A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Date Viewed: 9/22/04

Details:

Gwyneth Paltrow

Jude Law

Giovanni Ribisi

Angelina Jolie

Laurence Olivier

Written & directed by: Kerry Conran

Score: 1/2

The Review: Sky Captain has the dark flavor of a 40's B&W gumshoe mystery, the snappy repartee of Hepburn and Tracy (well, almost as snappy but not quite as good), and the globe-spanning adventure and serial coincidence of an Indiana Jones flick. Couple this with what appears to be an alternate (or comic book) universe sometime after a world war, with a sinister invasion of totalitarian robots, and you have some rather strange fare. More than a bit camp, it doesn't (and shouldn't) take itself very seriously.

Reporter Polly Parker (Paltrow) is investigating the mysterious disappearances of important scientists when New York is invaded by robot attackers. Somehow, a radio message is conveyed (the electromagnetic equivalent to the Bat-Light on top of Gotham City Hall, I'd wager) to the secret headquarters of Sky Captain (Law) in the mountains immediately north of the city -- indeed, the tall Manhattan skyscrapers are visible in an establishing shot through a narrow connecting valley -- and he flies his trusty P40 Warhawk off to save the day and (in the process) rescue his ex-girlfriend Polly. And the mystery adventure takes off from there. Although as far as I was concerned, the major mystery was the massive orogeny of what should have been the shallow Ardsley foothills.

Much has been made of the extensive SFX, and they are indeed truly remarkable. But some of them are so accurate at recreating adventure films of yesteryear that they also look as hokey as the SFX of yesteryear. However, certain incongruities are annoying and jarring. Besides moving mountain ranges, the opening scene is a case in point: the ponderous approach of the massive dirigible Hindenburg to its docking station atop the mast of the Empire State Building, and the subsequent disembarking of passengers over a narrow rickety walkway. This goes beyond the most extreme suspension of disbelief -- no way in hell would any passengers I know cross from a floating deck on an airship to a tall building nearly a 100 stories above the ground with full view of the streets so far below, along such an exposed path and without belay. I guess this is the best evidence we have that this plot is actually situated in an alternate universe where acrophobia has been bred out of the human species.

And the poor P40 Warhawk! Even for such a sturdy workhorse, I wonder at how many hours the engine can run before requiring major preventative overhaul -- and we don't see this at any point along the way; we barely see it getting fueled. Alternate universe, indeed.

One measure of Sky Captain's strangeness is the accurate observation that a youthful (pre-Sir) Laurence Olivier is a fully-credited member of the cast. This actually gives you an important clue, but you won't know how to interpret it until the denouement. Jolie has an amusing turn as a British commander of some rather strange technology.

(6-Nov-04)

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