[Film] This Is Sky Captain. I'm On My Way (Sky Captain & World Of Tomorrow (DVD))

Member Name: Andy.mack

Product:	Sky Captain & World Of Tomorrow (DVD)
Date:	25/01/07 (91 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It looks fantastic, despite slight concerns over an entirely CGI created backdrop it works

Disadvantages: Gwyneth Paltrow isn't quite believable as Polly Perkins

For the third and final part of my recent Jude Law series I sat down over the weekend and watched Sky Captain and The World Of Tomorrow. I had seen the film a couple of months ago and as I quite liked it I decided it would be worth buying. I have to admit though with this being the 3rd Jude Law movie I’ve seen in 2 weeks I am getting just a little fed up with him. I think it’s a case of too much in such a short space of time but with Jude appearing in a lot of films at the moment, it’s an inevitable reaction from most people.

The film is set in the late 30’s and New York city is quite a simple place to be. Unless you are a German scientist that is. In fact seven 1st World War scientists have mysteriously disappeared and reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) is trying to find out why. As she meet with the last surviving member of the group of scientists, New York city comes under attack from giant robots. Totally unexpected they can only call on one man to try and safe the city, Joe “Sky Captain” Sullivan (Jude Law).

He has a bit of history with Polly but agrees to join forces with her as they attempt to track the source of these robot attacks. It seems the same people behind the attacks are also the ones behind the missing German scientists. The only link Joe and Polly have is a name, TotenKopf, and from this they hope to find out why the world is being attacked by these Robots.

It’s a pretty decent film, with an interesting storyline that holds your interest throughout whilst still entertaining all the way through. The film is given the feel of a 1930’s movie with some very clever imaging that makes it look like a film of the time. I felt this really gave the film a little more feeling and made it seem slightly different to all the other big Hollywood Blockbusters. The plot flows smoothly and really keeps you engrossed from start to finish. IT offers a good mix of Comedy, Action and Science fiction that opens the movie up to a much larger group of people.

This is the debut movie from director Kerry Conran who also wrote the movie. He has seemingly come from nowhere and with a decent script managed to secure himself a budget and a film studio. Add to that a cast of A List stars and Conran certainly seems to have landed on his feet. With this movie I feel he’s really made a name for himself early in his film making career and will hopefully be able to start making even more movies following the success of Sky Captain. I always feel that it helps when the director is also the writer as it allows them to create the film in the way they seen the film whilst writing it.

The whole movie is filmed against a blue screen with the environments and locations created using CGI once the actors had finished. I really felt this worked well for the movie and allowed Conran to add in small references to older films he loved watching whilst growing up. I’m not usually a huge fan of CGI and at times I often feel it looks awful but with the 1930’s look to the film it seems to fit in perfectly and is a real testament to Conran’s vision in creating this movie. The special effects in places are mind blowing the film really looks the part.

The cast also help to make Sky Captain an enjoyable film in the most part. Once you get past the initial wishing that Paltrow wasn’t in the film it does become enjoyable. I found it incredible hard to accept her as Polly Perkins and that detracted a little from the overall effect. I did however feel that Law adopted the right levels of cockiness and actual acting ability. Just like the other films around at the moment I really felt Jude was ideal for the role and shone above everyone else in the movie. There was a bitter feeling between him and Gwyneth at the beginning but I didn’t feel that there was ever any real chemistry between them.

The supporting cast even included a couple of big names with Angelina Jolie putting in an excellent performance as a naval captain. I felt there was a lot more chemistry and general romantic connection between Jolie and Law than with Paltrow. The other real stand out performance for me was Giovanni Ribisi, who played Law’s best friend and gadget man. I’ve always been a big fan of Ribisi, especially in films like Gone in 60 Seconds and feel he was excellent in a supporting role here. Overall the casting decisions worked and I felt that Conran got the best out of a good group of actors, no mean feat for his first movie.

At the end of it all Sky Captain is almost 2 hours of pure enjoyment. The film isn’t believable by any stretch of the imagination but plays on a lot of older films and works remarkably well. For his first foray into acting I felt that Conran has produced a fantastic film and I’ll certainly be looking out for more by him in the future. As for Jude Law despite him being everywhere at the moment he seems to be choosing his roles wisely and again like in Alfie really suit’s the part as Sky Captain. There is talk of turning Sky Captain into a franchise and for once it’s an idea that just might work, the basis is there. This is certainly a film I’d recommend to anyone as it seems to have something for everyone.

Summary: A Jude Law, CGI action film