in which Jude Law teams up with Judith Hann and Michael Rodd to save the world from experiments that do not work on television. If Tomorrow’s World still existed, Sky Captain would be exactly the kind of film that would have been hugely featured for its impressive technological work. Indeed in its dying throes TW did dip its toes into “the science of movies” though it did not help.
So to this blue screened pasticheo of Saturday morning movie serials then. Is it any good? Yep, I thought it was plenty fun. An awful lot wrong with it, from the casting to the pacing (from a languorous opening to a rushed finale). But does it do what it sets out to? Beyond a shadow of a doubt. This rollicking adventure is boys own silliness to the nth degree designed with flair and wicked imagination. Perhaps writer director should have got someone else in to write the quickfire dialogue, since it rarely works coming from Law and Paltrow’s mouths. But from the visible radio waves to the miniaturised elephants, this encourages a certain kind of film fan (me) to clap in the aisle with silliness joy.
If there is a problem inherent in the project, it is similar to that of films of TV series. Buck Rogers In The Twenty Fifth Century, Undersea Kingdom and King Of The Rocket Men unfolded over at least twenty episodes. As one film, these serials rocked in at about ten to fifteen hours. Admittedly much of this was repetitive and pointless rescues and captures, but it also allowed for a type of characterisation that Sky Captain cannot do. Both Paltrow and Law are attempting archetypes which they do not physically fit. Angelina Jolie on the other hand nails her flirty ‘other woman’ role with so much gusto she steals the film from even the effects. The same cannot be said for the villain which is also a great let down, a pantomime needs someone for us to hiss at. And yet I cannot help but love Sky Captain, and his Tomorrow’s World. A film which has robots and dinosaurs in it. They just don’t fite yet.
(Apologies for lousy photoshop action. I know how easy it would be to do the words as well. But I gave Judith Hann an eyepatch and it seemed wrong)