Starring Britt Robertson and George Clooney. Rated PG.

They promised us jet packs. That’s the central premise of this unexpectedly subversive venture from the folks at Disney. Or, to put it in words used by George Clooney’s character, Frank Walker, at one point, “You’ve been manipulated into thinking you were part of something incredible. You thought you were special, but you’re not.”

Ouch! Still, for anyone who remembers the bold sci-fi vibe of 1964’s New York World’s Fair, attended by young Frank (Thomas Robinson), the future was bound to disappoint. Responsible for such visionary classics as The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, restless writer-director Brad Bird surely sees his Tomorrowland as riffing on the ’39 fair’s Futurama exhibit (also in New York) more than on any Epcot attraction.

Things do begin in Florida, however (even if much of this was shot in B.C.), with scientifically named teenager Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) pissed off about the layoff of her NASA-technician dad (country music’s Tim McGraw). Her actions bring her in contact with a mysterious little girl called Athena (Raffey Cassidy, who is English, and quite possibly from Village of the Damned). Athena was the same age back in ’64, suggesting that it’s a small-robot world, after all. Together, they set out to find Frank, now in hiding and morphed into Clooney, but grumpier than usual.

What follows is an exceedingly thin (for 130 minutes), surprisingly violent, and oddly confusing story involving humanity’s headlong rush into overpopulation and environmental catastrophe, with necessary swipes at climate-change deniers and the general antifactual movement led by Fox News.

What’s most baffling about Tomorrowland, which begins in highly expensive wonder and ends with generic CGI fight scenes, is its choice to make a conventional villain out of a potential saviour. Hugh Laurie plays Governor Nix (get it?), also a bigwig of the ’64 fair, now so disillusioned by our stupidity he’s retreated to a militarized version of the original Tomorrowland, which our heroes must penetrate in order to save the planet with their positivity. Or something.

The tale is loaded with weird touches, including the Clooney dude’s unresolved romance with freckled preteen Athena and the fact that not a single adult female human has a line of dialogue. Also, I didn’t give a fig about Casey Newton, possibly because the frequently shrieking Robertson seems like an irritating version of Shailene Woodley (who was originally up for the role). Sometimes a movie just promises too much.