Starring: Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie
Director: Kerry Conran
Rated: PG
SKY Captain and the World of Tomorrow is the brainchild of director Kerry Conran, who also wrote the screenplay and is an expert in special effects.
Since Star Wars, especially, we have become accustomed to comic book adventures.
With the Indiana Jones series, especially, we have become accustomed to the storytelling so popular at the Saturday matinees of the 1930s and 1940s: Impossible plots, mad scientists bent on world supremacy, weird science – machines, robots and weapons, plucky reporter heroine, intrepid ace pilot and a lurking femme fatale.
What if this kind of over-the-top story were filmed with big stars and a big budget for top of the range computer graphics? Here it is.
Of course, back in the 1930s and 1940s, a madman did attempt to take over the world.
It was a time of air aces. There were war correspondents. There were spies. There were technological developments in weaponry, culminating in the atomic bomb.
Who said these plots are really over the top?
Anyway, this is a sit back and relax big adventure movie.
Giant vehicles and robots loom over New York City. Scientists disappear only to have the voice of a missing scientist reveal himself as the arch-villain (with the technological help of images and voice of the late Sir Laurence Olivier).
Jude Law is the Sky Captain, a master of derring-do.
Gwyneth Paltrow is the plucky journalist. Angelina Jolie is a warrior with an eye-patch.
Giovanni Ribisi and Michael Gambon are also around.
This is an opportunity to rediscover the gung-ho spirit of the old serials.
