Anthony's Film Review - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

A fantastic idea for science fiction with a decent level of excitement...

The first thing that is striking about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is the time period. It's futuristic and historical at the same time. It looks either like a science-fiction story written in the 1930s to 1940s or a science-fiction story written today by someone who imagined the future to look like the 1930s to 1940s but with more technology. In fact, I wasn't aware of this setting until I saw the movie. The posters for Sky Captain may suggest it to be science-fiction, but not necessarily old-fashioned science-fiction.

The plot does have a nice setup. Gwyneth Paltrow is Polly Perkins, a reporter in New York City who witnesses giant robots flying in the air. She eventually meets Jude Law as a fighter pilot named Sky Captain. They are both on a search for scientists who have disappeared. Like plenty of other adventure stories, one thing leads to another and eventually to a climax where the heroes must save the world. Formulaic, but it's still fun to watch in this movie.

This movie is also entertaining if you enjoy sci-fi action. There is plenty of it here. Polly runs down the street with the feet of the giant robots coming down. Sky Captain flies a plane against some giant bird-like aircraft. And I won't say what else is there. Otherwise, I'd be spoiling the excitement.

I should note that there are two very interesting casting choices for supporting characters. They are interesting because I did not expect them to be in a movie like this, though there's nothing wrong with it. Angelina Jolie has a small role as Franky, an eye-patched officer on an airship. The other is a post-humous film appearance by Laurence Olivier. Obviously, the late actor can only appear as a character on film in image form rather than in the flesh. But it's still a worthy mention.

I did not expect to see this movie initially, but when I saw it, I thought it was pretty good. It has just enough excitement to make it watchable. My biggest complaint would simply be the final shot of the movie, just because I was hoping for someone more memorable to close the picture. Instead, the climax was over and the movie ended with a somewhat premature closure. But that's OK. The point is that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is not bad if you love science-fiction action adventures.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, visit the Internet Movie Database.