Movie Review - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

I’ve always wanted to review movies, and so I’m going to review the new and the old, the good, the bad, the ugly, whenever I see them, just because, well, why not. This is the latest movie I saw – taped from a free Starz weekend ages ago. (Tomorrow: The Devil Wears Prada!)

For starters, ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’ is visually gorgeous – shot in shades of sienna, cream and gray, with a little red lipstick thrown in for contrast.

It’s set in the Art Deco future 40’s, and if that doesn’t make sense to you, you have to see it to understand. The movie riffs on period films – narrowing in on certain written phrases or the face of a cop as he calls for reinforcement, spinning through newspaper headlines to keep us up to date on the plot, which, I’ll be frank, had me lost in the early going. Maybe I was too busy looking at the scenery.

Reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is trying to find out why giant robots have descended on New York City and why seven scientists have gone missing. The script is ambitious – going from location to location – most of it CGI but done quite well. It just misses something in the end, something I can’t put my finger on. I like this movie, but I don’t love it, and it doesn’t leave me blown away or thinking hard. The dialogue runs to stilted, the humor is brief, and the chemistry is minimal.

That said, you can’t say the leads aren’t attractive. With her oh-so-enviable long blonde mane, Paltrow looks smashing in a fedora, trench coat, heels and dark red lipstick. If she has to pick period pieces (and we know she’s good in them) I rather like the 40’s for her, just as I liked the Jean Harlow look for Gwen Stefani in ‘The Aviator.’ Refreshingly, she also avoids an accent, although we know from ‘Sliding Doors’ that she can do a British accent more capably than most.

The problem is, she doesn’t smolder like she wants to and the role could have benefited from a bit more spark. Instead, she sometimes comes off as a little dry and even slightly annoying. One imagines Rita Hayworth eating her for breakfast.

It doesn’t help that Angelina Jolie shows up halfway through the film. As we already know, this gal is what you would probably refer to over a beer as ‘sex on a stick’ – she always smolders, she doesn’t know how not to. So even though her role is brief and buttoned up, you see what Polly could have been. And she also does a British accent quite capably.

Whether you’re tired of him in the tabloids or not (and I’ll admit to the fatigue over both him and most definitely Jolie), Jude Law is sexy and brooding as Sky Captain, better known to Polly as Joe. The swept back hair and bomber jacket suit him and his handsome jaw, even as he’s slugging shots of milk of magnesia and throwing Polly out of his office or sparring with her in his souped-up P-51. In fact, the planes are one of my favorite parts of the film. There's a bit of Bond in this flick's technical aspects, and I liked it. Now, if only the film had put in some of the humor and sexual tension of a Bond flick. THAT would have been something.

For movie and TV fans alike, Giovanni Ribisi turns up as Joe’s friend Dex – he’s always invaluable. He’s always better as a supporting player because he’s versatile and quirky at the same time. Michael Gambon has a walk-on role. And the film utilizes some footage of Sir Laurence Olivier, who I didn’t recognize until his name rolled in the credits.

Animal Trauma: If, like me, you want to know beforehand if anything bad happens to animals in a film, this is a good indicator. In this film, none, unless you count an elephant shrunk to the size of a cat, which was a little creepy and never explained. On the plus side, Polly saves many animals from destruction.

Overall: Visually stunning, plot ambitious but somehow lacking in verve. I give it three roses out of five.