Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
Genre: Action
Format Viewed: Digital Cable
Filmography links and data courtesy of The Internet Movie Database.
What else can I say? You had me until you showed me The Ark…
Hope I didn’t ruin the movie for anybody, but to be completely honest with you, I’ve got a feeling that despite revealing a few minor plot holes here and there, I still think that you’re going to be just as bewildered as I was by the time this movie is over…and before you re-read that last sentence over and over again trying to figure out whether or not that’s supposed to be considered a compliment for the film or not, let me tell you that I’m not really even all that sure myself…
Allow me to start off by saying that I really wanted to like this one. I had meant to catch it in the theaters when it first debuted last fall, but must’ve gotten distracted or something, and for the record, even after the fact I still wouldn’t mind seeing this on the big screen because there were actually some parts that were pretty neat…well that, and it seems to me that the whole concept of an invasion of gigantic robots would just look all the more sweet on a 70-foot screen! In actuality, pretty much this entire film was shot in front of a blue screen so that the environment could be added in later by computers and I’ve got to say that from this perspective, they did a very nice job. The plot itself has a very goin’ to the movies-like quality to it and the imagery certainly helps to reinforce that atmosphere – it doesn’t look real, but then again, this is science fiction…it’s not supposed to!
However that having been said, I’ve got to say that Sky Captain threw me for more than a couple of loops despite the fact that I knew all too well that I was sitting down for a science fiction flick. There’s always a certain amount of known, “bizarre” that’s going to happen as the plot develops, but in this one I seemed to find more than my fair share of just all-out weirdness that just seemed out of place. The example that I’ll cite today will be the “climatic finish,” if you will, so for those concerned about my ruining the movie for you, you might want to just skip ahead to the next paragraph right about now. As I was saying, the scene that just bewilders me to no end from this movie is when we reach the bad guy’s headquarters and discover that he’s wrecking havoc around the world…to build an Ark?! Never you mind that the only explanation that we have for the robots is that he needed a lot of “stuff” to build this giant rocket, or that the explanation for those secret vials was about as clear as mud, or that even if this dude wants to ship off two of every creature into space – A) where are they going; and B) what’s the point of incinerating the planet after the fact? I also had to believe that the explanation of “the robots are all just finishing what they’ve been programmed to do…” was a cheap excuse and leaves really no reason to figure why all the scientists were being kidnapped in the first place, but I digress…
I guess when it comes down to it, I think I’d have been much happier with the movie if it turned out that the bad guy was just trying to take over the world and enslave humanity or something…at least that’s where I thought it was going! Regardless, I didn’t exactly feel like my time was wasted with Sky Captain, either – there’s just so much that could’ve been done to salvage the plotline at the end that I think would’ve resulted in a more reasonable movie…if one is even allowed to use that word with science fiction! It definitely gets some bonus points just for being creative and unique, and it was probably one of the few movies last year that didn’t have a superhero in it, so that’s a good start!
For fans of science fiction and the abnormal, you’ll at least have a good time picking out all of the references from your classic favorites, and I might even be so bold as to say that your lady friend will enjoy it for the artistic vision, too. Rent it first, and then if you can manage to one up me and get past the ending, go out and grab a copy for your own personal collection…
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