I haven't seen the movie (yet), but grabbed the "Before Tomorrowland" novel at DL yesterday and I'm interested to dig into that a bit. It's odd, I find myself with some innate attachment to this movie, and really wish it would have a chance at a sequel or even anything slightly related to it (prequel,etc.). I just think the bones of the world are really cool, and that maybe there will be enough fans that it could end up with some "cult" type popularity. I guess the retro futuristic stuff just seems under represented in this era of super high tech futures and superheroes. Again I understand that it is silly to defend a movie I haven't even watched, but I just want more properties in this vein, and would hate to see that genre die because of unsatisfactory returns.
My daughter read that book and she enjoyed it. There is a small reference to the events of the book in the movie, but nothing is lost by not reading it. So, she tells me. Its on my list of books to read, but I don't care to read that much.
The complaints I have seen or heard, is that we don't get to spend enough time in Tomorrowland and as an audience we wanted more of that. The other issue was that it got "preachy." Aside from one scene, I never saw it as "preachy". My belief is that those that feel like they are being preached to, know the message is true, but don't want to hear it. If you ignore it, it will go away.
As for spending more time in Tomorrowland, I don't think there is ever "enough time". However, the message I got from the movie is, "If you want to spend more time there, create it here."
-Eric