exile instead. This was explained.

Q: If Nix drinks a "shake" that stops him ageing, why didn't he make that technology available to humanity?
A: Why didn't they release any of the wondrous technologies to humanity? They actually planned to, but only when they actually found solutions to the worlds problems. But Nix lost hope for humanity, and changed the plan. This was explained.

Q: He In fact why didn't the community of geniuses in Tomorrowland share ALL their discoveries with the rest of the world (thereby obviating the problems which the world is suffering.)
A: They hadn't solved the problems yet. But the problem wasn't technology but the politics and bureaucracy that they were trying to escape from. Unfortunately you can't solve that with technological advances. So sharing their technology wouldn't have helped.

Q: Holy Toledo, what drugs were the writers of this mess on?
A: Couldn't say, but it seems to be that a lot of your questions were the result of just not paying close enough attention. Maybe you were the one on drugs at the time?

Just finished watching the movie and in response to your answers: Yes, yes, and YES!
I don't understand how there are so many questions about a plot that made reasonable sense.

I especially love this response, "It was about acknowledging that there are problems, and suggesting that dreamers who haven't given up hope are the ones who can help solve those problems." It's SO true and completely applicable in this world. I think it's the ultimate point of the movie, and thinking it's just another hollywood flic is completely missing the point. Walt Disney's standpoint was always about imagination, dreaming big, and moving forward. This movie was the ultimate homage to his dream.

Sometimes I wish you could "like" posts on IMDB.

Thank you DalekCann, for taking the time to explain to the less attentive in the audience. Sometimes I think people stare blankly at their screens, not engaged in the movie they are watching.

The plot and story made sense. I could nit-pick some points, like the eternal issue of jet packs not burning the heels of the user but over all this movie was fine. No, not a cinematic masterpiece, or even an Oscar winner, but a decent sci-fi / futurist movie.

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"This year I'm voting Republican. The Democrats left a bad taste in my mouth."
-Monica Lewinsky

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I'm so glad you answered this, saves me alot of typing. Reading the post with the questions kinda made me angry that people can watch a pretty simple movie and not understand any of it (even the stuff that is very explicitly explained like Frank building the machine). It makes me angry because they'll unfairly rate the movie based on their own ignorance rather than quality of the movie. It's fine to hate a movie but make sure you are paying attention if you're hating it for specific reasons (unless the reason is it wouldn't keep your attention!)

"If God was a villain, he'd be me"

Jeez!! I see you explaining all this simple/silly questions, it depresses me how dumb people have become. No wonder they don't make movies like this anymore. I mean how retard can someone be if they can't understand how the hell is world populated?

Brilliant review. I couldn't have said it better.

LMFAO!
Not sure film you were watching, but the story is very easy to follow and not even remotely convoluted. It simple didn't spoon feed you the plot. You had to think and, well, quite FRANKLY keep up with it!
It was inspiring and wonderful to watch. However if you lack imagination of any sort and an attitude leaning towards the negative, then, yes this would be a hard and annoying film to follow.
Anyway, I could ramble on about this film for hours, the scientific meandering of the Victorian era, wonderfully captured and so on!
Well, C'est le vie, you can't please everyone and most certainly can't give someone an imagination.

I agree with the original poster. The movie had great ideas, but executed poorly and incoherently.

<Spoilers ahead>

It starts out with a home video-like journal and focuses on the countdown clock. Later in the movie, when Casey meets Frank, they keep the camera off him before the reveal. But, the "video" at the beginning of the movie already showed him. What was the point of the slow reveal if we already knew who he was?

When Casey meets the shop-owner robots, they seem intent on hunting down Athena, even tracking her to Frank's house. When Athena runs into the AAs later in the movie they do nothing? What was the point? They made the robots as big threats, when they really weren't. A good part of the movie was them running away. Then, while on the run from the baddies, Athena powers down? Huh??

Frank tells Casey he was banished from Tomorrowland and all entrances were closed off. He then effortlessly returns through the Eiffel tower. What was the point?

Also, any "battle" or fight-scene seemed contrived and predictable. Even Athena's "death" scene seemed contrived.

When you touch the pin and walk through the future, you walk in real life. How do you explain her walking down stairs and riding on the rail? The last scene with all the people in the fields, I though many would walk toward the city but in real life get injured or worse.

The movie had several intros. Intro 1: Frank and Casey on video. Intro 2: Frank at the fair. Intro 3: Casey's NASA endeavors. Then plot There really wasn't a good transition between these scenes.

I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. Great potential, but could have been better. Cut out the expose. Show more people reacting to the transmissions instead of talking about it. Show the engineers (and founding scientists) making breakthroughs instead of talking about it. Lessen the environmental impact message. I support the message, but even I thought it was layered on too thick.

Thought of a few more

At the fair, Nix rejects Frank because his invention didn't work and didn't have a purpose to benefiting society. Nix directs a boatful of recruits. What were THEIR contributions? I would have really wanted to see that! Or even more of what Frank's contributions were and see what Athena saw in him originally.

Speaking of purpose, what was Nix's purpose for his plan anyways? To see humanity die off from the self-fulfilling prophecy? For the sake of watching it happen? Makes no sense to me.

Okay. No more rants

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Speaking of purpose, what was Nix's purpose for his plan anyways?

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He said that he belived that broadcasting the views of future disaster would inspire people to avoid that disaster. Except that it seems to have actually discouraged any attempts to avoid disaster.

He did not plan or purpose to destroy the world. He had a plan to save it that backfired, and was too stubborn to change plans.

I've always wondered if Brad Bird played this out in his head as an animated movie first. The zany energy of some scenes and quick jumps may have worked better in a Pixar film, but just don't work well here. The ending where they keep cutting to the different young optimists about to touch the Tomorrowland pin probably looks better in the animated world, but looks like a treacly kids cereal commercial in live action. The message of optimism and young dreamers ends up sounding too forced here. Brad Bird could've had more success using more subtlety and symbolism.

This movie really was a mess and a major disappointment. I actually wanted Brad Bird for Star Wars Episode 7 a long time ago, but quickly changed my mind after seeing this film.

I feel pretty confident I can point out the primary cause of the inconsistency and sloppy writing, and he has a name: Damon Lindelof. I have suspected for a while, but I just watched the film tonight, and feel that he truly is an overrated writer who somehow keeps being handed large films. If you think about it, he was one of the primary writers of Prometheus, which honestly had great ideas, but the writing was so inconsistent and the ideas never clearly explored or clarified that the film itself was all over the place, he helped produce Star Trek, and helped write Star Trek Into Darkness, which is full of more sloppy writing than I care to point out at the moment, he co-wrote this film, and to top it all off, he helped write and run Lost. Need I say more?

"From a phylogenetic perspective, we are all fish!"

it really was a messy waste of money and talent and time.

this movie should not exist, it was a big mistake

It took me a week to get through this DVD. It started out promising, but turned into a hot mess, with a lot of saccharine preaching at the end. I was surprised that polished veteran actors Clooney and Laurie took roles on this convoluted mess of a movie. I love sci-fi abd fantasy, but this was really awful.

Agreed, kathykato, a hot mess from start to finish. I wonder how it got greenlit?

Agreed. Your title sums it up. Jerky, noisy flow to it.

Were it a fun, funny or thrilling mess, I think I'd try one day to watch it again. Then I'd better follow. I want to shake the creators and scream at them, "CGI effects don't make a movie. Get it through your head!" Audiences see astonishing CGI effects today for granola bar commercials. We yawn through San Andreas and they still think we want more at the expense of an engaging tale.

"very hard to follow"

Most things are hard to follow when you're an idiot.

Terrible - a huge waste of resources! There is no getting around a bad story.

Your complaining about a Disney kids movie???

It's about us girls who are interested in STEM.

I have this movie a chance. I watched it closely right up to the scene where the two were transported to Paris. From then on I lost interest. 3/10