Watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow with Katherine on Friday afternoon. She had thought it was “boring” because someone brought it to her child care the other day, but it turned out this was a different movie, and she enjoyed it very much.
What’s actually funny, watching it for the first time again since the theaters, is the passing resemblance to The Incredibles. A hero. A secret plot. An island fortress. A giant robot (that has gone through progressive versions). A rocket ship counting down to disaster.
A zillion differences, too, of course, but it’s hard to keep a good pulpy plot element down.
And Katherine enjoyed it, even some of the scarier parts. It turned out that the movie she’d seen with a similar name that was “boring, boring, boring” was “Number 1” of something, and, I think, was probably Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace.
I never know how Young Miss Laura will take a movie. She loves “Kiki’s Delivery Serive” and “Spirited Away” but does not like “Castle in the Sky” because of the robots. She’ll sit through “Spirited Away”, but can’t get past the opening of “The Wizard of Oz”. Harry Potter? Forget it! But she keeps bugging us to let her watch the “Jurassic Park” movies!
Go figure.
What makes it the “Special Collector’s Edition” anyway? And has anybody figured out why they still make “full screen” (pan and scan) editions of movies?
1. “Special Collector’s Edition” usually refers to there being some sort of extras — though, in fact, they can call anything they want that, if people will buy it.
2. Some folks (esp. with smaller TVs) prefer pan-and-scan. Others think the “black band” on the screen is cheating them from some sort of picture …
I’m not actually a big fan of full-screen video releases, because in most cases it isn’t necessary. We’ve had about 20 to 30 years of moviemakers realizing that their films are ultimately destined to be watched on a small screen (whether via cable TV or VCRs), and so most movies (yes, even today) are made with that in mind. Next time you happen to see “The Princess Bride” or “This Is Spinal Tap”, notice how little actually occurs at the outskirts of the frame. Then contrast with current films like “Along Came Polly” or “Closer”. You may be surprised.
Some films you do need to watch in widescreen, I admit. “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Gangs of New York”, and “The Lord of the Rings” are just a few examples. But until I have a 16:9 aspect-ratio television, I’ll still prefer to watch most films in fullscreen, thanks.
And there you go.
Many (most?) movies do not specifically need the full width, though others do — and it’s not always obvious which are going to be which. I don’t mind the slightly reduced screen size in exchange for getting the full width. YMMV, obviously.
We watched Sky Captain again this weekend — and it was a whole new movie for Katherine, who didn’t remember having seen it before. (And, until I looked htis up, I didn’t remember either — thank goodness for the blog!)
We sort of backed into watching it by accident. The movie had been on my list to watch with her for a while; when I finally got a working (powered) subwoofer for the TV, I threw it in to test it. She was fascinated by the whole thing, and wanted to watch it right away, but bedtime and other scheduling interfered until this past weekend when we all three got to watch it.
And, yeah, it’s still a very fun flick — very dark on a home TV (in a “brightness level” kind of way), but both astonishing technically (aside from the people, their costumes, and anything else they actually touch, the whole thing is CG) and as shallow a ripping good yarn as any Saturday afternoon serial should be.
Original review: ***Dave :: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow