Sky Captain and the World Of Tomorrow Reviewed by Rich Drees
Ace reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is on the trail of a hot story- leading scientists from around the world have been disappearing. Following an attack on Manhattan by ten story tall giant robots, she teams with freelance adventurer, and former lover, Sky Captain (Jude Law) to locate the mysterious Dr. Totenkopf, a reclusive German scientist behind the disappearances and quite possibly a plot to destroy the world. Their globe trotting adventure takes them from the concrete canyons of 1939 Manhattan to a hidden civilization in Nepal to an uncharted jungle island in the Pacific Ocean. Joining the duo is Sky Captain’s ingenious handyman Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) and Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), a British fighter pilot with her own squadron of ace pilots at her disposal. Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow is a love letter to a bygone age. The movie is a grand adventure filtered through pulp magazines like G-8 and His Flying Aces and Doc Savage, Fleischer Studio’s Superman cartoons, 1950s EC Comics and the deco futurism of the 1939’s World’s Fair. Director Kerry Conran has dipped deep into the pulp tradition to pepper his movie with stalwart heroes, plucky heroines, mad scientists, mysterious women, giant robots, cool planes, lost civilizations, jungle islands populated by strange beasts, strange peril and daring escapes that will leave aficionados of such things laughing with surprise at each new thing he pulls out of his hat. Derivative? Sure, but never in a way that feels like we’re watching recycled ideas or that is condescending to the source material. It’s played straight, with no winking at the audience or sense of irony. In addition to the above-mentioned sources, sharp-eyed fans of fantastic cinema will detect visual tips of the fedora to King Kong (1933), Forbidden Planet (1956), Things To Come (1936), When Worlds Collide (1951), Godzilla (1954), and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Conran loves this stuff and that love shows through in every frame of this movie. It’s a contagious love too, as Sky Captain is bound to leave anyone whose inner child has an unadulterated love of gee-whiz adventure smiling from start to finish.
But, unlike some other big budgeted, effects-laden films of the last few years whom we won’t name here, the visuals never gets in the way of the story. Sky Captain, Polly and Frankie are well drawn and have a history that plays out well over the film. The script also contains some nice comedic moments that counterpoint the adventure, rather than have the hero deliver stiff one-liners at the end of an action sequence. The film also ends with perhaps the best closing line of dialogue heard in a long time.
It’s been recently reported that Conran has been signed to bring Tarzan-creator Edgar Rice Burroughs’s other pulp character, John Carter, Warlord of Mars, to the silver screen. While that may portend well for that project, I hope it also doesn’t mean a delay in returning to the fascinating world he’s created here for more adventures with Sky Captain. |