Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
a review by Jeffrey Overstreet
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Writer/director Kerry Conran is very much in touch with his inner 10-year-old. In fact, his feature-length debut seems like it has been downloaded directly from the wildest dreams of a kid who spent the day watching old B-movies, playing with action figures, and reading old Buck Rogers comics.
Or you could say that, like a meal dreamed up by a kid, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is all dessert and no vegetables. I was pleasantly surprised by how much guilt-free fun this movie is… it’s one of the summer’s best films. Its lack of interest in a comprehensible plot may cause some critics to call it “trite” or “disposable,” but not this moviegoer. I remember how Star Wars and Indiana Jones ignited my imagination so that my dreams were full of derring-do, dogfights, massive dangerous robots, evil geniuses, and smart heroes with smarter (and more beautiful) sidekicks. How many filmmakers are capable of delivering such a harmlessly satisfying and thrilling treat? How many can so powerfully remind a theatre full of grownups of what it was like before we were burdened with the pressure of “cool” when we were teens or the practical demands of adulthood?
Now, don’t get your expectations up for anything profound: this is as frivolous as storytelling gets. Like I said, it’s a dessert movie… the kind of empty calories that put a big fat smile on your face and leave you oblivious to the dollop of whipped cream on your nose. It’s the best cinematic antidote for a lamentable and dirty election year–something that’s pure enjoyment start to finish, set in a world where right is right and wrong is wrong.
Sky Captain advertises, again and again, that this movie is just a big excuse to revel in the clichés of ’30s-era imagery, especially comic books. (In fact, when the good guys are making their battle plans, their maps and technical blueprints are spread out on the table along with Buck Rogers comic books, which prove to be important as well.)
It’s an inspired fusion of comic book clichés, new ideas, and absolutely enthralling animation. Those, and the relentlessness of the pace, the perfectly-pitched humor of the piece, and the sporting enthusiasm of the actors — who give this film the warmth and humanity that other special effects films like Final Fantasy lack — make this one thoroughly original. It’s got the inspired, consistent, complete kind of world-making vision that made films like Tron and The Nightmare Before Christmas so unique. Seems that all of George Lucas’s talk about digital animation giving the filmmaker the tools of a painter are really coming true, and Kerry Conran’s style is distinct, artistic, dripping with nostalgia, and beautiful to watch.
Lines, action scenes, and plot twists will have you thinking of Indiana Jones (Sky Captain has his Sallah), The Wizard of Oz, The Empire Strikes Back (Sky Captain also has his Lando Calrissian), Jurassic Park, Independence Day, The Iron Giant (there are so many iron giants! Kerry Conran LOVES iron giants!), film noir classics, the Red Baron, Ray Bradbury sci-fi, The War of the Worlds, and more.
But the film I came away thinking about was Dark City. Dark City was much darker and more “adult” whereas this is pure dime-store novel pulp for kids. But the film starts like a rocket and never slows down, like Dark City, so that the whole film feels like one big action scene, the suitably-formulaic “hero music” propelling us along without a break. It’s the same quick-cut, fever-pitch intensity of Dark City, but it also resembles that film in that it makes sure that every single frame of the film is interesting, creative, and artistic. There isn’t one single wasted moment of screen time. It’s the most efficient big screen adventure in years, and by comparison Spider-Man 2 looks bloated.
No, the characters aren’t deeply developed. But there’s just enough personality, just enough history, just enough humor to make them memorable. They really do feel like comic book characters because they never have long conversations. Everything is clipped, quick, and stick-to-business. Gwyneth Paltrow steals the show as Polly Perkins. She gives a performance that actually registers as just that… a performance… in spite of the fact that she’s acting in front of a blue screen. She and Jude Law actually have chemistry, and the film gives them enough Indiana Jones/Marion, Han Solo/Princess Leia banter that some good-old-fashioned archetypal romance develops. Giovanni Ribisi is goofy and fun; he’s Sky Captain’s James-Bond-gadget-man. And Angelina Jolie, who’s role is not much more than a cameo, doesn’t spoil anything. (She, by the way, is the Lando Calrissian.)
If there’s any weak link at all… well, there isn’t. I was going to point out that Jude Law, while a strong leading man, still fails to bring anything… oh… anything distinctly his own to his roles. He always delivers what’s required, but there’s never that added flourish, that spark of genius, that thing that makes it distinctly his own. But well, I’ll let that point go, because Sky Captain is, essentially, a living, breathing action figure, and perhaps Law’s all-business manner is suitable to the part. He certainly looks the part.
Sir Laurence Olivier? Very cleverly employed. There’s no reason to be concerned about his posthumous performance.
And the look of the film on the big screen… man, I just wanted it to go on and on and on.
Anyway, GO SEE THIS on opening weekend, because Conran’s made a sensational debut, and I’d love to see him expand this into a franchise. It’s cotton candy, but what it lacks in substance (which would have seemed inappropriate anyway) it makes up for with a childlike enthusiasm and invention. There’s more imagination in 30 minutes of Sky Captain than in most complete action movies. I have a hunch that Steven Spielberg is going to LOVE this movie; it will remind him of the kind of madcap action hysteria he hasn’t offered us since… well… since Last Crusade. In a strange way, I feel like I saw Sky Captain twenty-five years ago when I was a kid playing with model airplanes and drawing pictures of big scary robots… it’s got that soft-focus glow of great childhood memories.
In fact, I’m already nostalgic for this nostalgia-based film, and it hasn’t even opened yet. Isn’t that dangerous? Am I in danger of producing a black hole in the fabric of time and space?
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Writer and director – Kerry Conran
Director of photography, Eric Adkins
Editor – Sabrina Plisco
Music – Edward Shearmur
Production designer – Kevin Conran
Producer – Jon Avnet, Marsha Oglesby, Sadie Frost and Jude Law
Released by Paramount Pictures.
107 minutes. Rated PG.
STARRING: Gwyneth Paltrow (Polly Perkins), Jude Law (Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan), Giovanni Ribisi (Dex Dearborn), Michael Gambon (Editor Morris Paley), Trevor Baxter (Dr. Jennings), Bai Ling (Mysterious Woman), Omid Djalili (Kaji) and Angelina Jolie (Franky Cook).
June 8th, 2004 at 6:45 pm
And when will this happen?
June 8th, 2004 at 8:26 pm
Actually, I believe it DOES happen. But because a believer imitating Christ is one who loves and serves quietly, sometimes even anonymously, without any ego or drawing attention to what is being done, people rarely notice Christ’s work occurring. Thus, we rarely hear about it. And when we do, it is mostly misunderstood and sometimes even attacked. As Thomas Merton once mused, the greatest saints may never be recognized on this earth, in this time, because they are serving almost invisibly.
June 8th, 2004 at 11:49 pm
My belief is that a skeptical world balks and therefore satirizes ANYTHING or ANYONE that speaks of having “the truth,” as you say, people rarely recognize Christ’s work occurring in their midst. I guess I get a little tired of Christians criticizing the church as bad as it is sometimes without offering something constructive. Good quote by Merton by the way. I remember a friend speaking of this years ago.