Rating: Triple A++
First of all, I’d like to apologize for not having posted anything in quite a while. There have been a lot of changes going on lately for me personally and I have been in kind of a funk lately in terms of not being able to write anything really, other than a few papers for school. However, I think I have found a film to get me back in the groove of things. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is the only film written and directed by Kerry Conran as of yet. Now let’s get some things straight right off the bat, this film is A) phenomenal, and B) not very good. I’ll get to why this is in a minute but first you should know that the story revolves around a female journalist named Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) who always gets her story and when giant flying robots drop into New York City she has to be in on the action and get as close as possible even if she endangers herself and Sky Captain (Jude Law) has to step in and save her. And let the amazement ensue. Now I will explain why this film could have been greater than Citizen Kane but isn’t. In simplest terms, the actors chosen were not the best and general audiences can only take so much science fiction awesomeness. Don’t get me wrong, I love the acting talents of Giovanni Ribisi who plays Dex and I have a fondness for Angelina Jolie, don’t ask. However, these actors only play minor characters and are not involved in enough of the film. I believe that if the lead roles and supporting roles had been switched then the film could very easily have been more appealing to general audiences.
Now for those of you who may have trouble understanding why this movie is so awesome I will give you the top five reasons.
5. Giant Flying Robots – If those three words haven’t already convinced you, I should add that there are three different types of robots one that fires lasers from its face, one that has tentacles for arms, and the other only flies but also has lasers. Enough said, right? No? Okay on to reason number four.
4. Airplanes that become Submarines – Need I say more? No, seriously there are freaking air-sub-plane-marines in this movie!
3. Jude Law Punches Gwyneth Paltrow in the Face – You and I both know she had it coming ever since she showed us just how annoying Young Wendy was in Hook.
2. The Look of the Film – The art style of the film has been called Art Deco, now I’m not sure what that means exactly but it truly is shot in beautiful colors and divine textures. Many of the shots remind me of comic books with a series of silhouetted guns or hands pointing to the sky. It also helps that old comics of Buck Rogers are shown at appropriate times during the film. If you don’t watch this movie for any other reason, then you most definitely should watch it for this.
1. Laurence Olivier – That’s right, Laurence Olivier is in the movie. Now you may be asking yourself, “Wait, isn’t he dead?” Why yes he is, but he has come back to help create the greatest story ever applied to celluloid. The classic actor appears in an unusual but very important role as an Oz-like character.
There you have it, I could have listed other reasons like miniature elephants but even that is giving too much away about the plot of the story which I don't like to do. So, if this hasn’t changed your mind about how amazing this movie truly is then you are either dumb or a Communist… or both, which is the worst kind of Communist.
