and the World of Tomorrow
Movie Reviews
To understand what a monument this is, come to terms with the story behind it all. Writer/director Kerry Conrad labored for roughly ten years before his film made it to the screen. On his little Macintosh computer, Conrad worked to develop a whole new type of technology to make films. By 1998, he had created a six-minute short film of what he wanted his work to feel like. Director John Avnet was swept by the short, and decided to produce the film. On came Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Giovanni Ribisi, and Agelina Jolie and Conrad had his project flying.
But dwelling on that back story will likely make the spectrum of emotions lean toward disappointment because �Sky Captain� looks fantastic. So fantastic that you�ll more than ponder why it took so long to develop it. It�s quite a seamless project of visuals � a type of imaginative visuals such as we have never seen before.
The backdrop of the story is New York City � the New York City we used to see in the old 40s noir. Conrad blends together the monotones of yellow and brown and gray together with a colorful display of digital creations that pass for real because of the way it is filmed. Now, you may be asking just how this was filmed. Well, the actors are real, and that�s about it. Everything else � other than intricate props � is entirely computer generated. The actors were filmed during principle photography in massive blue screen sets where the background, the foreground and everything in between was a blue screen. Conrad has not only brought to life a very unique style of filmmaking, but also a form of budgeting that allows him to spend all the big bucks on digital shots, which all cost about the same.
Paltrow plays Polly Perkins, a NYC reporter who becomes involved in an international conspiracy about an evil scientist who is said to be producing what is called a doomsday device (�Dr. Strangelove� fans will laugh just as hard as I did when they find this out) to destroy the earth. He takes over large cities with monstrous mechanical robots � ones that can fly, ones that can walk, all of which can bring devastation. It�s up to Sky Captain (Law) to bring down the fascist and find the center of the conspiracy.
This is all stuff we�ve heard before, in a way, but never ever like this. Conrad has concocted perhaps the most entertaining film of 2004; a film that transcends the creativity unlike that of any other special effects directors of late. �Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow� is large, boisterous, and fun to watch without being overwhelmingly loud, blasting, and too much to watch. But you can�t go into this thinking that Conrad�s film is stupid, meaning lacking intelligence. It�s far from it. His writing is strong and fast paced, but stays away from being episodic, and the dialogue is often very smart. If you enjoy that aspect as much as I do, you�ll love the last moment of this. ****