Overall Rating
  Awesome: 26.06%
Worth A Look: 34.57%
Average: 17.02%
Pretty Bad: 16.49%
Total Crap: 5.85%
12 reviews, 116 user ratings
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| Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow |
by Brian McKay
"Do you have a little Captain in ya?"
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There's a scene in SKY CAPTAIN where two characters have a clandestine meeting at the Radio City theater during a screening of THE WIZARD OF OZ - and in a way, that film serves as a fitting metaphor for this one. While the Emerald City is certainly full of wondrous sights to behold, the Scarecrow is coming down hard from sensory overload after rolling on Ex at a munchkin rave, the Tin Man is making do with a pig's heart while he languishes on the transplant list, and that man behind the curtain really isn't worth paying attention to because he's not all that interesting. While SKY CAPTAIN offers plenty of treats for the eyes, it comes up short on brain candy and ultimately feels like it's missing an emotional center.It's difficult to come down too hard on a movie like Sky Captain because, flaws aside, It really does aim to please. Even if one fails to connect with the film completely, one must at least admire all of the work and innovation that went into the project, and admire the filmmakers for what they were trying to do. However, it is likely that Sky Captain will appeal mostly to the older crowd of hardcore movie history and nostalgia freaks, and barely make a blip on the radar of the crucial 16-24 demographic. How it will fare on its debut weekend is anybody's guess, but my prediction would be a modest opening thanks to the curious, followed by a sharp drop into obscurity.
It's a novel approach to filming a period piece, using only CGI and green screen technology to insert the characters into the fantastical scenery. But the technique has its strengths and weaknesses. Many of the visuals are beautiful, like the opening shot of what 1930's New York City would look like if merged with Fritz Lang's Metropolis and placed inside of a giant snow globe. However, the characters' interactions never quite mesh seamlessly with their surroundings, the lighting always looks a bit off, and it is often painfully clear that actors are moving against a digitally implanted backdrop. The entire production is given a slightly washed-out look for what I suspect are two reasons - to give it that old movie film-noir feel, and (more importantly) to hide how fake a lot of the CGI really looks.
Set in a sort of alternate-universe 1930's that is chock full of anachronisitic technological advances, Sky Captain opens with headstrong reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is hotly pursuing a story about some missing scientists and a doomsday plot of world domination. Before long, the city of New York falls under attack by huge flying robots that look like slow cousins of the Iron Giant. After they begin wreaking havoc on the city, the authorities call on the services of Joe Sullivan, a.k.a. Sky Captain (Jude Law) to come save them. Yes, that's right - not the Army with its fleet of tanks, not the might of the U. S. Air Force, but one dude in a tricked-out Corsair full of James Bond-ish gadgets.
After the initial attack, the robots depart, leaving Sky Captain and Polly (who are old lovers currently on the rocks, of course) to figure out where they come from, what they want, and who's behind their actions. Aided by gadget-making whiz-kid Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) and spunky British fighter pilot Frankie Cook (Angelina Jolie in eyepatch, looking like a Nazi Pirate), the two set off on an adventure that takes them around the world to places like Mt. Everest, Shangri La, an Atlantean graveyard full of famous shipwrecks, and a Dinosaur-infested "Lost World" island, as they search for the evil scientist who appears to control the robotic Legions.
Full of homages to many great sci-fi films, from Lucas and the Wachowski brothers to the old Buck Rogers and Doctor Strange serials of yesteryear, Sky Captain has plenty of little touches to bring a smile to the face of the average nostalgic movie-lover. The script also contains several funny moments thanks to a mostly enjoyable chemistry shared by Law and Paltrow, and the occasional witty exchange of dialogue. Although I have always found Miss Paltrow's beauty and talent highly overrated, she actually proves an asset to the film- which would be almost completely bereft of any genuine human elements without her.
Alas, all of the pretty visuals and cross-genre mixes become more of a distraction than anything else by the time the film reaches its disappointing Third act. Eventually, the plot twists become even more far-fetched than the high-tech gadgetry, serving as a mere means to move the characters from point A to B to C, so that they can observe more CGI-created wonders along the way. But without a genuinely compelling crisis, or an even remotely intriguing villain, Sky Captain starts to feel like just another fluffy CGI wankfest. The filmmakers seem so eager to squeeze in as many pulp-comic motifs as they can, that anything resembling a plot gets lost in the shuffle. Only the occasional repartee' between Law and Paltrow keeps things interesting, when the eye candy's novelty has long since worn off. However, one other shining point of Sky Captain is its stirring score, which evokes memories of Raiders of the Lost Ark musically in a way that the film just can't quite pull off visually.While it's nowhere near as disastrous as something like VAN HELSING, it's not nearly as engaging as a film like the fifteen year old (and still far superior) THE ROCKETEER. Although worth a once-over by the curious, the visually intriguing WORLD OF TOMORROW will likely be all but forgotten by next week.
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10762&reviewer=258
originally posted: 09/17/04 10:37:52
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OFFICIAL SELECTION: 2005 Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival. For more in the 2005 Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival series, click here.
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USA
17-Sep-2004 (PG)
DVD: 25-Jan-2005
UK
N/A
Australia
03-Feb-2005
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