A few weekends ago I went to see Tomorrowland. Despite only mediocre ratings from the general public and movie review websites, I really liked the movie.
When first asked if I liked the movie the day after seeing, I said that I liked it because of the message the most. When asking a friend at work I was told that it was alright but way too "preachy." When looking at movie reviews online I see comments such as: "Unfortunately, their recollection is riddled with not-so-subtle messages about protecting the environment and treating others with kindness." - Brandon Davis Perhaps if the message were more subtle people would have liked it more? However, I'm not sure why a message of protecting the environment and treating other kindly is a bad thing... But, I don't think that was the main message in the movie anyway. I found the actual message to be very inspiring and uplifting, not "preachy" or in my face. If any of you have seen the movie Happy Feet that movie is one that was far to "preachy" for me. Tomorrowland was not.
I also loved all of the parts when Frank was a little boy especially the jet packing part and the Tomorrowland city was amazingly well done visually. I also loved the way Frank and Casey managed to get to Tomorrowland because I'm a huge fan of any kind of secret doors, passages, contraptions etc. and they did a fantastic job with that.
When first asked if I liked the movie the day after seeing, I said that I liked it because of the message the most. When asking a friend at work I was told that it was alright but way too "preachy." When looking at movie reviews online I see comments such as: "Unfortunately, their recollection is riddled with not-so-subtle messages about protecting the environment and treating others with kindness." - Brandon Davis Perhaps if the message were more subtle people would have liked it more? However, I'm not sure why a message of protecting the environment and treating other kindly is a bad thing... But, I don't think that was the main message in the movie anyway. I found the actual message to be very inspiring and uplifting, not "preachy" or in my face. If any of you have seen the movie Happy Feet that movie is one that was far to "preachy" for me. Tomorrowland was not.
The Good
Tomorroland got some tears out of me at the end which tells me right away that I really liked it because I always cry at movies I really enjoy.
My favorite thing about the movie was the message. There were several messages in this movie, never give up, protect the environment, don't talk to strangers... lol But the main message for me was a Biblical one. [1 Corinthians 12 among others] This chapter talks about how each person has different gifts, and abilities, and yet we are all members of one Body of Christ. Every single person has value and something they can bring to the table and it's when we use the gifts, talents, abilities, we have been given that we can change the world. This was the central message of Tomorrowland. Athena mentions several times that Casey is special. She is special because she has not given up. She was doing her small part to try to make things better in the area that was important to her in her small corner of the world. At the end of the movie we see a group being sent out to go find other people like Casey. People that are using whatever gifts they have no matter how seemingly small or insignificant they may appear. The people chosen came from all over the world and were doing all kinds of different things, but really they were all doing the same thing, which was refusing to be apathetic and trying their best to give back and make the world a little brighter. The idea was not to preach and say these people are better than you or me, it was to inspire. If they can do it, I can do it, you can do it! We can all use whatever we have, great or small to make the world a better place!
Other than that beautiful message, I really enjoyed all of the action scenes and the mystery behind who Athena was and what Tomorrowland was about in general. My favorite action scene was the fight in the comic book shop. As a nerd, that was a great location for a fight and it was so cool to see a little girl kicking butt.
I also loved all of the parts when Frank was a little boy especially the jet packing part and the Tomorrowland city was amazingly well done visually. I also loved the way Frank and Casey managed to get to Tomorrowland because I'm a huge fan of any kind of secret doors, passages, contraptions etc. and they did a fantastic job with that.
The Bad
There wasn't too much bad for me. The only slightly bad things was that some parts of the movie seemed too similar to other movies I've seen before, but I don't think I can really blame Tomorrowland for that, that's just my fault for watching too many movies! LOL
Other than that, as a Catholic, I tend anticipate or wait anxiously for the end of the world because I am excited to see Jesus' return. I don't know if that will happen in my lifetime obviously, but Tomorrowland seemed to say we can avoid the end of the world altogether if we all work together. I do not believe this is true. While I do believe it's a good thing to try our best to make the world the best place we can, I do not think we can prevent the world from ending entirely because the Earth has an expiration date so to speak. However, the positive message was strong enough that this little defect did not bother me too much.
Overall
I say this is a good movie to support. Not recommended for small children due to the action which was rather violent, but everyone else should feel free to check it out.
I must admit that when I first saw the previews for this movie, I was not terribly interested. But now I may reconsider.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the question is- should I watch the movie before or after reading Laudato si'?
My policy with movies inspired by books is always watch the movie first! Anytime, I have read the book first I did not like the movie because the book is almost always better. ;)
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