Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow

An exhilarating adventure that's much more than a gimmick
Within the first fifteen minutes of Sky Captain, I was in. Gigantic robots swarm New York City and stomp through the streets, Gwenyth Paltrow as Polly Perkins does a pitch-perfect emulation of those 1930's newspaper gals, and the whole movie has the feel of the best old sci-fi movie never made. I felt like a five-year-old again; not in that still-eating-paste sense, but because something on the screen was so boldly exciting I nearly leapt out of my seat and applauded. No freaking joke. Needless to say, the rest of Sky Captain never really reaches the level of invigoration that its slam-bang opener achieves (and yeah, it has a few slow moments), but it's still an accomplished, consistently interesting movie with enough in-jokes to keep film buffs satisfied (look for not only references to The Wizard of Oz, but a few Citizen Kane nods as well) and enough rip-roaring action for everyone else.

Sky Captain could have been an empty exercise just for the sake of a new filmmaking...

'Tomorrow' and Yesteryear
I think I can say with some confidence that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is not quite like any other film you've ever seen. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on what you think a movie should be.

Sky Captain is set in the years between the World Wars. Ace big-city reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets wind of a shadowy world-domination plot involving a German uber-scientist, named Totenkopf. As she begins to investigate, the city is attacked by giant robot storm troopers, who wreak destruction and attempt to steal the municipal generators. (I am not making this up.) Polly and the city are saved by the timely arrival of Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan (Jude Law), who turns the tide in his trusty P-40 fighter plane. Polly and Joe, who have a bit of a history, reluctantly join forces to find Totenkopf and foil his evil plans. They are aided by Joe's whiz-kid sidekick, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), and his old flame Francesca "Franky" Cook (Angelina Jolie), who...

Good movie, Dex: Tales of the Retrofuture
The soft-focused, noir-esque, 1930s-style retrofuture of "Sky Captain" is a visual feast to behold, unabashedly revelling in obvious influences as Lang's "Metropolis" and B-movies of the 1930s. Amid some viewers' complaints of underdeveloped characters and dialogue, here's a movie for those us who truly "get it." Granted, this movie is not for everyone. But quite frankly, it has a lot of balls.

And dirigibles! And exploding dirigibles, at that! And giant robots! And...

But I digress. The Question is: Why should you see this movie? To put it simply, it will be unlike any other movie you've seen recently. I want to see more movies like this. I want to see more movies that take chances.

This is a movie for those who enjoy dirigibles, giant robots, ornithopters, dogfights, Manhattan, searchlights, Gwyneth Paltrow's cute over-bite, "larger than life" heros, the German language, mad scientists, industrial complexes, ray guns, dinosaurs, B-movies,...

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