Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

[vinyl anachronist]

I just saw this last night, and it's one of the most visually spectacular movies in the last few years. However, the story is so thin and cliched (by design, a tip of the hat to movie serials of the 30s) that it's a bit disappointing. It appears that this is the Tron of the new millenium.

Did anybody else see it yet?

[Pug]

It appears that this is the Tron of the new millenium.

I like Tron ! :shh:

I do want to see this. I like the stylize look of the film. Looks like a good popcorn film.

Sean

[guy incognito]

It strikes me as being almost like a sci-fi/action version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[Doug Hess Jr.]

I don't agree 100% of the time with Roger Ebert-- but I respect his knowledge and agree most of the time. He gave this movie great reviews and said he didn't care that the story was thin because the rest of movie was so wonderful to overshadow that fact.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/ebert1/wkp-news-captain17f.html

Doug Hess

[Jimbo]

I saw it last night. I agree with your review. Interesting technology, but it is one cliche after another--but, as you say, purposely so. The plot doesn't make much sense, even given its own alternative time-line. On the plus side, it's fun to count the homages to other movies (did ya catch a glimpse of Godzilla in the newspaper headline from Japan?), and Angelina Jolie camps it up terrifically in a too-short role. Plus, it's good to see Laurence Olivier getting some screen work after all these years! :eek:

If anyone is planning on seeing it, try to see it on a digital projector.

[John Oteri]

Speaking of Sir Lawrence...the previews of this movie remind me of a film I think he was in...or was it his buddy Ralph Richardson, with Raymond Massey. For the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Wings over the world was the name of the airforce. It was an HG Wells story. I think he even wrote the screenplay. It predicted WWII in the mid thrities, and was really ahead of its time back then. World of Tomorrow? No, that's not it. Oh, someone's got to know. Anyway, the matte like backgrounds remind me so much of that movie.

[Steve D.]

H.G. Wells "Things to Come". Produced in 1936. It was Ralph Richardson as "The Boss". The film predicted the coming of WWII to England and the 30 years of bleak survival and creation of a highly technical society that followed.

[John Oteri]

H.G. Wells "Things to Come". Produced in 1936. It was Ralph Richardson as "The Boss". The film predicted the coming of WWII to England and the 30 years of bleak survival and creation of a highly technical society that followed.


YES!!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! :goodie:

[vinyl anachronist]

I like Tron ! :shh:

I do want to see this. I like the stylize look of the film. Looks like a good popcorn film.

Sean

It is a good popcorn film. Another thing--my kids loved it. I have two sons, nine and ten, and at first I was worried that the film would spend too much time on the romance between Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow. Fortunately, the robot attacks were nothing short of sensational. It reminded me a little bit of Spiderman 2, where once the action was kicked into full gear, it couldn't get any better. But when things slowed down, at least Spiderman had a great hero and a sweet romance. Sky Captain doesn't, although Gwyneth is really, really appealing in this film.

[vinyl anachronist]

I saw it last night. I agree with your review. Interesting technology, but it is one cliche after another--but, as you say, purposely so. The plot doesn't make much sense, even given its own alternative time-line. On the plus side, it's fun to count the homages to other movies (did ya catch a glimpse of Godzilla in the newspaper headline from Japan?), and Angelina Jolie camps it up terrifically in a too-short role. Plus, it's good to see Laurence Olivier getting some screen work after all these years! :eek:

If anyone is planning on seeing it, try to see it on a digital projector.

I did see Godzilla and I rolled my eyes a little. Seemed like they tried a little too hard to be Spielberg or Lucas back in the days when R2D2 was placed on a front porch of a tract home in Close Encounters, etc. And I was disappointed that Angelina and Sir Larry's roles were too short. ;-)

[vinyl anachronist]

It strikes me as being almost like a sci-fi/action version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Actually, it's a sci-fi/action version of Attack of the Clones and the Phantom Menace, er, at least a film noirish, mad scientist version, uh, you know what I mean. It's the opposite of Roger Rabbit, with actors up against a blue screen for all of the movie.

[levi]

I thought it was a great thrill ride. the cliches are winks (loved all the Wizard of Oz references). and hey, any movie that can give me dinosaurs, robots, an airplane chase through Manhattan, rocketships, underwater battles AND Gwyneth Paltrow is worth the price of admission.

[Evan L]

I thought Lawrence Olivier was deceased.....


Evan

[Pinknik]

I thought Lawrence Olivier was deceased.....


Evan
You are correct sir. Much as Fred Astaire danced around with a vacuum cleaner, so has Sir Laurence found work in the hereafter. Sacrilege or neat?

[fjhuerta]

I can't wait to watch this movie... can't... wait...

[RexKramer]

I did see Godzilla and I rolled my eyes a little. Seemed like they tried a little too hard to be Spielberg or Lucas back in the days when R2D2 was placed on a front porch of a tract home in Close Encounters, etc. And I was disappointed that Angelina and Sir Larry's roles were too short. ;-)

I enjoyed the wink-winks. I counted two Lucas-related references, a shot or two straight out of the Fleischer Superman cartoons, and dialog inspired by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds" broadcast. And the robots are dead-on from the '30s to '50s pulp and comic era. And the sound effects they chose were great.

I enjoyed it, but most of my friends who did not grow up with any older movies have no desire to see it. My dad filled me with a healthy dose of serials and pulp lit growing up so this was on my "must-see" list. My wife and I took it to the movies and it's the moat fun I've seen him have since, well, Halloween when we took him to Nosferatu. It's not the most complex film in the world, but I found it the perfect popcorn movie because there was no attempt to "dumb it down" - they did it straight.

Mark

[Gary]

We enjoyed it, too. But I thought the final scene was very weak.

And since I own a SLR..... extremely weak! :(

(SLR - Single Lens Reflex camera)

[vinyl anachronist]

We enjoyed it, too. But I thought the final scene was very weak.

And since I own a SLR..... extremely weak! :(

(SLR - Single Lens Reflex camera)

Nevertheless, the last line, as cliched as it was, still made me chuckle a little. Kind of reminded me of the last line of "Some Like It Hot," a goofy but unexpected way to end the movie. My wife, however, thought it was dumb.

[thegage]

We enjoyed it, too. But I thought the final scene was very weak.

And since I own a SLR..... extremely weak! :(

(SLR - Single Lens Reflex camera)

I believe she was using a 1930s/40s vintage stereo-optic camera (to go with the basic vintage of the rest of the movie; AFAIK SLRs were not yet invented in the theoretical time frame of the movie)--my grandparents used to own one just like it with the leather case. There are two lenses/caps, and the viewfinder does not look though them like an SLR, so I got the joke. It does take cool pictures, too.

I quite enjoyed the film, though some of the transitions between scenes/locations were a little rough. And there were a LOT of film references, from things like Godzilla, to camera angles, to sound effects. Still, a good Saturday afternoon movie.

John K.

[thxdave]

Does anybody know what movie the footage of Olivier was lifted from? I went with three other film fanatics and their reaction was a little tepid. I thoroughly enjoyed it, for what it was....a great little popcorn movie that was a loving homage to the cliffhanger serials of the past. And you are so right about the "Things To Come" references. I especially loved the flying platform that Angelina Jolie was on....I was amazed that the thing had enough lift to keep her lips aloft. ;)

[jmrife]

Just tripped across this forum.

I thought the first two acts of this movie were inspired! I am a huge fan of the 30s and40s serials. Unfortunately the third act was inspired by a couple of James Bond films.

The technology was great; I've seen those robots before; I never knew there was a dormant volcano with a landing strip on the island in the middle so close to New York City.

It did send me home to dig out my lousy print of "Things To Come" where the future belongs to The Airmen!

[Mike F]

I liked it.
I intended to like it.
I thought the beginning was much stronger than the middle and end but I didn't let that spoil it for me. :)

[ducksdeluxe]

I wanted to like it, but I didn't. Not a serious thumbs-down, but a slight one. Might have made a great silent film, because the dialogue killed it for me. Gwyneth was terrible, and Cary Elwes would have been a better choice than Jude Law.

Props to the guy for his vision, but if he spent six years to do this, it might have been worth it to spend another six months polishing up the script.

[Mike F]

Props to the guy for his vision, but if he spent six years to do this, it might have been worth it to spend another six months polishing up the script. :agree: That's an all too common ailment in hollywood today unfortunately.

[BIG ED]

it might have been worth it to spend another six months polishing up the script.
Are you saying the script did sound like it was from an old 40's serial, or did not sound too you like an old 40's serial?