At the moment the future of television is becoming quite bleak as the younger generation turns to action video games that enable them to control the plot.
Hollywood is doomed!
I love the late 30s (it was filmed to be in 1939- they to go Radio City and Wizard of Oz is playing) so I really liked the film for its style. After just returning from the RNC, it was fun to see pieces of New York again and I actually knew what they were talking about in some places.
I don't know...I thought it was kinda fun...I loved the little references to the sci-fi of that era and the CGI was quite well done. The plot was pretty thin, but what movie from that era wasn't? You could see the influence the Superman cartoons of the early 40's had on this.
WHAT STUNK?
A)Gwenyth Paltrow's performance and appearance were dreadful. This actress is capable of great things but in "Sky Captain" she somehow took a role which had coquettish promise and rendered it entirely devoid of charm or appeal.
Her voice was flat and grating. Most of the cast spoke with an English accent but she seemed to be trying to ape an American - and in doing so came across sounding tone deaf and unpleasant. Paltrow would have done well to review some Hollywood classics from the thirties to hear what Americans really sounded like. Myrna Loy in the role of Nora Charles comes to mind. Loy's kind of performance might have saved this disastrous popcorn muncher.
This may in part be the fault of an incompetent director: At first stylish in the production, it wasn't long before Paltrow's head shots marred the screen by appearing bucktoothed and gawkies.
B) The Loony Gadgetry Look, we all enjoy a 'comic book' now and then but this film was so over the top in being far-fetched as to evoke first laughter and then disdain. If you think you know anything about a P-40, then brother you are in for a bizarre surprise.
"Sky Captain" is NOT worth your five bucks.
About a month ago I bought a VHS of Republic's Fighting Devil Dogs, 1937. So I have a thing for those serials, even though I saw them on WOR TV in NYC on Saturday Mornings. 20 years after they debuted in the Loews 86th Street. or the Academy of Music. Sky aptain brought them back. I look forward to the sequel.
Man, I want to see that movie too, alternate history is one of my favorite things and I love the art deco, Gernsbackian (sort of what Hugo Gernsback predicted the future would be like, he was a noted science fiction author) look. The planes are cool, a sort of a mix between a P-40 and P-51. Of course you've got to have Zeppelins, lots of Zeppelins. I also like stories of a "Steampunk" nature, sort of like where the Victorian Era never died and steam is used to power everything like cars, Zeppelins, mechanical computers (Babbage Engines), steam powered robots, and so on. Still, I like things like Flash Gordon and Commando Cody and so on, with sort of that Art Deco flavor so I think I'd like to see "Sky Captain..."
I think it was intentional, though, so as not to confuse the modern audience, even if it was an anachronism within the film.
They could film 2 hours of Angelina Jolie sitting on a couch and I would go see it.
Why do they use a blue screen (as opposed to some other color)?
There are a lot of really cool inside jokes scattered through the film for fans of 1930s stuff. Several of the scenes during the attack on NYC, especially the line of police with Thompsons, were lifted directly from an old Max Fleischer Superman cartoon from 1938 (I think), titled The Mechancial Monsters.
At various times in the film, in little background elements, you will see a Tokyo newspaper with a photo of Godzilla, the SS Venture at the bottom of the sea, complete with bent cage (the ship that found King Kong), some interesting arifacts in Totenkopf's lair (Excalibur, for example), and some familiar sound effects from the War of the Worlds movie are used for the robot laser beams.
The story is pure 1930s serial. If you hate that sort of melodrama, you will not like this story. No real depth or irony; jsut fun and action.
As to the actors - Jude Law is not a favorite of mine, and was miscast in this movie. I normally do not like Gywnneth Paltrow, but I thought she did a pretty decent job in this film. Angelina Jolie does fine (horrid accent) for the three minutes she is in the film. The guy who played Dex was OK; just the right level of 1930s Gee-Whiz comic releif in that part. The other actors (all no-names) did acceptable work, but there was not really much available for the non-lead actors.