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Directed by: Kerry Conran Starring: Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie Back in the late 90s, a guy named Kerry Conran set about using his Macintosh and a bluescreen to create a short film. Along with the help of his brother Kevin, he created the beginnings of what he hoped would become The World of Tomorrow, a short sci-fi actioner in the style of a 1930s sci-fi serial. After a producer caught a glimpse of the unfinished film, though, it became Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a big-budget feature-length sci-fi actioner poised to be a summer blockbuster. Aside from the actors and a few assorted props, Sky Captain is an entirely computer-generated movie. That means the action can shift from New York to Nepal to places that don't even exist without concern for a set budget. And it allows Conran to fill these locations with giant robots, monsters, and other pulp sci-fi staples. The movie isn't set in the actual 1930s, but rather the imaginary near-future envisioned during the 1930s. This is a pure fantasy world where the Great Depression is not a concern and the US depends not on its own military but on a mercenary squad of pilots to save the day when there's trouble. This fantasy world simply oozes style. Sky Captain's visuals recall the work of sci-fi artists such as Frank R. Paul, from the robots to the rayguns to the impossible flying contraptions and the direction is pulled from any number of old movies: important text highlighted onscreen, radio waves are displayed using visible rings, and the washed out picture gives off a soft glow, making it look almost colorized. The result of all this is undeniably slick, giving the whole production a retro-cool look and feel. It revels in its campiness. As for the story, it basically serves to move the audience from one action sequence to another. Captain Joseph Sullivan is the flying ace "Sky Captain", and reporter Polly Perkins serves as the romantic foil to his hero archetype. And of course, there's the bad guy, the elusive Dr. Totenkopf, whose robot army is wreaking havoc in major cities across the globe as part of his scheme to - what else? - destroy the world. So Polly and her ex-beau Sky Captain hop into his seemingly invincible Warhawk P-40 and head off to find and stop the good Doctor, exchanging barbs along the way. Pretty standard stuff, but it's got funny parts, there are a few nice twists and turns in the plotline, and Law and Paltrow play well off each other. Giovanni Ribisi also pops up as the requisite goofy gadgeteer, and despite getting top billing, Angelina Jolie lends her lips to only about 10 minutes of screentime. There are a few problems with the movie: Some of the art direction later on looks more like it came from The Matrix than Flash Gordon. The CG is fairly hit-or-miss in places, but it eases the sting when you realize that everything you've been watching for the last hour was CG - the sky, the ground, the water - so a few visually distracting spots are forgivable. Also, presumably because it's a kid-friendly movie, there are a couple of spots that hit you over the head with their obviousness to make sure you understand what's going on. (For example, Polly has to look thoughtfully at her camera every time she contemplates snapping a picture.) I also imagine the simplistic "save the world" plot and the campy robot monsters might not appeal to everyone. It wouldn't take much for a cynic to pick this movie apart. ("How did they fly all the way across the Atlantic in that little plane?" "Why didn't the bad guy just shoot them all in the face?") Be forewarned: This movie is about as deep as your average James Bond flick. In the end, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow delivers essentially what it promises to be: a movie from seven decades ago made using the technology of today. Conran clearly borrows heavily from countless different influences (you'd need a copy of the DVD and an encyclopedic knowledge of 20th century pop culture to catch all the little nods, homages, and references stuffed into the movie), and the resulting concoction is sharp, energetic, and just plain cool to watch. A couple of obvious ones (the number 1138 and a showdown with a Darth-Maul-esque villain) pay tribute to George Lucas, a fellow connoisseur of pulp comics and retro cinema. This is the kind of film Lucas would have made had he not spent the last 5 years obsessed with his Star Wars resurgence. It's a fantasy adventure: the type of movie that doesn't need elaborate wire-fu fights, realistic science, or pogniant human drama. It just needs to be fun. RATING: 4.5 PROS: Neat-o visuals and directing, good action, funny bits CONS: Some awkward CG, not for everyone ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156/
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Aug 17, 2004 19:25
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 07:00 |
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