To say that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a mere trifle is to misspeak, for there is nothing mere to it. It is a massive candy shop of trifles, trifles everywhere, elaborately decorated, lovingly presented — and ultimately empty of anything but the blissful experience of having consumed them.
Visually, the movie is everything that a lover of pulp magazine tropes could love. On this, alone, the movie merits viewing on the big screen. Robots of every shape and size menace and march. Aircraft of different sorts soar, zoom, and more. Cities, both modern and hidden, are art deco wonders. Every scene looks like a cover of Amazing Science Fiction Stories during the 30s, with airships and rocket ships to boot.
That the visuals are so incredibly rich can help mask that there’s not much more behind the curtain. The action is relentless, though more to move us on to a new scene with new wonders. There’s some recurring humor, some decent acting by the principals, but, frankly, Indiana Jones (which is what most often came to mind) looks like Citizen Kane compared to the depth, characterization, or plotting of SCatWoT. Things just happen, with the barest veneer of rhyme or reason. A freaking pantheon of deus ex machina outs serves merely to keep us from wondering for more than a few seconds how Our Heroes will survive. (Sometimes they don’t even bother with that — folks get captured, then escape, all off screen with the barest of explanations). Characters appear and disappear (and sometimes reappear again), places are visited and departed, with nothing (not even the the final scene) providing any sense of closure — which makes the film seem to end almost abruptly, it’s biggest weakness.
Indeed, it’s amusing that one of the ongoing bits is Gwyneth Paltrow‘s spunky reporter (out-Lois Laning Lois Lane in all categories) and her unwillingness to take one of her last few photographs for fear that they’ll encounter something even more wonderful — because they always do, which seems to be at least half the purpose of the film, the other half being a homage to every cool thing from that era of SF magazines. Plot almost gets in the way, and is just an excuse to show off how amazing the fx are. And they are, to an extent that you end up not caring why the bad guy is doing X, but then turns out to be doing Y.
To that end, there’s enough plot lacking, and enough action and settings and just sheer incredible stuff to have made a whole trilogy of movies, if not more. They get around that by merely trimming all the characterization and motivation and story to the absolute bare minimum — the better to wow you with the next CG-generated wonder. We never really learn anything about Sky Captain (played with pluck, charm, and determination by Jude Law), what he does, how he came to have his island full of toys. The backstory presented could be written in a short paragraph or two, for all the characters. But as soon as that thought comes to mind, it — oh, my God, look at those really cool robots with the snaky tentacle arms!
Like I said, it’s like a candy store full of trifles. Afterward you might find yourself wishing for something with a bit more substance — some meat, or potatoes, or even something salty rather than oh-so-sweet. But while you’re shoveling it into your mouth — er, eyes — it’s a fabulous time.
(No spoilers here, but probably some will crop up in the comments. It’s not like I can say it will spoil any of the story, but it might spoil some of the surprises.)
Sounds like it’s more a test bed for movie techniques than an actual movie. I believe the director is slated to do the on-again/off-again, now on-again ERB John Carter of Mars movie (based, from various reports on anywhere from only the first to the first three books by Burroughs). Hopefully he’ll bring more to that than SFX (but seeing Tars Tarkas done well would be worth it!).
Yes, I’ve heard he’s slated for John Carter — that would be pretty keen.
I don’t know that I’d call it a test bed, so much as a celebration. There’s so much joy and love and thought that went into what was being shown (vs why it was being shown) that I think it’s a lot more than that. Except, perhaps, from a studio perspective.
I need to read up on the director, I thought I saw at least three Spielberg/Lucas homages… (SPOILER-Y CRAP IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY SEEN IT.)
1. The number of Professor Jennings lab, 1138 (THX-1138). 3. The Mustang surfacing in the swamp at Totenkopf’s island (Empire Strikes Back). 2. The dinosaurs, of course (Jurassic Park).
Anyone see more?
Doesn’t the thinness of the plot, the disjointedness make it even truer to the pulps and serials it’s based on?
It was fun, I langhed a lot, it looked fantastic and some of the looks Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) gave his trained ape “boss” were worth the price of admission. What else can one rightly demand of a movie titled “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”?
Dex and Frankie were the two most interesting characters…much like Jack and Karen on Will & Grace.
I’ve said similar elseblog, but I enjoyed it in much the same way Randy did. I would say, for example, that the deus ex machina Dave mentioned would have been MUCH more effective if there had been a second storyline to cut away to (granted, in this iteration of the script, that wasn’t possible, since the protagonists were glued together at the hip for the duration, but it could have been written to work) — that would have given it the Saturday Serial Cliffhanger feeling that they were obviously looking for:
– We’re Doomed! [cutaway]
– [Cut to someone else… doom them…]
– Cut back to primaries, save them… do stuff, doom them again…
– [Cut to someone else… save them…]
– Repeat.
Instead it was: Doom, Save, Do Stuff, Repeat — so the “tension” of the old Cliffhangers (which were at least 50% D ex M’s) wasn’t there.
They tried, though — goodness but the love their pulps.
I should have said “would have been MUCH more effective as a Pulp homage”… obviously I didn’t mean “effective as a ‘real’ plot device.
If I seem overly critical about the movie, that was not my intent. I’d go to see it again in a flash. I expect to get the DVD. If they come out with a Director’s Cut, I’ll get that, too. It was tremendous fun. But it’s a movie that’s clearly about fun eye candy (which it does extremely well), and dwelling on anything else is futile.
Best quote thus far:
“Conran’s film is the Restoration Hardware of movies.”