Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Directed by: Kerry Conran

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Giovanni Ribisi

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is kind of an interesting film. Kinda. It’s based on the same premise that made both Indiana Jones and Star Wars work, going back to the 30’s and 40’s era adventure serials and… doing it some more. It’s got a really cool art design to it, the atmosphere is right, but… it just doesn’t quite feel as legit as those Lucas films, for some reason.

An evil mad scientist (played by a CGI Laurence Olivier made after his death) wants to blow up the world and leave on a rocket with a perfect gated community within. Like an evil arcology from Sim City 2000. He employs those big robots that Superman fought in that one old cartoon, but he doesn’t count on the interference of an adventure hero pilot and his reporter girlfriend! Also Angelina Jolie in an eyepatch is in the movie for about six seconds.

The two biggest issues with this movie, for me, are that it’s really slow paced and since it was filmed entirely on bluescreen and it didn’t look that good, they had to cover it up by making the entire movie in this really off-putting super soft focus. It’s like when you have a close-up of a woman on the original Star Trek, except for two hours. I remember when I saw this movie in the theaters, I fell asleep due to the combination of these issues. I dunno, I could take or leave the movie, I guess.