Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

From the imagination of new writer/director Kerry
Conran, SKY CAPTAIN takes place in a late 1930’s New York. The story
centers around the adventure of the dashing & heroic pilot Joe “Sky
Captain” Sullivan (played by Jude Law) & the reporter full of moxy
(played by Gwyneth Paltrow) in their quest to save the world from giant
robots. Together with a supporting cast of characters like Dex
Dearborn, Joe’s sidekick (played by Giovanni Ribisi) & Capt.
Francesca “Franky” Cook, a pilot friend from Joe’s past (played by
Angelina Jolie), Mr. Conran takes us on the last adventure of the
2004’s summer films.

I know, it sounds like some 1950’s serial. Actually
that’s the point. Going in to see this movie, you need to remember
this. During the entire movie, from the characters & dialogue to
the settings & props, the movie is based on how those old serials
were. A perfect example of this is Dex’s ray gun. In today’s movie’s we
expect to see a straight line of light being fired. Instead, just like
those early sci-fi serials, we see the round rings of radiation be
shot. If your require your science fiction to be more science then
fiction, you may not enjoy this.

Right off the bat you can tell the visual style is
that of a graphic novel. Almost every frame could be captured, printed
& framed on a wall. What made this possible, is the digital film
technology of today. Not only was it completely filmed in front of a
blue screen, but the only things in the film that weren’t digital where
the objects the actors actually had to touch & handle. In addition,
from what I learned from Behind-the-scenes featurettes, Mr.Conran had a
majority of the film’s digital sets/stages roughly done, as well as
animatics (a rough animated version of the storyboard). When he went to
Paramount to get the film made, he already had a good chunk of the work
done, which isn’t surprising hwy Paramount jumped at the chance to be a
part of this.

The energy & pace of the film was comparable to
Stephen Sommer’s THE MUMMY films. Never was there a dull moment.
Coupled with the energy of the film, was a massive score from composer
Edward Shearmur. Similar to Alan Silvestri’s MUMMY RETURNS score,
Mr.Shearmur supports the film with both roaring adventurous, yet
slightly dark musical score.

Although not an award winning film, in terms of
performance or direction, SKY CAPTAIN & THE WORLD OF TOMORROW was a
great experience & highly suggest it.