Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
The Cast
Gwyneth Paltrow .... Polly Perkins
Jude Law .... Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan
Giovanni Ribisi .... Dex
Angelina Jolie .... Franky
Michael Gambon .... Editor Paley
Bai Ling .... Mysterious Woman
Omid Djalili .... Kaji
Laurence Olivier .... Dr. Totenkopf
Written and directed by Kerry Conran, this movie was originally hailed as being revolutionary, the way movies would be filmed in the future, etc. It's shooting method involved filming almost the entire movie in front of some variation of a blue screen, with digital effects added later to compliment the actors. This method proved to be far less time-consuming on the actors, as well as being much cheaper to film, eliminating the need for fully furnished sets and locations. However, this way of shooting a movie somehow turned Gwyneth Paltrow into an even more emotionlessly wooden actress.
The movie itself owes a lot to the serials of the past, with the structure of the story, the character introductions and events, all giving the movie an overall episodic feel. That's not where the debt to the past ends though, as there doesn't seem to be any aspect of the film that isn't a direct homage to the Hollywood of years long gone. If you check out the Trivia subsection on IMDB's profile for this movie, you'll see why you probably were scratching your head throughout Sky Captain, wondering where you'd seen those robots before. Sadly, for a movie that was trumpetted as something breathtakingly original, it's almost painfully formulaic, and nothing you haven't seen before.
Thankfully, with the exception of Paltrow and the inexplicable usage of Laurence Olivier's visage, the cast buys into the idea and does what they can to inject some sort of excitement into a highly unoriginal film. Law is exceptionally charismatic as the titular hero, finally making you start to care about the movie about 15 minutes or so into the film. I would've suggested adding more Michael Gambon to that first 15, but they went with almost all Gwyneth and made me wonder how Brad Pitt was able to stay with her for so long. As well, Giovanni Ribisi delivers his trademark engaging performance, which he's got so down pat by now that he could just phone it in and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.
I don't have much else to say about the movie. It borrows ... sorry, pays homage to so many past science fiction films, that it's hard to judge it as an original film. Unlike Kill Bill, it doesn't feel fresh or even imaginative in the least. I understand that Jude Law always wanted to work with Olivier, but the guy's been dead since 1989! What's next, digitally inserting Humphrey Bogart into Snakes on a Plane as the wise-cracking pilot? The movie is alright as a popcorn action flick, but there's also a lot to be annoyed by. I don't think Angelina Jolie has ever been as covered up as she was in this movie, and you can't market that! That last paragraph was all random griping on my part.
3 / 5