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DVD Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition)
While setting a milestone in the progress of digital filmmaking, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow resurrects a nostalgic fantasy world derived from a wide variety of vintage inspirations. It's a dazzling dream for anyone who appreciates the look and feel of golden-age sci-fi pulp magazines, drawing its unique, all-digital design from such diverse sources as Howard Hawks adventures, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buck Rogers, Blackhawk comics, The Third Man, cliffhanger serials, and the action-packed Indiana Jones franchise. Writer-director Kerry Conran's feature debut is also guaranteed to inspire digital dreamers everywhere, suggesting a paradigm shift in the way CGI-dominated movies are made. It's a giddy adventure for the young and young-at-heart, in which ace pilot "Sky Captain" Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) and intrepid reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) must save the world from a mad scientist whose vision of the future has tragic implications for all humankind. Angelina Jolie drops in for a glorified cameo, but it's the ultra-fortunate neophyte Conran who's the star here. His clever riff on The Wizard of Oz is a marvel to behold, and the method of its creation is nothing less than revolutionary. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition)
The World of Tomorrrrrrrrow-----Today!
Really: is there anything so wonderful in all the world as Deadly Giant Robots?
If you're like me, the answer is: NO! Giant Robots are the cat's pyjamas, any day of the week. And you'll find them in spades, and in all shapes and sizes, in the brilliantly retro "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", among other joys, dark and light.
Lightest of all is the artistry with which first-time director Kerry Conran (happily tinkering away on "John Carter of Mars") and effects/cinematography chief Eric Adkins and Mike Navarro have crafted this visual feast, which is so seamless, and harkens back so powerfully and nostalgically to the 1930's Golden Age of Cinema, that "Sky Captain" demands nothing less than to be seen in a gilded movie palace.
If that can't be arranged, you're still in for a treat. You've got plummy Gwyneth Paltrow playing the plummier Polly Perkins, saving that single exposure for the shot of the century while evading Giant Killer Robots on Park Avenue.
You've got the mostly bland but spit-and-polish swashbuckling of Jude Law (Sky Captain himself), dogfighting with Deadly Giant Flying Robots in his P-51 and keeping that scarf flying back over his shoulder.
You've got Angelina Jolie as the airborne black widow spider of the piece (and femme fatale, natch) Captain "Franky" Cook. Piloting the huge, lumbering sky carriers and well-armed attack submersibles, kitted out in a form-fitting black uniform complete with peaked cap and jackboots.
Oh, and she's got an eyepatch. Oh, yes.
If that's not enough to sell you alone, you've got a race against the clock to locate the mysterious Doctor Totenkopf (Lawrence Olivier brought back from the Dead through the alchemy and black magic of high technology!) in his secret lair, before he can destroy the planet with his rampaging army of Deadly Giant Robots! And who can resist something that pulpy, to say nothing of something this gorgeous?
To round off the festitivites, you get the shadowy evil operative Lai Bing (who fights as stylishly as she dresses), dinosaurs, death ray beams, and the Hindenburg docking on the Empire State Builiding (a scene that is almost painfully beautiful) and even huge guardian Robots with cyclopean attack lasers and wavy tentacles, and fiendish plots to kidnap scientists, and...
Well, you get the idea. It's like being 9 years old all over again.
JSG
Captain Yadda and how long is that d*mn title anyway?
Here's to the unexpected perfection that is "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow."
Here's to film noir and the fifties (the way they were in our imagination, not real life)...the sarky reporters, the dashing pilots... the psuedo-mecha
Here's to creepy planes that FLAP THEIR WINGS and remind me *yeek!* of "Pitch Black" (but in a good way)...
Here's to the hotness of Jude Law...
and the not-annoyingness of Gwynneth Paltrow...
and the limited screen time of Angelina Jolie...
(heh -- funny to have a movie where Angelina J. is doing the accent and Gwynneth P. isn't)
and here's to Sir Lawrence Olivier...
and attractive Tibetans with, sadly, not nearly enough screen time...
and over-the-top escapist fun...
And the best last-line of a film I've seen... ever.
(Yeah, it's dumb as all get out, but you'll have so much fun with it if you let yourself.)
Beautifully Rendered Film
This movie was not for everyone, apparently. It was visually absolutely stunning - everything blended so seamlessly - I forgot all about the CGI plenty of times. Kerry Conran and his brother are highly talented. This was obviously a labor of love. However, I'd say it always was fated to have a small audience, which is a pity. I thought the whole retro concept was fabulous. Made me feel I was a little kid - seeing a movie like this for the first time. It's that kind of movie.
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