SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (2004): 3 stars out of 4. Starring Jude
Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambonm, Bai Ling,
Omid Djalili and Sir Laurence Olivier. Director of photography Eric Adkins. Production
designer Kevin Conran. Senior visual effects supervisor Scott E. Anderson. Music by
Edward Shearmur. Written and directed by Kevin Conran. Rated PG. Running time:
Approx. 110 mins.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow uses the latest computer technology to
create a retro world reminiscent of old Fleischer Supereman cartoons blended with
the thrills of a Saturday afternoon cliffhanger.
Sky Captain is fun to watch, especially for film buffs who will find references to
everything from Lost Horizon to King Kong to the Superman cartoon, Mechanical
Monsters, to the Wizard of Oz.
Writer-director Kevin Conran, who also is credited as the film's production designer,
uses live actors - for the most part - and blue screen to bring his story to life.
The film looks like a reverse Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with real people inhabiting a
totally computer-generated environment that has a multi-planed animated look.
It works very well. Only a few scenes go awry in which the actors and the effects
don't mesh perfectly.
But special effects alone cannot carry a movie. And that is where Sky Captain
falters.
For such a project you need larger-than-life heroes and/or heroines, and of the
three leads only Angelina Jolie rises to the occasion.
Both Jude Law as Sky Captain and Gwyneth Paltrow as the intrepid, Lois Lane-like
reporter, Polly Perkins, lack the derring-do charisma to carry off their roles.
Both are good actors and do adequate jobs, but in a film such as this, adequate
does not work.
Their patter seems forced and scripted. They sound like they are merely reading
lines. You don't get any feeling, any history from the pair.
They fail to rise to the larger-than-life level needed to complement Conran's grand
adventure.
Law and Paltrow are too reserved and restrained. They fail to capture the spirit of
the film.
Only Jolie does that as British flyng ace, Capt. Franky Cook who, with a clipped
accent and devil-may-care delivery perfectly embodies and understands Conran's
overall design.
The master villain, a holograph portrayed by the late Sir Laurence Olivier, makes for
an eerie presence.
The feature is filled with magnificent effects from giant mechanical robots to flying
airstrips to a gleaming "Noah's Ark" rocketship.
The World of Tomorrow is an enjoyable look back at a make believe cinematic world
that existed in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The action is nearly non-stop as the
plot moves around the globe to solve the mystery and purpose of the mechanical
machines.
It is too bad that Law and Paltrow could not reach the heights needed to elevate
the movie and make Conran's dream world perfect.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be
reached by e-mail at bbloom@journalandcourier.com or at bob@bloomink.com.
Bloom's reviews also can be found at the Journal and Courier Web site:
www.jconline.com
Other reviews by Bloom can be found at the Rottentomatoes Web site:
www.rottentomatoes.com or at the Internet Movie Database Web site:
www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom
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