Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (film)
From AwardAnnals
| Film: | Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow |
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| Director: | Kerry Conran |
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| Distributor: | Paramount |
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Reviews
Amazon.com
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
Barnes and Noble
A delightfully campy mélange of ingredients borrowed from old comic books, cartoons, movie serials, and pulp science fiction novels, Sky Captain reflects in every stylized frame the love its director, Kerry Conran, has for high adventure of the Indiana Jones variety. Rather audaciously, he designed the entire film to be fashioned via computer, using state-of-the-art graphics programs to create sets, props, backgrounds, and even hordes of people. His actors were filmed on nearly bare sound stages, reacting to actions and objects they couldn’t see, and their images were inserted into computerized images. The story takes place in the days just before World War II, as a power-hungry mad scientist named Totenkopf (archival footage of the late Laurence Olivier) uses mechanical monsters and futuristic weapons to lay waste to entire cities. This mass devastation, however, is only a prelude to a more devious plan, which only the intrepid Sky Captain (Jude Law) and his reporter girlfriend, Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), can foil. They are assisted by the Captain’s trusty assistant, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), and his old flame, aviatrix Francesca “Franky” Cook (the scene-stealing Angelina Jolie, wearing a skin-tight leather costume and sporting an eye patch). Conran has executed this unbelievably complex project with nary a flaw; it’s practically impossible to detect any seams in this visually sumptuous romp. Film buffs and comic book fans will enjoy cataloguing the innumerable pop culture references sprinkled throughout. For example, one showstopping set piece early in the film replicates, shot for shot, a dazzling sequence from a 1941 Superman cartoon. Aside from the understandable difficulty involved in such an undertaking (and they’re all chronicled in supplemental features), the cast members seem to be having a great time. And we think you can count on the same. Ed Hulse
Related works
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Director Kerry Conran’s retro-themed action adventure is imbued with a singular visual sense, an ambitious marriage of Indiana Jones’ serial sensibilities and the neo-Deco sci-fi trappings of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Young composer Edward Shearmur is charged with bringing that pulp-visionary, past-that-never-was to musical life, a task he accomplishes with expected orchestral verve. Its music that’s as unabashedly derivative as the film’s grab-bag of 1930s/40s influences, yet arranged and executed with a rich orchestral palate and an endlessly energetic…
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
New York City, 1939. Crack investigative reporter Polly Perkins unearths plans to create a violent new World of Tomorrow.Soon after, gigantic mechanical robots are unleashed upon New York and other major cities of the world, meting out death and destruction in their wake.
The call goes out to Joe Sullivan, leader of the heroic Flying Legion, to save the day. As Joe and Polly circle the globe, encountering mutant creatures, monstrous mechanical machines, and dangerous tentacled robots, they are drawn ever closer to the lair of evil genius George Totenkopf. Together, they must battle the forces of the World of Tomorrow in order to savethe world of today.
