Hey kids! The world is in trouble! You know what it needs? Optimists! Hopers! Dreamers! Fixers! And most of all, Specials! You know, the genius inventors (identifiable by their DNA and can-do spirit) who could solve everything if the rest of us would just get out of the way and take our politics, greed, and negativity with us. Specials like Casey Newton (Britt Robertson, full of gumption), whose intellect is as sharp as her hair is gorgeous — when it (the hair) isn't obscured by her engineer father's beat-up NASA ballcap. (Symbol!) But Casey can't do it alone: she needs help from grouchy grampa-type Frank Walker (George Clooney, not even trying). Especially if she's going to escape the black-suited murderbots sent from another dimension to stop a rogue recruiterbot from foiling the plans of naysaying Nix (Hugh Laurie, befuddled) to ride out the apocalypse he helped create from afar. If that sounds at all coherent or engaging, then I'm sorry for misleading you. A gloppy, scattered sop to the power of positive thinking from director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, which offered a much sharper take on the subject of being special). (2015) — Matthew Lickona