I liked Tomorrowland, but it also reminded me a bit too much of Galt's Gulch

[phantom power]

A secret alternate dimension where Only The Creative Optimists get to go? Wow, really?

Still, it had a cool Gernsback Continuum vibe going on.

[LanternWaste]

1. What I enjoyed about the film was its almost complete lack of cynicism and nihilism

What I enjoyed about the film was its almost complete lack of cynicism and nihilism, those tired tropes of the trendy and hip being replaced by a celebration of imagination and optimism. Something not too often seen in the here and now.

[phantom power]

3. Yes, well, the eternal debate -- is it pessimism, or is it realism?

Because our problems aren't actually being caused by a fictional machine broadcasting mystical waves of pessimism, and the solutions aren't actually just more positive thinking.

I contend that the main reason things keep getting worse is that we keep expecting some future technology to fix it all for us Any Day Now. It's too much optimism, not too little.

[LanternWaste]

5. And its concomitant flip-side-- is it optimism or is it realism?

And its concomitant flip-side-- is it optimism or is it realism?

No doubt, too many of us pretend to know the answer.

[yeoman6987]

8. I was surprised it bombed at the theater

It is going to be a big loss for the movie company. It cost 190 million to make and only brought in 41 million over the 4 day holiday. Next weekend is San Andreas which will Crush the second week of tommorowland. I was shocked though.

[el_bryanto]

2. I had a bit of that too

Particularly given that it's directed by the director of the Incredibles, which also had some of the same leanings. "If Everybody is Special than no one is."

That said, I think it differs from Galt in that the heroes don't intend for it to be a departure from the rest of society, but a sabbatical from which they will come back and help society. Galts utopia is one in which 90% of the human race is told to go fuck itself. In Bird and Lindalof's utopia they go of, and free of interference, solve the world's problems and come back and give us those answers. Also in the last few shots where they start recruiting more people for Tomorrowland, it's clearly a much more eclectic mix than Galts big industrialists united. So that more or less redeems it for me.

The other and larger part of the movies message about being optimstic about the future I agree with - while I loved Mad Max - Fury Road, I would like to see futures where things look good more regularly. I think if we keep telling ourselves that the future sucks and there's not much we can do about it, than that's kind of what we will get.

Bryant

[phantom power]

4. On the way home, I asked my daughter....

(paraphrasing from memory here)

Me: So... do you agree or disagree that only the creative people should be allowed into Tomorrowland, and the rest be left behind?

The Kid: Yes!

Me (feeling a disturbance in the force): Interesting, why so?

The Kid: Because the creative people are the ones who will make useful contributions to science, and stupid people won't be any help.

So, my wife and I took her to task a little bit over this (which pleased her none at all), but anyway it confirmed my worst suspicions on the subtext of that movie.

(Even though I did, in fact, still like it)

[el_bryanto]

6. I don't know

Should everybody regardless of grades or intellectual attainment be let into Harvard (actually we know that very wealthy people don't have any trouble getting in either, but lets set that aside for a moment and pretend that it was a meritocracy)? Or should Harvard just take the best students?

Bryant

[phantom power]

10. Is Tomorrowland a university? Or a lifeboat? Or the project of human progress?

If it's a lifeboat, who is allowed on? And why? And since it's a lifeboat the size of planet earth (actually larger, since they clearly have space travel), why not everybody?

If it represents the on-going human project, who gets to say whose voices count? And why? And again, why not everybody?

They come right out in the movie and say that Tomorrowland was conceived as a place where smart people could go without "everybody else" dragging them down. For better or worse, that's a very Ayn Rand theme right there.

After the movie, we also watched Forrest Gump. Because I wanted my daughter to be exposed to the idea that in real life, humans don't neatly categorize into "smart" or "stupid" or "deserving" or "undeserving"

[el_bryanto]

11. Yes - i guess that hits the nail on the head

I see it more of a university/think tank, and I don't think the lifeboat idea works at all - because the character who espouses the lifeboat idea is the villain.

As for who decides who goes - well - the people who built it decided I guess - it appears the founders intended it to be more open than it became, but it was corrupted.

As for what's holding them back - obviously if the movie argued explicitely that corporate pressure and the need to make money held creative people back that's a liberal argument; if it argues that government regulation holds people back, than that's more of a conservative argument - it doesn't specify exactly.

Bryant

[Agschmid]

7. I really enjoyed it.

Felt optimistic, and it was fun.

[aikoaiko]

9. I took my 10-year old son. He liked it. His take away was we have to save the world.

These movies are simpler for children, I think.

[olddots]

12. I'm going to see it again

something I rarely do .