Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow review

It's hard to imagine what must have gone through the mind of Sky Captain's writer and director Kerry Conran when viewing the finished film. To see his long held vision looming large on the big screen must have been a proud moment. What probably struck him more, though, was the endless list of credits. For three years Conran had worked all alone at his computer to produce the six-minute short with which he was able to secure producers to finance the full-length version.

Using stock footage and old photographs, Conran was able to create a fully realized world, be it a very stylized 1930s art deco inspired one, on to which he planned to superimpose actors. The resulting Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (originally known as The World Of Tomorrow, it augmented its title to avoid confusion with The Day After Tomorrow) is a stunning visual achievement. Blending film noir with a comic book feel, its washed out colours help imbue it with a more authentic old fashioned look.

Sky Captain's kitsch tone and hammy sensibilities contrast with its elegant imagery to conjure comparisons with Indiana Jones, Flash Gordon and Metropolis. Every frame is lovingly conceived and rendered, making each a work of art. It's only when they are strung together does Sky Captain falter. The imagination and skill devoted to producing an original and sumptuous spectacle are not matched by those applied to the story and characters. The result being that while the cgi sets are convincingly three dimensional, the actors appear less realistic.

As one would expect for such a grandly conceived project, we're dealing with nothing less critical than the saving of the world. When Gotham City is overrun by giant robots, the determined and uptight newspaper reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) hooks up with ex-beau and valiant aviator Joe 'Sky Captain' Sullivan (Jude Law), traveling the globe in search of the mysterious Dr Totenkopf, the person behind the attacks. Along the way they are helped by Joe's technical sidekick Dex (Giovanni Ribisi) and brassy naval officer Captain 'Franky' Cook (Angelina Jolie).

The unnecessarily convoluted thread involving a group of missing scientists clogs things up, although the fantastical landscapes provide a welcome distraction and help defer attention away from the purely functional plot. One other inventive, if slightly disarming feature, is the inclusion of a computer generated performance by Laurence Olivier in the role of the evil Totenkopf.

As an achievement in pioneering filmmaking, it's impossible not to admire Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. In the end though, it's the film itself and not the technique behind it that's most important. Films are like women: how they look is important, but it's not everything.