Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow movie review
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
(2004)
For months now, New Line has been hyping a film that’s ‘completely unique’ and ‘one of a kind,’ a movie set in a world so digital that only the people are real. Finally, after some delays (the original release date was July), they finally unleashed Sky Captain on us. Question is, was it worth the wait? I should confess I’ve been interested in this movie from the first moment I’ve heard about it, and I’ve been following the developments on the web site and so on. I even got to see the producer, creator, and most of the stars at the San Diego Comic Con; I tried hard to avoid spoilers but did run into a few of them. So I knew more about this film going in than I did about most films. Sky Captain follows the story of one Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) as he attempts to save New York City in specific and the world in general from some vague evil menace named Totenkopf (that’s death’s head, auf Deutsche). Aiding him in this quest is reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his techie-minded sidekick, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi). Together the three of them must figure out what Totenkopf is up to and why, and then find a way to stop him. Also along for the ride are Totenkopf’s henchman, the aptly named Mysterious Woman (Bai Ling) and an ally of the Sky Captain, Frankie Cook (Angelina Jolie). The movie makes no bones about the fact that it wants to be a 30s film, from the washed-out color to the quaint soft-focus of everything to the slavish attention to detail in almost every frame. Unfortunately, this devotion to the serials is taken a step too far, and we’re delivered a plot that is so busy trying to display every cliché of pulp serials in CGI perfection that it never bothers to attempt anything deeper. It’s more important to have a jungle and a huge stone temple because they were featured so prominently so often. Never mind that they make no sense from a plot standpoint. Sky Captain is all about the visuals, and there it succeeds pretty well. Most of the machines, while rip-offs from magazine covers or artwork of the period, are startlingly well-realized, and there are some exceedingly clever bits of retro-tech that are fun to watch. But the movie makes hardly any sense, and as Joe and Polly finally get to the man behind the curtain, it becomes obvious that the brothers Conran, who created this lavish piece of art, spent all their time on how it looked and hardly any on the story. All the actors are fine. Law is his usual charming self, and it’s easy to like him. Paltrow is good, but I found Polly herself more irritating than anything else (and no one, not even a gal with this much moxie, wears high heels in the jungle!); Ribisi’s Dex is fun too. Jolie has what amounts to a glorified cameo, but she’s perfect for the role, which is pretty much just to look good (which is not really all that hard for
her). Bai Ling’s Mysterious Woman could have been anyone; the role has no vocals and is mostly stunts. Besides trying too hard to capture the feel of the pulps, Sky Captain’s other major problem is that it doesn’t want to be original, it really wants to be Star Wars. There are numerous Lucasian references throughout – the mysterious woman is nothing more than Darth Maul with boobs, and the Joe/Polly flirting/sparring comes straight from the embarrassing Han/Leia school of courting. And much like the modern Star Wars films, Sky Captain is so busy showing you what can be done with computer graphics that it forgets to back it up with things like a coherent story or anything resembling a soul. Though in its heart it wants to be Star Wars, really, the film Sky Captain most resembles is Blade Runner: beautiful production design wrapped around a hollow, lifeless script and story. Which is not to say Sky Captain doesn’t have its moments, because it does. Bits of it are exceedingly clever and there are a few good chuckles. But as it goes on the film increasingly makes less sense, and in the end, even the prettiest wrapping can’t disguise the fact that box beneath it is empty. September 19, 2004
(2004)
For months now, New Line has been hyping a film that’s ‘completely unique’ and ‘one of a kind,’ a movie set in a world so digital that only the people are real. Finally, after some delays (the original release date was July), they finally unleashed Sky Captain on us. Question is, was it worth the wait? I should confess I’ve been interested in this movie from the first moment I’ve heard about it, and I’ve been following the developments on the web site and so on. I even got to see the producer, creator, and most of the stars at the San Diego Comic Con; I tried hard to avoid spoilers but did run into a few of them. So I knew more about this film going in than I did about most films. Sky Captain follows the story of one Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) as he attempts to save New York City in specific and the world in general from some vague evil menace named Totenkopf (that’s death’s head, auf Deutsche). Aiding him in this quest is reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his techie-minded sidekick, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi). Together the three of them must figure out what Totenkopf is up to and why, and then find a way to stop him. Also along for the ride are Totenkopf’s henchman, the aptly named Mysterious Woman (Bai Ling) and an ally of the Sky Captain, Frankie Cook (Angelina Jolie). The movie makes no bones about the fact that it wants to be a 30s film, from the washed-out color to the quaint soft-focus of everything to the slavish attention to detail in almost every frame. Unfortunately, this devotion to the serials is taken a step too far, and we’re delivered a plot that is so busy trying to display every cliché of pulp serials in CGI perfection that it never bothers to attempt anything deeper. It’s more important to have a jungle and a huge stone temple because they were featured so prominently so often. Never mind that they make no sense from a plot standpoint. Sky Captain is all about the visuals, and there it succeeds pretty well. Most of the machines, while rip-offs from magazine covers or artwork of the period, are startlingly well-realized, and there are some exceedingly clever bits of retro-tech that are fun to watch. But the movie makes hardly any sense, and as Joe and Polly finally get to the man behind the curtain, it becomes obvious that the brothers Conran, who created this lavish piece of art, spent all their time on how it looked and hardly any on the story. All the actors are fine. Law is his usual charming self, and it’s easy to like him. Paltrow is good, but I found Polly herself more irritating than anything else (and no one, not even a gal with this much moxie, wears high heels in the jungle!); Ribisi’s Dex is fun too. Jolie has what amounts to a glorified cameo, but she’s perfect for the role, which is pretty much just to look good (which is not really all that hard for
her). Bai Ling’s Mysterious Woman could have been anyone; the role has no vocals and is mostly stunts. Besides trying too hard to capture the feel of the pulps, Sky Captain’s other major problem is that it doesn’t want to be original, it really wants to be Star Wars. There are numerous Lucasian references throughout – the mysterious woman is nothing more than Darth Maul with boobs, and the Joe/Polly flirting/sparring comes straight from the embarrassing Han/Leia school of courting. And much like the modern Star Wars films, Sky Captain is so busy showing you what can be done with computer graphics that it forgets to back it up with things like a coherent story or anything resembling a soul. Though in its heart it wants to be Star Wars, really, the film Sky Captain most resembles is Blade Runner: beautiful production design wrapped around a hollow, lifeless script and story. Which is not to say Sky Captain doesn’t have its moments, because it does. Bits of it are exceedingly clever and there are a few good chuckles. But as it goes on the film increasingly makes less sense, and in the end, even the prettiest wrapping can’t disguise the fact that box beneath it is empty. September 19, 2004
