Review of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) by Ken S — 09 Sep 2011

Sky Captain should be tons of fun. It really should. How can a movie have giant robots, ray guns, fighter planes that turn into submersibles, big sweeping icy mountains dino monsters, rocket ships, flying aircraft carriers, and a sort of old time serial tone about it not be fun? Well when you stick actors who are too unsure of themselves in front of a green screen and tell them to react to things they don't see.

..in a big...open...green space...totally exposed. I can see why Paltrow is so stiff (despite not being the best actress in the world), she is uncomfortable playing around. She probably felt silly...but as a result her performance stinks.

I think to be in a movie like this you need to remember what it is like to be a kid and play make believe. I used to pretend I was a ghostbuster or Captain Kirk all the time...I was never on the bridge of the Enterprise, or anything that looked like it, but I knew how to pretend I was.

And I sold it too. Paltorw and Law don't sell it. Some the supporting cast do like Jolie and Ribisi, but our leads (who we spend the bulk of the film with) do not. As a result this movie that could've been really good falls flat most of the time.

In the end I feel like I liked Sky Captain, but I didn't love it. But I should have loved it. It is my kind of movie...its a real shame.