.....“Sky Captain” is tragically all flair but very little heart.
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For writer/director Kerry Conran´s "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", the sky is literally the limit.
When "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", the fully computer animated sci-fi epic, made its debut back in 2001, audiences got an early taste of how far the computer and software industry have encroached into and influenced the movie industry. Based on the best-selling series of Playstation games of the same name, "Final Fantasy" was an immense achievement for Square (the Japanese production company responsible for both the movie and the games) as it created photorealistic human characters that were wrapped in previously hard-to-animate lifelike skin and hair. Even before "Final Fantasy", Pixar had already shown to the world, with its smash animated movie hit "Toy Story", how the power of cutting-edge pixel-pushing computers could be harnessed to create beautiful images and have an engaging story as well. Just like "Jurassic Park" did with its array of computer-generated dinosaurs, "Final Fantasy" brought the concept of creating a realistic environment from just one´s imagination to a whole new level.
And now we have "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", which again, raises the bar further for visual effects work in filmmaking, creating an entire alternate universe, complete with giant robots, vast snow-covered mountains and even the mythical paradise of Shangri-La. Nowadays, computer-generated visual effects work is commonplace in many modern films. Usually confined to just a narrow slice of movie genres like sci-fi and summer action blockbusters, CG´s are now even used, with varying degree, in comedies and dramas as well. In his Star Wars prequels, George Lucas used thousands of CG shots to create the amazing Star Wars universe like we´ve never seen before. But even Lucas, with an almost-limitless budget to complete his epic saga, went on-location to shoot and built expensive sets.
By comparison, "Sky Captain"´s operating budget of $40 million seems ungodly miniscule for a full-blown, Bruckheimer-size swashbuckling sci-fi action adventure film. So how did Conran and his crew do it? Let´s just say that the actors never had to leave the Van Nuys, CA warehouse where the entire film was shot. Why? Well, because everything was shot in front of a blue screen. Much like what Bob Hoskins did in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", the actors on "Sky Captain" spent the entire time acting in front of a blue screen with only verbal directions from Conran to help them visualize the environment that they are interacting with. You can call it minimalist filmmaking but this is an entirely new style of filmmaking, one where almost everything non-human you see in the film is computer-generated, down to the floor that the actors are standing on. From a purely financial standpoint, plenty of money was saved by not spending on building elaborate sets nor was there any need for on-location shooting. It is certainly a radical departure from the norm but could this be the future of filmmaking or just a one-time gimmick? Only time will tell.
Back in 1996, Kerry Conran was one of those tech-savvy self-taught visual artists who spent most of his time in his apartment trying to create a sci-fi film according to his own vision. To make his vision come through, Conran´s living room was absurdly clad with a 14-foot tall blue screen and he managed to corral his friends and his brother Kevin to help him create a six-minute short film that took a whole four years to complete. That short became a prized commodity after they showed it to Marsha Oglesby, who is Conran´s sister-in-law´s college friend, who just happen to work for Hollywood producer Jon Avnet ("Fried Green Tomatoes"). In this case, knowing someone in the movie business clearly has its advantages. Blown away by the short that he saw, Avnet agreed to help produce and find additional financing for the movie. Avnet also had the good fortune to successfully recruit Oscar winners Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie as well as twice Oscar-nominated actor Jude Law for roles in the film, lending this tech-heavy filmmaking leap of faith some legitimate Hollywood weight.
Conran´s fantastic vision for "Sky Captain" is deeply rooted in the comic book, film and television world from the 1940s and 1950s. In spirit, "Sky Captain" is an ode to the early adventure movies made contemporary by Spielberg´s Indiana Jones trilogy. Visually and stylistically, it is an exciting and ravishing mix of movies and television shows from a bygone era, such as harnessing to great effect, the marvelous use of light and shadow from Fritz Lang´s 1927 black and white sci-fi classic "Metropolis" and copying the clean lines and curved retro designs of spaceships and ray guns from the classic 1954 television series "Flash Gordon". In fact everything about this movie screams retro chic, down to the costume designs (courtesy of Stella McCartney) and even the hokey dialogue.
Now, stop me if you have heard this before. In "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", a mad man is trying to destroy the world and......stop? You see where this is going, right? Paying cheeky reverence to a host of classic sci-fi and adventure films, Conran, for better or worse, uses the audience´s familiarity with this classic genre to produce a story that more or less mimics the simple world domination plotlines from a bygone era. The year is 1939 and the world´s greatest scientists are being abducted one at a time by an unknown and sinister organization. Intrepid newspaper reporter, the sassy Polly Perkins (played by the quintessential girl-next-door, Gwyneth Paltrow), who has been reporting on the story of the missing scientists, receives new and disturbing information about who might be behind the abductions. Suddenly, before anyone can say, "Holy metalman!", New York City finds itself under attack by a horde of giant robots, eerily reminiscent of the outstanding animated feature film, "The Iron Giant". So, when your city´s under attack by metal giant robots, whom do you call? Why, the courageous (all together now, using a booming voice with echo effect) Sky....Cap..tain! Yes, of course! Captain Joseph Sullivan (Jude Law) aka Sky Captain comes to the rescue flying what looks like a vintage WWII P-40 fighter plane and manages to beat off the marauding robots and of course, saving the less-than-hapless damsel, Perkins from impending doom, all in one fell swoop.
As the story moves on, we learn that Perkins and Sullivan have a previously contentious history as a couple but they soon team up (at the insistence of Perkins, of course) to get to the bottom of the missing scientists story and to find out who sent the robots and why. Helping the duo along the way is Sky Captain´s loyal sidekick and gadget wizard, Dex Dearborn (Giovanni Ribisi) and the mysterious and highly capable femme fatale, Captain Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie). I must say that while Law and Paltrow sometimes seem a little lost around the massive blue screen stage, it is Ribisi and Jolie who pick up the slack. In fact, Jolie, who is no stranger to acting in front of a blue screen (remember Tomb Raider?), puts in a commanding performance right from her entrance and throughout her brief stint in the film. Ribisi, casting away his usual slacker demeanor, is able to provide not only some comedy relief but also a breath of fresh air to the increasingly tiresome banter between our good Captain and Ms. Perkins.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]13587[/release]