Will Sky Captaun Make History?

A movie that brings back nostalgic memories of the old classics; it must be worth seeing! Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a film full of action, adventure, animation, mystery, and suspense. A pertinent sub-genre that the movie seems parallel to is: Film Noir. It involves detective work, has a beautiful but stubborn reporter, a mad scientist, and a hero. To top it all off, there was even a previous romance between the reporter and the hero that ended after a disloyalty from both sides. What more could it need?

The storyline of the film is really quite unique and entertaining. Unlike most action movies nowadays the whole story cannot be predicted while watching the first ten or so minutes of it. Sky Captain, Joe Sullivan, (Jude Law) is needed in the city to fight off mysterious robots raiding and stealing generators and mineral deposits. Shortly after the invasion, these robot appearances are confirmed internationally. During which time kidnappings of famous scientists have been reported. Ironically, each missing scientist was part of a genetic experiment in Germany many years earlier. Sky Captain receives a visit from ex-girlfriend, reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) who knows some secrets about the disappearances and wants the case. Together they plan to find evil scientist Totenkopf and what else…save the world!

I would really hate to give away such a great ending, so that will conclude my synopsis. What to think about now is how to know whether or not a movie has that potential to become apart of all those popular classics. Will Sky Captain be the next Superman? Or will it be lost and forgotten? As far as I can tell, this movie was loaded with resemblances to all those mid 20th century pop culture films. Just by having everything filmed in front of a blue screen gave the notion of a very mystifying and dimmed look.

The movie’s setting was took place in New York City of the 1930s. But, I feel it failed to portray its setting correctly. First of all, New York City is known for its crowded streets and large population. Neither of which were shown in the film. Secondly, when thinking back to the 1930s the first thing that would come to anyone’s mind is The Great Depression. But, once again there were no such signs of any depression or despair in society. Another phenomenon that threw the setting off was the idea of Sky Captain’s plane. Now, speaking from the new millennium, there is no such technology allowing a plane to submerge into water and transform into a submarine-like vessel. How anything even remotely possible to this in the 1930s existed just astounds me. But, I guess that would be why it is a movie.

Despite its lack in realism, in many ways this film ties into pop culture throughout its viewing. In the movie there are references made to two very famous films. Since 1939 both The Wizard of Oz and Wuthering Heights have been a part of even today’s pop culture. This movie’s setting falls back in that era to bring back a little old school. And even branching out further they had a deceased Laurence Oliver play the role of Totenkopf, the evil scientist. Oliver also coincidentally starred in Wuthering Heights as Heathcliff.