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| Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [HD DVD] | ![Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow [HD DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HH4C4AAGL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Kerry Conran
Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $8.38
You Save: $21.61 (72%)
New (15) Used (6) from $8.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  393 reviews
Sales Rank: 8014
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Subtitled
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: HD DVD
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 106
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: HD070404
UPC: 097360704044
EAN: 0097360704044
ASIN: B000GTJT0M
Theatrical Release Date: September 17, 2004
Release Date: July 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: ******BRAND NEW****** ** Over 1.5 million orders shipped worldwide and more than 500 000 items in stock, BUY FROM A TRUSTED SOURCE, ESTABLISHED SINCE 1998 - INETVIDEO ~~~
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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
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 388 more reviews...
 'Tomorrow' and Yesteryear September 23, 2004
239 out of 293 found this review helpful
I think I can say with some confidence that Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is not quite like any other film you've ever seen. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on what you think a movie should be.
Sky Captain is set in the years between the World Wars. Ace big-city reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) gets wind of a shadowy world-domination plot involving a German uber-scientist, named Totenkopf. As she begins to investigate, the city is attacked by giant robot storm troopers, who wreak destruction and attempt to steal the municipal generators. (I am not making this up.) Polly and the city are saved by the timely arrival of Joe "Sky Captain" Sullivan (Jude Law), who turns the tide in his trusty P-40 fighter plane. Polly and Joe, who have a bit of a history, reluctantly join forces to find Totenkopf and foil his evil plans. They are aided by Joe's whiz-kid sidekick, Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), and his old flame Francesca "Franky" Cook (Angelina Jolie), who is the commodore of an armada of flying British aircraft carriers. (Still not making this up.) The good guys brave sundry fantastical adventures involving many more mechanized henchmen before they finally locate Dr. Totenkopf's lair in Nepal. The ultimate confrontation that ensues between good and evil brings the earth to the brink of apocalypse.
Okay, so much for the plot, which is pretty negligible. And while we're at it, let's dispose of the acting; Law, Paltrow and Ribisi are capable actors with good range, but Sky Captain's script wouldn't overtax the thespianic skills of a wombat. All of which is beside the point, because this movie is about other things.
The first thing to know about Sky Captain is that pretty much everything you see on the screen, aside from the actors themselves, is created whole cloth out of CGI. That gives creator Kerry Conran almost unlimited license to do whatever he chooses - and what he chooses is very odd indeed, if rather intriguing withal. Conran goes to extraordinary lengths to make Sky Captain look convincingly like a very old science fiction movie; even the "film" stock seems aged, the color bleached, the images burred with slight haloes. The very conceit of a lone mad scientist developing technology to destroy the world as we know it is hopelessly antique (although admittedly the plot has rather a lot in common with 1979's Moonraker). And the gargantuan, bolted and riveted, bucket-headed robots look like they marched straight out of the 1950s.
Conran gleefully adopts the logic holes, discontinuities, and plot conveniences that were standard in movies before audiences developed a taste for realism. Early in the movie, for instance, Dex is grabbed by a robot and carried off, but somehow finds time to leave a clue stuck to the underside of a desk by a wad of chewed gum. Following the clue, Joe and Polly fly all over the globe (including an ocean or two) in his little P-40, managing to pack along a few cases of Vienna Sausages and an apparently inexhaustible supply of wardrobe changes. At one point, the plane gets a big rock lodged in its tail assembly, making it impossible for Joe to maneuver, but then a few moments later the rock is conveniently gone. And how the heck does Totenkopf build a monumental fortress, complete with armies of giant automata and a rocket launch complex, in the inaccessible wastes of Nepal?
What's significant is not that these implausibilities exist in the movie, but that the writer/director flaunts them and demands that you notice. Conran emulates even "flaws" like these from the old movies he evokes, because those flaws arose out of a romantic mindset that he is making every effort to recreate.
On one level, the film is a straightforward story about Joe and Polly and Dex and Totenkopf; but on another - and ultimately more important - level, it's about nostalgia. Not only nostalgia for old science fiction movies, I think, though Conran clearly delights in them; but even more for the innocence of a world view that made such movies possible. In a way, Sky Captain - with its indestructable hero, its moral certainty, and its inhuman, otherworldly menace - is more about Iraq and September 11 than it is about monster robots. It's about decisive, cinematic victories instead of messy, real-life quagmires. If your idea of a good movie is one that places complex characters in realistic conflict, go see The Door in the Floor. But if you'd rather suspend disbelief for a couple hours, flying your P-40 into the sunset of a happy ending, check out Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
 Novice movie maker Kerry Conran's big time eye candy October 12, 2004
105 out of 131 found this review helpful
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" represents the triumph of style over substance, the P-40 Tomahawk over mechanical monsters, and computer generated actors over death itself. That last part is actually the tip of an ethical iceberg that has the potential of being the biggest point of contention in Hollywood since Ted Turner broke out his box of crayons and started colorizing black & white classic films. But for now we can just enjoy director-writer Kerry Conran's tribute to both the decade and the serials of the 1930s done with enough digital magic to make going over the rainbow seem like an unnecessary journey.
The story begins in a New York City untouched by either the Great Depression or the madness of Hitler's Nazis. But there is still a Teutonic threat beginning to encroach on the civilized world courtesy of the brilliant, mysterious, and apparently evil Dr. Totenkopf (enjoy the surprise). Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), an intrepid reporter for "The Chronicle," stumbles upon the first significant clue about the good doctor only to be distracted by the legion of giant killer mechanical men walking down the streets of New York City. In defense of the city comes Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), the Sky Captain himself, whose P-40 Tomahawk with its Flying Tiger teeth has been souped up by his sidekick, Dex Dearborn (Giovanni Ribisi). Of course Polly and Joe had something in the past, so there is a lot of subtext to her backseat driving as they go merrily along.
In the grand tradition of the Saturday morning serial the hero and his gal get on the trail of the bad machines, fueled by Dex being kidnapped by a mysterious Asian woman (Bai Ling) and helped by a few old friends, most notably Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), the commander of a most unusual British airship. The running gag for the second half of the film is that Polly has only two shots left in her camera and keeps bypassing visual wonders, such as the real Shangri-La, because there could be something better around the corner.
Visually, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is a visual treat, filled in the same sort of sepia tones we associate with the first reel of "The Wizard of Oz," a film that is clearly a reference point for Conran. Much is made of the fact that the actors performed in front of a blue screen to which Conrad added all the dazzling images of the mechanical creations in the art deco style of a lot of the architecture we see in the film, all glowing with a blue light. But Law, Paltrow, Jolie and the rest of the cast get credit for playing these roles straight without ever getting too tongue in cheek. This is an earnest homage and not parody, and while the result might not be great cinema it is still as much fun as any of the Saturday morning serials it wants to emulate.
This film wants to be "Raiders of the Lost Ark" for a new generation of filmgoers weaned on computer generated images, but it is not up to that level. The difference can be simply quantified by saying Kerry Conran is not Steven Spielberg, but it would be more worthwhile to point out that in his first film Conran has a much better handle on the cinematic over the dramatic aspects of movie making. His next project is the long awaited adaptation of Edgar Rice Burrough's "A Princess of Mars," with a screenplay by Mark Protosevich ("The Cell"), which should help firm up the dramatic half of the equation. Given the stunning eye candy provided in his debut effort, whatever Conran does in the future will certainly be worth a look.
Visit to retroland in serial inspired "Sky Captain" January 23, 2005
16 out of 19 found this review helpful
Retro never looked so wonderful in the nearly all digital world of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. This science fiction adventure combines Flash Gordon with Fritz Lang's classic Metropolis creating a unique look for this pulp adventure. Jude Law stars as the wizard of the skies Joe Sullivan (AKA "Sky Captain") and Gwyneth Paltrow plays his love interest reporter Polly Perkins in an adventure where the existence of our world is threatened by a mad scientist (Laurence Oliver in a beyond-the-grave cameo performance that could only happen with the advent of digital technology. bend on wiping out humanity. Angelina Jolie turns in a wonderful cameo as the eye patch wearing pilot Captain `Franky' Cook. No pulp adventure would be complete without a plucky sidekick winningly embodies by the marvelous Giovanni Ribisi. While there are some time flight actors here, the real star of this movie is director/writer Kerry Conran who toiled for years in obscurity to make this film a reality. A fun visual feast featuring references to everything from King Kong to Marathon Man, Sky Captain turns into a treasure trove of other film experiences packed into an exciting adventure that everyone from kids to adults will enjoy. While it may not be high art, like Raiders of the Lost Ark its marvelous fun.
Discussing the image quality is subjective here for a number of reasons. Since this film is designed to look highly stylized with gauzy soft focus and simulation of the old two color Technicolor process (which always seemed trapped between the world of color and black and white), it's hard to compare it to other films or their look. I can compare it to the original theatrical version of the film. Sky Captain on DVD carefully captures the look, texture and rich surreal color of the original theatrical version of the film. At times the images almost look like they revert to black and white imagery with touches of gray, flesh tones and light blue all capturing the look of early Technicolor films. The 5.1 surround sound mix actively moves from speaker to speaker keeping in perfect step with the action and draping the listener in the experience of the film. With witty visual allusions to the original RKO Radio logo, pulp fiction heroes of the 30's and early 40's and other films Sky Captain plays like an old film fan's wet dream.
"Brave New World" consists of two documentaries on the making of the film. The first part focuses from conception to the birth of the six minute film Conran used to sell Jon Avent on making a feature film (which is included as an extra and with many images that ended up in the finished film with better detail) through to the design of the characters, robot monsters and the inspiration that they used from the pulp magazines. Part two discusses the actual production of the film and how it moved from the idea of using actual pictures of the late 30's and early 40's of New York as back plates to creating a highly stylized city in the computer for the actors and CGI creatures to interact in. Most of the six minute film was created with second hand computers. Sky Captain and the Flying Legion in the World of Tomorrow: Chapter One Mechanical Monsters (made on an old Apple Two) was presented to Paramount after the initial six minute demo was presented and Gwyneth Paltrow had signed on. Since there were virtually no sets Conran and visual effects people were constantly challenged by issues such as disc space, system failures and other gremlins that dog the computer world. Amazingly shot on a budget of $40 million and having to call in other effects houses at the last minute to help bring the film in on time and on budget, Sky Captain managed to walk the highwire of technology, creativity & commercial projects from Hollywood and be entertaining.
We get a comprehensive commentary track by the director and visual effects supervisors who discuss some of the more complex shots, visual tributes to other films and what's real and what's not. Overall, a fine commentary track that balances technical discussions with stuff that will interest the average film fan.
A fun bit of cinema that recalls Raiders of the Lost Ark with its retro feel and the serials of the 30's and 40's with the wit and technology of the 21st century, Sky Captain has all the fun that was squeezed out of franchise films, sequels and witty performances to boot. Sure, it's an imperfect film as the script occasionally reaches for more than it can convincingly pull off but for sheer visual style and ambition Sky Captain can't be beat.
 Hasn't been a Sci Fi\Action flick this good in a long time! September 17, 2004
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
Yes, a lot of CGI is used. So what?? It has a very unique look to it. I haven't seen another movie (and I've seen a lot) with this look. If for any other reason check it out for this. This movie is designed to do one thing, ENTERTAIN. (No Oscars, etc.) It was flat out fun - a mix of 1940's look and movie "feel" with a modern, futuristic twist.
Incredible Visual Invention in an Overabundant Story October 4, 2004
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
This film reflects amazing visual invention, and first-time writer/director Kerry Conran, self-professed computer geek, has fashioned something remarkably singular from his fertile imagination, his obviously encyclopedic knowledge of pre-WWII popular culture, and most of all, his technological savvy. What he has created is impressive - a self-contained world of startling images that seem simultaneously futuristic and retro in a colorized black-and-white world bathed in diffuse lighting and stylized art deco designs. Moving like a speeding train, the plot is stuffed with so many references to other classic stories and movies it often gets overwhelming, and I have to admit some of the turns get very convoluted as a result. As a pop culture junkie myself, I see tributes to George Pal's "War of the Worlds", Ray Harryhausen's special effects in "Jason and the Argonauts", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World", James Hilton's "Lost Horizon", Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World", Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones" trilogy and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", George Lucas' "Star Wars" especially in the aerial chase scenes, and the stiff upper lip of British WWII films. Whew! That's a lot for a 103-minute film, but Conran does an extraordinary job of spinning his plates into a truly exciting film. Beyond that, it amazes me that most of the action was done against a blue screen, as the people and images seamlessly meld together. There are incredible sequences involving gigantic robots trampling New York, fanciful aerial air strips with dozens of fighter planes, swarms of automated winged weapons among others, and they are sequenced at a lightning-fast pace.
The actors are well cast, though the best compliment one can pay them is that they don't get in the way of the action. In fact, their relative nonchalance to the extraordinary things going on around them is a major part of the fun. The omnipresent Jude Law, who is bordering on overexposure these days, cuts a dashing figure as the nominal hero, though he seems too lightweight and frankly a bit too earnest to be truly memorable. Ah, if Harrison Ford was only two decades younger... Gwyneth Paltrow plays the obligatory Lois Lane part, aptly named Polly Perkins, with a saucy mix of Veronica Lake's peek-a-boo allure (I love the skirt slitting shot) and Barbara Stanwyck's tough-dame savvy. Certainly this is quite a departure from the jetset vagabonds Law and Paltrow played in "The Talented Mr. Ripley", though their patrician attractiveness does confirm how well suited they are for period movies. In an all-too-brief part late in the film, Angelina Jolie is wonderfully gutsy as a veddy British naval captain, finally able to use her striking looks (not to mention her arresting eyepatch) to great effect. Not every actress can get away with a line like "Alert the amphibious squad!". In smaller roles, Giovanni Ribisi as the bubblegum-chewing Dex and British comedian Omid Djalili as Vienna sausage-loving Kaji seem to function purely as plot devices to move the story along. Conran understandably uses characters as chess pieces because the visual elements are what make this story percolate.
I only wish Conran could have simplified the story a bit to let us absorb more of what's going on. I felt a little out of breath every time the locale changed since I wasn't sure I grasped everything I needed to know up to that point. I also think it's a bit of a conceit to "cast" the late Laurence Olivier as the primary villain since it feeds into one of the final plot twists. By the way, a great ending line awaits. Regardless, Conran is definitely a talent to watch, and it makes me wonder what he could possibly do next. Highly recommended fun.
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