Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, like Van Helsing, is a pulp film. The important twist is that it's a science fiction pulp film, which has long since fallen out of favor in an era of special effects and complicated scientific explanations. In sci-fi pulp, giant robots look like wind-up toys (actually, wind-up toys were supposed to look like giant robots), ray guns go "PEW! PEW!" and advanced technology doesn't require a lot of explaining. In pulp, there's non-stop action, the heroes are ridiculously well rounded, and a World War looms around the corner.
And oh yeah, dinosaurs. You can't forget the dinosaurs.
Sky Captain begins with the majestic view of a gigantic dirigible docking with the Empire State Building, and we know immediately that this is not the 1930s pre-World War II movie we're accustomed to. It is literally the World of Tomorrow, the kind featured at World's Fairs-utterly unrealistic and colored by the biases of the time. Thus, instead of planes ruling the air, we have massive blimps. Indeed, the zeppelin we see is titled "Hindenburg III." Presumably, the Hindenburg disaster did not take place in this future. This is the retro-futuristic era of the recent Batman cartoon and The Rocketeer, where dirigibles also rule the skies.
Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), an intrepid reporter who always gets her story. She's like the Lois Lane of the 1930s. She receives a desperate message from a hunted scientist. The inimitable Dr. Totenkopf, played by none other than Laurence Olivier, is chasing him. Yes, THAT Laurence Olivier. The fact that the few scenes of the "bad guy" are actually digitally inserted footage of a man who has been dead for 15 years carries a certain resonance, given the inevitable plot twist at the end of the movie.
As Polly struggles to unveil the mystery of just who Totenkopf is, she meets her mysterious contact at Radio City Music Hall. What's playing? The Wizard of Oz, of course (another plot hint). And then just as this movie appears to be a film-noir rather than a pulp action film...
GIANT ROBOTS ATTACK!
That's right. Giant frickin' robots. I haven't enjoyed giant robots this much since the Iron Giant. They drop from the skies a fashion similar to the villains from the old Superman cartoons. Or, if you've never seen those, the animated footage used to demonstrate the potential of flying Nazi invaders in The Rocketeer. Their single eye is Gort-like (from the Day the Earth Stood Still), vaporizing the ineffectual police who fire at the five-story robots with their pistols. And yes, the eye rays make the PEW-PEW-PEW sound.
Enter our hero, the Sky Captain, Joe Sullivan (Jude Law). Apparently, zeppelins didn't completely overtake the skies because Sky Captain flies a fighter plane that's a bit like a James Bond vehicle. It can shoot missiles, whip around corners with grappling hooks (a nod to Batman), fly underwater, and drop magnetic bombs. Joe, in traditional pulp fashion, is absurdly well rounded: he is an incredible shot, a fantastic pilot, and is well versed in ancient astronomy.
But what do the robots want? They want our generators, our fuel supplies, and two samples of every living being on the planet. Why? Well, for the World of Tomorrow of course.
The plot gradually unfolds as the rocky relationship between Polly and Joe is revealed. Joe accuses her of sabotaging his plane, Polly accuses him of fooling around. They have a love/hate relationship that ranges from comedic to sincere. The two agree to team up after a mysterious female assassin (who shoots rays out of her hands and can leap file cabinets in a single bound) kills the remaining scientist.
Back at his not-so-secret base, Joe plots how to track the robot attackers to their home base with his resident Q-character, Dex Dearborn (Giovanni Ribisi). Dex manages to invent a gun that makes PEW-PEW-PEW sounds; it has a fin on top and everything, as if it were right out of a Flash Gordon movie. Then, while Polly and Joe discuss their next plans...
GIANT ROBOTS ATTACK!
Dex is captured, but not before leaving behind a clue as to the whereabouts of the robots home base. Joe and Polly fly off on a whirlwind adventure that will take them to Shangri-La, underwater, and to an island filled with dinosaurs. Giant frickin' dinosaurs!
The entire film is shot through a fuzzy, washed out lens that gives it the feel of an old movie or a pulp comic book. Architecture is art deco. The robots are strange, one-eyed impractical things with joints in all the wrong places, just like the covers of a thousand science fiction novels. And all of it is done through the miracle of CGI.
There's not too much for the characters to say, because this is a pulp film after all. Polly's there primarily to look pretty and occasionally punch a bad guy (or good guy) in the face. Joe swaggers and shoots things. And Dex is the anointed spouter of pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo.
Despite the special effects, Sky Captain retains its sense of humor. And whenever things get boring...
GIANT ROBOTS ATTACK!
This is a true rollicking retro sci-fi pulp film, in the tradition of The Rocketeer, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Van Helsing, and The Iron Giant. Fans of older science fiction films will thoroughly enjoy themselves. Everyone else will probably just get a headache.
And oh yeah, dinosaurs. You can't forget the dinosaurs.
Sky Captain begins with the majestic view of a gigantic dirigible docking with the Empire State Building, and we know immediately that this is not the 1930s pre-World War II movie we're accustomed to. It is literally the World of Tomorrow, the kind featured at World's Fairs-utterly unrealistic and colored by the biases of the time. Thus, instead of planes ruling the air, we have massive blimps. Indeed, the zeppelin we see is titled "Hindenburg III." Presumably, the Hindenburg disaster did not take place in this future. This is the retro-futuristic era of the recent Batman cartoon and The Rocketeer, where dirigibles also rule the skies.
Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), an intrepid reporter who always gets her story. She's like the Lois Lane of the 1930s. She receives a desperate message from a hunted scientist. The inimitable Dr. Totenkopf, played by none other than Laurence Olivier, is chasing him. Yes, THAT Laurence Olivier. The fact that the few scenes of the "bad guy" are actually digitally inserted footage of a man who has been dead for 15 years carries a certain resonance, given the inevitable plot twist at the end of the movie.
As Polly struggles to unveil the mystery of just who Totenkopf is, she meets her mysterious contact at Radio City Music Hall. What's playing? The Wizard of Oz, of course (another plot hint). And then just as this movie appears to be a film-noir rather than a pulp action film...
GIANT ROBOTS ATTACK!
That's right. Giant frickin' robots. I haven't enjoyed giant robots this much since the Iron Giant. They drop from the skies a fashion similar to the villains from the old Superman cartoons. Or, if you've never seen those, the animated footage used to demonstrate the potential of flying Nazi invaders in The Rocketeer. Their single eye is Gort-like (from the Day the Earth Stood Still), vaporizing the ineffectual police who fire at the five-story robots with their pistols. And yes, the eye rays make the PEW-PEW-PEW sound.
Enter our hero, the Sky Captain, Joe Sullivan (Jude Law). Apparently, zeppelins didn't completely overtake the skies because Sky Captain flies a fighter plane that's a bit like a James Bond vehicle. It can shoot missiles, whip around corners with grappling hooks (a nod to Batman), fly underwater, and drop magnetic bombs. Joe, in traditional pulp fashion, is absurdly well rounded: he is an incredible shot, a fantastic pilot, and is well versed in ancient astronomy.
But what do the robots want? They want our generators, our fuel supplies, and two samples of every living being on the planet. Why? Well, for the World of Tomorrow of course.
The plot gradually unfolds as the rocky relationship between Polly and Joe is revealed. Joe accuses her of sabotaging his plane, Polly accuses him of fooling around. They have a love/hate relationship that ranges from comedic to sincere. The two agree to team up after a mysterious female assassin (who shoots rays out of her hands and can leap file cabinets in a single bound) kills the remaining scientist.
Back at his not-so-secret base, Joe plots how to track the robot attackers to their home base with his resident Q-character, Dex Dearborn (Giovanni Ribisi). Dex manages to invent a gun that makes PEW-PEW-PEW sounds; it has a fin on top and everything, as if it were right out of a Flash Gordon movie. Then, while Polly and Joe discuss their next plans...
GIANT ROBOTS ATTACK!
Dex is captured, but not before leaving behind a clue as to the whereabouts of the robots home base. Joe and Polly fly off on a whirlwind adventure that will take them to Shangri-La, underwater, and to an island filled with dinosaurs. Giant frickin' dinosaurs!
The entire film is shot through a fuzzy, washed out lens that gives it the feel of an old movie or a pulp comic book. Architecture is art deco. The robots are strange, one-eyed impractical things with joints in all the wrong places, just like the covers of a thousand science fiction novels. And all of it is done through the miracle of CGI.
There's not too much for the characters to say, because this is a pulp film after all. Polly's there primarily to look pretty and occasionally punch a bad guy (or good guy) in the face. Joe swaggers and shoots things. And Dex is the anointed spouter of pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo.
Despite the special effects, Sky Captain retains its sense of humor. And whenever things get boring...
GIANT ROBOTS ATTACK!
This is a true rollicking retro sci-fi pulp film, in the tradition of The Rocketeer, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Van Helsing, and The Iron Giant. Fans of older science fiction films will thoroughly enjoy themselves. Everyone else will probably just get a headache.
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction
posted by talien | 12:37 PM
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