Tomorrowland Teaser Review

The teaser trailer for Brad Bird's secretive science fiction project Tomorrowland hit the internet yesterday. And it is quite a good teaser. This film has been on my radar ever since I first heard rumblings of a George Clooney/Hugh Laurie/Brad Bird team-up. Those three names put together is enough to give me chills. Clooney and Laurie are two of my all-time favorite actors, and Bird is the man behind some of the my favorite animated films ever like The Incredibles and The Iron Giant.

It's been a while since Hugh Laurie has appeared in a major movie like this. In fact, he hasn't done too much acting since he ended his 8-year stint as Dr. Greg House on House (which is one of my favorite shows of all-time, by the way). He has decided to shift his focus to his musical career, which I 100% respect, even admire. However, it's nice to see him back on a screen, big or small. He doesn't appear in this trailer, which just adds to the fact that Disney is still keeping much of it under wraps.

The teaser has the feel of a Nolan teaser. If you watch Christopher Nolan's teaser trailers, they give you basically nothing about the movie. They'll set up the general premise - if that - and show a few scenes of footage, maybe have some brief narration. But they won't show you much. Just enough to make you want more.

Nowadays, a lot of the trailers that studios release show far too much footage. For example, earlier this year we had The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I personally thought it was a pretty good movie. It might have been better if I hadn't seen so much of it in the trailers. I mean, the "teaser" that they released for it was two and a half minutes long. That's how long the last trailer that's released should be.

George Clooney and Hugh Laurie on the set of Tomorrowland

Tomorrowland does it right. There's not much footage, just one scene involving a girl and then a brief look at what is presumably the "Tomorrowland". At the end, we get a look at George Clooney, who narrates some of it. But, after watching the teaser a couple times, I can't say I know anything about the plot. At all. And that's how I want to feel. Intrigued, but ignorant.

From the looks of it, the visuals are fabulous. I can't say I'm surprised at that, seeing as though Brad Bird is the man behind the camera. All his movies have a distinct visual panache, even his only live action effort, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. That movie had some stunning effects and set pieces in it, particularly, of course, the sequence in which Tom Cruise climbs up the Burj Khalifa. There's one part in the trailer when the girl is looking around Tomorrowland (again, I'm guessing that's what it is) and she spots a massive castle in the distance. That shot alone gives me confidence that the special effects will be great.

Based on a couple on-set shots that I've seen, as well as the set-up of the trailer, George Clooney's character will be exploring Tomorrowland with one or two female children/teenagers. I'll be interested to see if that is true, and if it is, what the relationship between them is. I may be dead wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure that's how it'll be.

It's pretty much all speculation at this point, which is a good thing. They haven't revealed much information about it, and I hope it stays that way. I want to know next to nothing about it going in, barring maybe just the general premise. It's safe to say I'm looking forward to this film, and anticipate it being one of the better movies of next year.

Tomorrowland will be released May 22, 2015.