Editor Reviews:

Description:
After New York City receives a series of attacks from giant flying robots, a reporter teams up with a pilot in search of their origin, as well as the reason for the disappearances of famous scientists around the world.

Amazon.com:
While setting a milestone in the progress of digital filmmaking, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow resurrects a nostalgic fantasy world derived from a wide variety of vintage inspirations. It's a dazzling dream for anyone who appreciates the look and feel of golden-age sci-fi pulp magazines, drawing its unique, all-digital design from such diverse sources as Howard Hawks adventures, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buck Rogers, Blackhawk comics, The Third Man, cliffhanger serials, and the action-packed Indiana Jones franchise. Writer-director Kerry Conran's feature debut is also guaranteed to inspire digital dreamers everywhere, suggesting a paradigm shift in the way CGI-dominated movies are made. It's a giddy adventure for the young and young-at-heart, in which ace pilot "Sky Captain" Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) and intrepid reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) must save the world from a mad scientist whose vision of the future has tragic implications for all humankind. Angelina Jolie drops in for a glorified cameo, but it's the ultra-fortunate neophyte Conran who's the star here. His clever riff on The Wizard of Oz is a marvel to behold, and the method of its creation is nothing less than revolutionary. --Jeff Shannon

Rating : - A Visually Captivating Escape to a Long Forgotten Time
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is loud, noisy, silly, unbelievably ridiculous, and it's one of the most fun experiences I've had watching a movie in the past six months! This is a movie that whisks the audience off into a long forgotten era of filmmaking that I for one am grateful to see it put back on screen with the advancements of today's technology. I was just amazed that anyone would actually have the nerve to go back into the realm of camp, and cheese of the old shows and actually try and take it seriously (I don't mean the actual movie, for it is very tongue-in-cheek).

This is fun for the entire family; the action will entertain children and the visuals will entertain older audiences, especially ones who are fans of old movies and serials. This movie has lots to offer as popcorn entertainment, and I was entertained throughout. I loved the way New York City looked, and I loved their jungle homage to the original "King Kong" towards the end of the film. This film just is all visuals, and for the most part they're all good, and I never once felt the film overstayed its welcome.

The movie is set between World Wars I and II (though the advanced technology won't have you believing that for a second) and starts off with a story about scientists who have started to mysteriously disappear. Soon we find New York City under siege by giant robots that fly into action with their arms spread out straight and then start to lumber up and down the streets (They look like they flew out of "The Day the Earth Stood Still"). Events like this apparently happen quite frequently judging by the looks of things and the people are quick to call their hero Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), or as they call him Sky Captain, a man who flies around in an airplane and seems to fight against to forces of evil with his own private air force, complete with science lab and Bond-style gadgets built into his plane.

Bad things are happening worldwide, and the authorities are balled. Who could be doing this? Leave it to Sky Captain to find out these events are orchestrated by the evil German scientist Dr. Totenkopf, who wants to retrieve two cylinders which were given to Joe's obsessive reporter ex-girlfriend, Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), and soon the two of them are put together in an adventure to stop Totenkopf from destroying the world! Along the way they're thrown into a serious of ridiculous action sequences, or moments where you expect to see the screen freeze and bold letters surface stating "Too be continued..." This is all part of the fun that is "Sky Captain." This movie knows it's ridiculous, and that's the entire point, which it exploits whenever possible.

Giovanni Ribisi is Sky Captain's gadget supplier, and is obviously inspired by Q from the orginal Bond films and Angelina Jolie also shows up as a sexy British pilot (Her British accent really hasn't improved that much since "Tomb Raider") in charge of a massive flying airstrip, which utilizes one of the most fun, if not most unbelievable designs in the entire movie. Robots and flying airbases are only a few of the unbelievable, yet fun creations you get exposed to during this movie. Everyone on the special effects team of this film must have had a lot of fun!

The film is shot almost entirely with blue-screen and that gives the filmmakers lots of freedom with their visuals. They could've gone overboard with this, but I feel they took it just far enough to capture the idea of the old serials and movies, and it all looked very nice on Blu-Ray. I love this little effect they do that fades to colors to make it look like an old film.

I just really like the feel of this film. The actors know this is ridiculous, they know it's absurd, and they obviously have a lot of fun with the whole thing. They could've played it to death giving winks to the audience, but they never do. They act serious, but with an underlying message that they know what they're doing is silly. They find a fine ground between campy and too serious, and just make this film very good as homage to those long forgotten films.

The thing that got me was that in an age of serious films where we typically have emotionally confused heroes, and incredibly serious plots Director Kerry Conran actually went through with making a movie that paid homage to the movies, and serials of the 1930s-1950s. Every character, every set piece, prop, and robot seems to have walked out of that early age of entertainment, and in my opinion the industry was in serious need of a retrieve from the barrage of serious films and a look back into a simpler time.

This movie was an escape for me. Don't get me wrong, I love serious movies, but I feel we need some movies like "Sky Captain" every now and then to help even out the industry, or else we may become too serious. I don't want every movie I see to reflect the gritty horror that is reality and would like to every now and then escape back to childhood daydreams of airplanes that convert into submarines and where every character is clean cut, being really good or really bad.

For people who enjoy special-effects or the old serials of the 1930s-40s "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is a must, or even for the people who enjoy the original James Bond films where just about anything seems possible. This is Grade-A, no brain entertainment at its finest!