The Canadian Cinephile’s Reviews

Kerry Conran directed 2004’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, a sci-fi thriller shot in a unique old-fashioned style with the help of a blue-screen and gobs of CGI. While the elements of style appeared to be enough for many critics and audiences to give this film a positive grade, it was not enough for me unfortunately. While the look was impressive, it quickly wore off as reality started to sink in. It was not entirely effective as a popcorn movie because, let’s face it, it barely looked like anyone was trying in the acting department.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, along with the “miles-better” Sin City and a few other films, was one of the first films to be shot entirely against a digital screen. This left the actors little to work with in terms of props or devices, which removed much of the true feel of the film. It looked good, not great, and it felt tremendously contrived and fake. Perhaps I should have been more captivated with imagination, but the fact that nobody else on screen seemed to be captivated by anything may have hampered that effect.

Jude Law stars as Sky Captain Joe Sullivan, an uninspiring hero that lacked any intensity or real substance. Sky Captain seems to softly coo his way through much of the heroic dialogue in a soft English accent. This takes away from the character on the whole and Jude Law seems barely interested in holding it together by giving us a solid male lead. Instead, the action and adventure is left to the CGI and the effects, not the hero or his prowess. That’s due in part, sadly, to the fact that the film wanders from one scene to the next without any real continuity. I suppose I wasn’t supposed to be paying that much attention, though, and was to rather have been staring agape at the computer-designed backdrops and soft-hues. Ah well.

Gwyneth Paltrow is Polly Perkins, a journalist along for the ride and a love interest for Sky Captain Joe. She appears to sleepwalk through the film and, most noticeably, can’t even muster up enough energy to fall properly. Angelina Jolie, who astonishingly was given special billing in this film, is barely there (she’s maybe on screen for about five minutes, tops) as Franky, one of Joe’s ex-flames and leader of some sort of ship.

All in all, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was a film intended to be enjoyed on a certain level of style. That style, for me, was confined to sepia and soft tones that belied a few impressive action sequences. Those action sequences, however, become a whole lot less impressive later on when you realize that nobody was actually running from anything, no-one was in a real setting other than a factory in London in front of a blue-screen and nobody was really trying all that hard save for the computer-techs back at the office. While realism is certainly not to be the order of the day in a sci-fi film such as this, the style can’t really cover up for the lack of substance. For CGI backdrop magic, I’ll take the well-scripted, well-acted and more profoundly entertaining Sin City.

2.5/10

Trailer: