Brave New World

Therefore, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow was created specifically for my own personal enjoyment. I am not sure how some guy with interests identical to mine was allowed to direct a movie about all the things we both think are cool, but I’m willing to accept it as an overdue twist of fate. Good: a big-budget geek movie made just for me. It’s about time.

Whether Kerry Conran’s fever-dream of Flash Gordon meets King Kong meets EC Comics meets Amazing Stories meets Norman Bel Geddes meets Popular Science will appeal to you, too, depends on your appetite (or patience) for boyish imaginings. Because–despite its cutting-edge computer graphics, all-star cast, and big budget–Sky Captain is really the ultimate movie for a boy from, say, 1935. It packs all the ingredients of that era’s best dime novels: An army of giant robots equipped with Cyclops death-rays, a mad scientist who wants to destroy the world, and a dashing hero who flies his own fighter plane to save the day, every day. How can such a cynicism-free movie possibly attract ticket-buyers in this jaded age? Conran has created an anachronism in every sense: Not only is it "retro" science fiction, but it’s also a pure-hearted adventure tale of a sort we rarely see these days.

Reclaiming cinematic innocence is no simple thing, however. Just because a filmmaker wants to convey the thrills of old-fashioned storytelling to a modern audience doesn’t mean it’ll work. Many an ill-fated director has tried, with varying results. In fact, there have been several 1930s pulp adventures in the past ten years: The Shadow (1994), The Rocketeer (1996), and The Phantom (1996). All were very pleasant, dull affairs that ultimately failed because most everyone involved seemed preoccupied with winking at the camera, including the directors. The films felt more like glossy imitations rather than true pulp potboilers. The characters didn’t have faith in their own stories to carry the day, and consequently neither did we.

Conran, on the other hand, is a true believer–his passion for the world he’s created is apparent in every obsessive detail. It’s as if he’s willed this movie into being directly from his overworked imagination and onto the screen. (The short version of the backstory: Conran started creating Sky Captain on his 25 Mhz Mac IIci, ultimately taking four years to construct a six-minute "reel" that landed him a Hollywood contract.) Conran has stated in interviews that it was his intention to create a "lost film from the ‘30s," and that’s essentially what he’s done–which will no doubt keep many people away from the theaters.

If you overlook the scale and speed of Sky King, nothing is out of place in its ‘30s-modernism esthetic. The striking computer-made visuals are soft and lit with a noir-ish glow not unlike King Kong’s hazy appearance–the opposite of today’s sharply detailed, brightly colored multiplex features. The earnest story is devoid of multiple layers or hidden meanings; it is what it is–a tale of rampaging robots sure to irritate those who feel they’re too sophisticated for such fare. And the cast members (Jude Law as Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan, Gwyneth Paltrow as ace reporter Polly Perkins, and Giovanni Ribisi as the inventive Dex) embrace their parts without irony or double entendres.

So if Sky Captain refers to a culture that kids today don’t understand, and if it doesn’t include the inside jokes adults expect, whom will it appeal to? Well, just any adolescent with the imagination to see beyond Doom3 or MTV and any adult who still has a connection open to his or her sense of wonder. While other adventure movies are about stunts or explosions, Sky Captain is mostly about visuals. Kerry Conran and his production-designer brother Kevin have created an arresting vision of such imagination that it compensates for the script’s shortcomings.

Is Sky Captain a perfectly realized film? No. Joe Sullivan isn’t as fully dimensional a character as, say, Indiana Jones. The plotting bogs down near the end; even as you marvel at the film’s scenery, you sometimes wonder what the characters are supposed to be up to. And, honestly, a little more of Angelina Jolie’s amphibious fighter pilot would have made for a much more interesting love triangle and overall story.

But to those purists who declare CGI an abomination to "true" cinema, I say: Get over it. All movies of every sort attempt to simulate reality. This is just one other technique of doing so–and in the hands of the Conrans, it’s a ravishing, new world of artistic possibilities.

Back to Movie Reviews Archive