Tomorrowland

Cynics might dismiss Tomorrowland as a feature-length theme park advertisement, but Disney self-promotion isn’t the primary reason for its failure.

Instead, this ambitious science-fiction adventure from director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) has a futuristic vision that is stylishly and sometimes spectacularly rendered, but without much substance beneath the spectacle. That’s despite a tendency toward heavy-handed sermonizing about progressive parenting and the bleak outlook for the future of our planet — you know, for the kiddos.

The plot links the parallel stories of two aspiring adventurers. One is a disillusioned recluse named Frank (George Clooney) who is harboring scars after the jet pack he invented as a child for the 1964 World’s Fair leads to a brief fling with a British girl with secrets about a strange hidden world.

Flash forward several decades, when we meet a troubled working-class teenager (Britt Robertson) with an affinity for drones and rockets who finds a pendant that rekindles her love for space travel. The mysterious pin transports her to the same futuristic society that looks immaculate on the surface, but later exposes a more sinister network of corruption.

She joins Frank on a quest to change the course of the future that’s both perilous and intellectually challenging. While the destination might be unclear for the film’s mismatched explorers, the future of mankind naturally lies in the balance.

Tomorrowland is an impressive technical achievement, as Bird again demonstrates plenty of visual flair and keeps the pace lively, incorporating seamless visual effects along with plenty of cool gadgets and high-tech methods of transport.

On one hand, the film is a salute to childhood innocence and the wonders of innovation and discovery, with colorful visuals and playful action sequences that should thrill that demographic. Through its young protagonists, the film promotes a healthy curiosity and imagination.

There are scattered moments of nostalgia that are both amusing and touching, and Clooney’s charisma provides a boost in the second half. Yet the screenplay by Bird and Damon Lindelof (TV’s “Lost”) bogs down in convoluted apocalyptic mumbo-jumbo.

The more cerebral concepts about ecology and preservation are oversimplified, as the film rather obviously steers toward hope and optimism over paranoia and despair as it debates whether Earth will evolve into a utopia or a dystopia. But at least there should be some snazzy toys in cereal boxes and on fast-food trays.

Rated PG, 130 minutes.