Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Links
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections

Somewhere over the rainbow, a bunch of menacing spaceships and killer robots threaten the peace and tranquility of the big city . . . soon, the world. They’re destroying buildings, crushing cars, and wreaking havoc. Who will be there to save the big city from the impending doom and destruction???

Never fear, Sky Captain (Jude Law) is here! Armed with his WW1 fighter plane -- which can also transform into a submarine -- Sky Captain, along with nosy reporter and ex-flame Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), his right-hand gadgets man Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), and his British Foreign Legion colleague and OTHER ex-flame Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), are ready to do battle to save the world from total annihilation.

Sky Captain is more than just another movie. This is more like an experiment. This is the first major Hollywood film to be shot almost completely using Computer Graphics Imagery (a.k.a. CGI). Law, Paltrow, Jolie and company did all their acting in front of blue screens. Once they were done, the rest of the film was “drawn in� as opposed to being shot. Needless to say, this flick pushes the boundaries of digital filmmaking. The CGI sets are beautifully rendered and each scene is layered with detail -- specifically, details that recall the classic filmmaking of the 1930’s-–1940’s era. There are even a few nods and tips of hats to classic films of that era: most notably The Wizard of Oz (“Over the Rainbow� plays during the closing credits).

Yeah . . . but is the film any good? Or has the director caught a case of “Star Wars Prequelitis� (tons of visual flash but little or no story)?

No . . . writer/director Kerry Conran has rather invoked the spirit of the original Star Wars Trilogy. We have a hero to cheer for, special effects that drop our jaws, and a seemingly invincible villain. Stir it all up and you have a story that keeps us on the edge of our seats. The only negative element in the pot is Paltrow’s Polly Parker. She's played like a Lois Lane prototype, but she comes across more as an annoying little pest than as a damsel in distress.

All in all, Sky Captain is a fun time to be had by those who are willing to take the ride.

Links
—Overview
—Trailers, Photos
—About this Film
—Spiritual Connections