***½ Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

Directed by Kerry Conran

11/16/04
It's my own stupid fault for seeing this movie AFTER I saw The Incredibles. I loved Sky Captain a whole lot, but it can't just help but falter in the face of a movie like The Incredibles.

Don't get me wrong—I still gotta enjoy a movie plenty in order to give it three and a half stars.

This movie is basically just a fun romp through the kinds of stories that were told in those adventure serials from the 30s. In fact, if it weren't for the color and some other obvious effects, this movie looks like it was made in the 30s. It has the same grain and exaggerated sepia-tone of a film from the past. It reminded me a little of The Saddest Music in the World in that respect, although the two are obviously completley different movies. Sky Captain is infused with the spirit of these 30s serials even more so, I believe, than the Indiana Jones movies, which took the spirit of the originals and enhanced them with modern moviemaking. Not so this film. This film has the same logic, characterization, and depth as the best of the wham-bang serials. It even (for better or worse) includes most of the flaws of those films—the opening sequence has WAY too many dissolves; the "intrepid female reporter" character (Polly Perkins, played by Gwynneth Paltrow) is illogically obsessed with getting "the story" and "the photo" to the point where she would run back into a room filled with about-to-explode dynamite because she left her extra film in there; the relationship between the hero and his youngish protegee has some rather strong homeoerotic overtones; at times the backgrounds look like hastily painted matt paintings—yet because the movie embraces all of these and flies forward with such gusto, all of these flaws tend only to enhance the movie watching experience.

Sure, the characters are cardboard. But look at how cool those robots look! Sure, the plot is ridiculous, but look at that propeller-driven hovering aircraft carrier! Sure, there is no real emotional depth to the film, but there are some genuinely funny moments, including a running third-act gag in which the intrepid female reporter has only two shots left on her camera, and as amazing sight after amazing sight passes before her eyes, you see the excitement flash and then the bitter realization that if she shoots now, she might pass up something even better later on (this joke leads, by the way, to the single greatest movie tag of the past 40 years—not since The Man Who Knew Too Much has there been a better single final line to a movie).

This isn't a movie that draws you in or that you viscerally experience. This is a movie that you look at from a relaxed and comfortable distance. And god-damn is it pretty to look at!

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