Review: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
David N. Butterworth
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2004 David N. Butterworth
*** (out of ****)
It started life as a black-and-white tribute to those creepy
science-fiction
thrillers of the 1950s, a slew of "It Came from..." wherever flicks that
played
upon our then paranoid fears of nuclear annihilation, precipitated by Orson
Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast that panicked an already
panic-stricken nation.
Then they colorized the newspaper ads and the TV spots and the interstate
billboards, much like media mogul Ted Turner did with his Network Classics.
And then they went and hand-tinted the whole kit and caboodle, no doubt
fearful that kids today were going to start hurling rotten tomatoes at the
projection
booth figuring something was amiss up there. (Right. Like Jet Li's "Hero"
tanked
at the box office because teenagers were too lazy to read the words at the
bottom
of the screen. That film's currently playing at a real live *drive-in* for all
under heaven's sake--just how youth-accessible is that!?)
Which makes me wonder that the heck happened. Was "Sky Captain and the
World of Tomorrow" *ever* a monochromatic movie, or did nervous execs simply
do the dirty color coordination job at the eleventh hour? I tell you this film
was meant to be color-free. It looked good that way (at least from the
previews)
and the subject matter clearly demanded it. I don't need to see Jude Law in
a colored flyboy jumpsuit or Gwyneth Paltrow under a fetching colored fedora
and I don't need to see Angelina Jolie sporting a colored eyepatch (even if
it *is* black).
But the moneymen at Paramount Pictures apparently do.
It's 1939, "King's Row," "Wuthering Heights," and "The Wizard of Oz"
adorn
the movie marquees, and a scoop-happy reporter, Polly Perkins (Paltrow), wants
her story. Faster than her Leica shutter clicks air raid sirens serenade the
arrival of massive metal monsters from the skies. Who y'gonna call? Why
mercenary
fighter pilot Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan of course!
Sky Captain (played by Law with a nod and a wink) flies a Spitfire with
tiger shark teeth painted on the fuselage. He's part Superman, part Flash
Gordon,
all Adventure. Joe and Polly team up, sort of, to investigate the whereabouts
of eleven missing scientists, two mysterious vials, and a rogue doctor named
Totenkopf who, it would seem, has some diabolical doomsday device up his
sleeve.
About 20 minutes from the end of this adventurous romp the mood is upset
as Sky Captain morphs into a Jurassic Park/Indiana Jones/James Bond/Matrix
clone.
It literally becomes brighter and more focused, neither one of which are a
good
thing since they undermine the painstakingly crafted look of the piece.
Until then, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" looked lovely in all
its sepia-enriched, fuzzy-focused glory, with the CGI not quite as
overwhelming
as usual, oddly enough. Because the players look and sound very different, and
that's enough to keep us charmingly distracted. And the
filmmakers--writer/director
Kerry Conran for the most part--get the period tone exactly right, from the
huge close-ups to the off-center camera angles to the snappy front-page banter
of Polly's fast-talking dame.
Oh yes. And apart from our protagonists and possibly one or two others
(including Giovanni Ribisi as inventor Dex Dearborn and Michael Gambon as
Polly's
editor), the whole thing, believe it or not, was put together on a computer.
--
David N. Butterworth
d...@dca.net
Got beef? Visit "La Movie Boeuf"
online at http://members.dca.net/dnb
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Jerry Saravia
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Viewed on October 10th, 2004
RATING: One star
The critics have been kind to "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow." I
suppose they imagined that sepia-drenched vistas with giant flying robots and
flying airstrips borrowed from the futuristic world of "Metropolis" and "Just
Imagine" and pop sci-fi tales makes for good cinema. It can but it also helps
if something of interest happens in those vistas. "Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow" is one of the emptiest, tedious action-adventure movies I've seen in
a long time. It is so dull, so underimagined on a story level, so devoid of any
charm or wit, that you'll leave the theatre wondering why this was even made.
Did the director even look at the dailies?
As far as I can tell, there is a news reporter (Polly Perkins) played by
Gwyneth Paltrow who seeks information on some murdered scientists. One such
scientist foretells of some calamity coming their way. Next thing, we know
there are dozens of ships coming into New York City circa 1937. They are not
ships though, they are giant robots who parade around New York City until they
reach some perimeter to do something dastardly. The robots were apparently sent
by Dr. Totenkopf (played by a holographic Sir Laurence Olivier) but the reason
is unclear - I suspect it is nothing more than world domination. Enter the
devil-may-care Sky Captain (Jude Law) whose job is to zoom in and out of
cityscapes in his jet without hitting any buildings or billboards, especially
when he makes those sharp turns. He wants to wipe out all these robots and hunt
and capture the nefarious doctor. Polly wants to come along for the ride so she
can take a snapshot or two. Of course, this Polly is so picky that she will not
take pictures of just anything, especially when there are only two shots left.
I wish I could say there is more to "Sky Captain" - some level of surprise and
adventure to keep us giddy and excited. Director Kenny Conran has so fallen in
love with these vistas that he assumes they are enough to sustain
feature-length. Not so, not when the characters are so disengaged and so
humorless. There is barely much of a story and the characters are so paper-thin
as to be thinner than paint thinner. You know those nasty paper cuts you can
get sometimes - these characters are even thinner than that. They are as
robotic as the giant robots themselves. The whole film is an attempt to fashion
a world of innocence that never existed except in those pop sci-fi tales and
sci-fi movies of yesteryear. That's an admirable idea but it is just an idea.
If "Sky Captain" were to be judged on visual aspects alone, it would suffice
but then George Lucas has created far more amazing vistas in the "Star Wars"
films. Nobody recommends "Star Wars" on special-effects alone.
Jude Law attempts to have a good time, but he seems withdrawn from the
adventure - as if it he was always hot and bothered. Gwyneth Paltrow, an
actress who showed range in "The Talented Mr. Ripley," coasts along on looks
alone - as if the look of a 30's woman with Veronica Lake hair was enough.
Paltrow should do glamour photos for Elle or Vogue, not for a movie as
insubstantial as this one. Only Angelina Jolie as the eyepatch-wearing Franky,
Sky Captain's former flame and a damn good pilot herself, shows any sense of
joy - too bad, her performance is nothing more than a cameo (and why wasn't she
this good as Lara Croft)? Giovanni Ribisi as a gum-chewing sidekick of Sky
Captain's has the right attitude but his performance is also short-shrifted and
eclipsed by the visuals. As for Laurence Olivier, all I can ask is, why?
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is a big, lumbering, colossally boring,
noisily incoherent mess of a film. It pays homage to "Raiders of the Lost Ark,"
"King Kong," "Buck Rogers" and even "Jurassic Park," nary the verve, the
passion, the humor, the human interest or the excitement (I think I may have
spotted one last-minute escapist moment for what is supposedly an escapist
adventure). "The Rocketeer," a delirious homage to 30's and 40's serials, had
the right attitude and some genuine excitement, and it evoked a time of
innocence. This movie is a computerized, digitized dud.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
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