Review

Review Date: 19-September-04
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Gee, but Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a swell picture! The buzz is that it represents one lucky guy's dream (writer/director Kerry Conran in his debut), but I bet it echoes a lot of people's dreams, like those who grew up in the '30s and '40s and those who love comics and science fiction. Proving that what was old becomes new, or that things never go out of style (or some such folksy cliché), Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow treats audiences to a rousing adventure about good gals and guys doing what they do best: saving Earth from ruin with pluck, humor, and stylish suits and bomber jackets.

The movie is being touted for its special effects, since every scene, from the intimate moments to the action sequences, was filmed in front of a bluescreen. (In other words, nothing is real.) Conran uses his power over a computer-generated universe to achieve a look of haloed matinee nostalgia, making his New York a dreamy urban wonderland (apparently in the foothills of the Alps) and his Shangri-La a vision of intangible exoticism (appropriately in the Himalayas). Letting his throwback fantasies run wild (something a fellow can do on a sufficient budget), he fills his cities and landscapes with airplanes that turn into submarines, robots thirty stories high, and rocket ships with distinctly art-deco interiors. Add a dash of Star Wars, a hint of James Bond, and a touch of The Island of Dr. Moreau, and the result is whiz-bang escapism that's plenty fun to watch.

Fun, too, are the players in Conran's game, who stoutly breathe life into worlds they cannot actually see. Gwyneth Paltrow lends both her beauty and her chronically dissatisfied air to the role of Polly Perkins, an intrepid reporter (what else?) whose investigation of a series of murders sends her on a mission to save the planet. After giant robots pillage the world's cities, Polly hooks up with an old flame named Joe Sullivan, aka Sky Captain, to track them to their source. The captain, a mercenary ace pilot/superhero in the vein of Indiana Jones, is exactly the type of character suited to Jude Law, whose Plasticine gorgeousness always appears other than commonly human. Together, these two wing across the globe in pursuit of the elusive mastermind known as Totenkopf (played by Laurence Olivier — yes, you read that right), whose mechanical army has stolen not only the means of mass destruction but Joe's best friend and right-hand man (Giovanni Ribisi), who leaves them a trail using a piece of chewing gum.

Naturally, between dodging missiles and traversing narrow bridges over yawning chasms, Polly and Joe try to come to grips with their unresolved romance. (Both are egocentric commitmentphobes, but in an entertaining way.) Their flirtation heats up when they seek help from an old friend of Joe's by the name of Franky, who turns out to be Angelina Jolie in an eye patch. (She devours her small but important role, delivering lines like "Alert the amphibious squadron!" with a snazzy British accent and lots of relish.) The history of this threesome begs to be elaborated; I hope Conran is planning a sequel.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow aims to be visually impressive, narratively diverting, and unsarcastically retrograde, and it succeeds on all counts. From its opening shot of a blimp (blimps are cool; every movie should have one) to its witty final line, this is an old-fashioned, if technology-enabled, good time.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.