It was late evening, Sept. 18, 2004, and I had just gotten back from the ultimate pulpy movie. I sat down to write my impressions, while they were still fresh. And here they are:
I just got back from seeing Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and wanted to give it a quick review. I’ll rate it a 9 out of 10. It just doesn’t get much better. In theory, there could be the perfect movie which would get a perfect 10, but I have yet to see it. This is close; it’s the best movie I’ve seen in years.
The plot, summarized for any of you who haven’t seen the film, involves ace-pilot Sky Captain, whose real name is… er… uh… I don’t know. I’m told his name is Joe Sullivan, but I guess I missed that part. Anyway, there’s also his sidekick, Dex, and Polly Perkins, the essence of a plucky 1939 female newspaper reporter. The globe is in crisis. Famous scientists are disappearing. Flying robots attack New York. It’s a whirlwind of pulp madness as these three scramble to find out who is behind it all and what the heck is going on. As it turns out, there’s a lot going on!
Even though I had read the novelization two months ago, it still didn’t spoil this movie for me. This is my kind of movie. I knew what was coming, and still loved every minute of it. I never, never, never go to see a movie more than once. But I might see this one a second time. It’s that good.
Yes, there is a slightly soft focus to the film, as has been discussed ad nausium on Internet message boards. No, I didn’t find it distracting. It adds to the unique “feel” of the movie. The special effects are terrific. Only in two places did they look even the smallest bit phony.
When Sky Captain landed his P-40 at his own base, the far shot of the plane touching down on the runway looked a bit like a model. Perhaps it was a homage to the old serials which used extensive model shots for such things? I get the feeling they could have made it more realistic if they had wanted to, but intentionally made it look ever-so-slightly fake.
The second place that didn’t quite click, was at the end when the parachutes were collapsing in the ocean. They didn’t look quite convincing. And this time, I don’t think it was on purpose. I think this was their best; and it’s not quite good enough. I think water action and billowing silk must be hard to emulate digitally (in 2004).
Other than those two instances, I can’t recall anything that looked phony to my eyes. All the rest of the effects looked convincing to me. I love those robots!
Oh, and I didn’t mention dinosaurs, did I? Well, this movie has dinosaurs. That definitely deserved mention. Any movie with dinosaurs, needs to be recognized as such.
The movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is filled with little homages to old pulp magazines, old radio shows, old movies and a variety of other things. Let me take a moment to mention my favorite.
Near the beginning of the movie, Polly Perkins is in the phone booth. She’s reporting to her paper over the phone on the invasion of New York by the robots. Her dialogue closely mirrors that of the radio newscaster in the famous 1938 Orson Welles War of the Worlds broadcast.
Polly’s report: “It’s coming into sight now above the Palisades! They’re… they’re huge! They’re crossing Sixth Avenue. Fifth Avenue. A hundred… a hundred yards away.”
It’s not quite word-for-word from Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, but darn close. In the original radio broadcast, the lines were:
“Wait a minute. Enemy now in sight above the Palisades… crossing Sixth Avenue… Fifth Avenue… one hundred yards away… it’s fifty feet…”
Yes, a definite homage to the old Mercury Theater broadcast. And there were lots more, too, which I won’t mention. What did you notice? Let’s compare notes!
Now it’s nitpicking time. Twice during this movie someone refers to “World War I.” As I understand it, in 1939 it was referred to as “The Great War.” They didn’t start numbering the world wars until they had a second one. And in 1939, only part of the world was at war, not the whole world. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Having read the novelization, I knew how it ended. I knew I’d hear Sky Captain say “Lens cap.” So I was watching as Polly took her last picture. And I swear the lens cap was already off, not still on. There was a previous scene that showed Polly removing her lens cap. It was a big black bulky thing that you couldn’t overlook. And it wasn’t in the final scene. Honest! Did anyone else notice that, or do I need to go back and watch it again and pay closer attention?
So what would I change? Maybe add a dash more humor. There were a few humorous moments where the audience laughed. But I felt it could use a few more. Not many, just a few.
I think it was film critic Roger Ebert who said that this film gave him the same feeling as when he first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. And I’ve got to agree. The hour and 45 minutes just whizzed by. I left the theater exhilarated.
The theater at my local 10-plex was only showing Sky Captain in one auditorium. And it was packed completely full for my showing. Hopefully, other showings will be as full; the movie will make money, and we’ll get to see more of Sky Captain in future sequels (and prequels). Maybe even some similarly themed pulpish/serialish movies. (Can you say Doc Savage?)
Kudos to the writers, producers and actors. They made me happy. The spirit of pulp lives in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow!
I saw this when it first came out and had a ball! Another homage with the robots was the Superman cartoon from 1941, The Mechanical Monsters – https://youtu.be/z9TA5xP6DU0
Another thing, for 2004, that I was impressed with was the Orson Wells bit (don’t want to say more for spoilers-sake).
Those early 40s Superman cartoons from the Fleischer brothers were the absolute best! Since they were in public domain, I can’t tell you how many DVD copies I had to buy, looking for the best quality possible. They were finally studio-released, and are superb quality. A search happily ended.
“The Mechanical Monsters” was always one of my favorite Superman cartoons. So when I saw the movie trailer for Sky Captain, and the flying robot recreation was prominently displayed, I recognized it immediately. I knew this was a movie I would love. And it didn’t let me down.
Okay, I’m not commenting on “Sky Captain” but I’m curious; which DVD or blu-ray do you think is the best version of Fleischer’s Superman cartoons? I’ve been disappointed with all of them to some degree. The blu-ray was visually beautiful but I found the audio annoying and distracting.
I’ve gone through so many versions of these that’s it’s hard to remember the version that finally satisfied me. I remember buying VHS tapes of the Fleischer Superman cartoons, only to be disappointed in the quality. I bought a laserdisc version, which I remember was an improvement. Then they started coming out with DVDs and I bought more versions of Superman on DVD than I can remember. Always seeking the best quality, and always being not quite satisfied.
I think my quest was finally over when the Fleischer Superman’s were released, not separately, but as part of a Superman movie collection… an official Warner Home Video release. Now keep in mind it’s been years since I watched those (something I gotta do again), but if memory serves, that’s the version that was my last. I figured it wouldn’t get much better.
Have you seen the Warner Home Video release of the 5 Superman films containing the complete Fleischer collection? Does that jibe with my questionably vague memory?
Thanks for your quick response. I don’t have the movie collection–just the first two movies on blu-ray. I thought that the franchise was getting a little bit ridiculous after that point. For now, I guess I will have to be content with the less-than-perfect DVD or the visually excellent-but-over-top audio blu-ray collection!
I was disappointed. I really thought there was no chemistry at all between the leads. In fact I thought the acting was pretty wooden over-all. Still it was a good time and certainly had that pulp feel to it. For me the ultimate pulp movie is still Raiders of the Lost Ark. I would also rate the John Carter movie higher than Sky Captain because I thought the acting and the script was better. (I mean, “Sky Captain”? That’s the name they settled on? That was the lamest name I’d ever heard on strewn until James Cameron decided to call his miracle mineral “Unobtainium” in Avatar. Sheesh)
” That was the lamest name I’d ever heard on SCREEN” I hate auto-correct.
Were you disappointed as you watched the movie, or was it weeks — maybe months — later, after you started thinking about it? It puts me in mind of reading a Spider pulp. As I’m reading it, I’m loving it. But after I’ve finished and a little time has passed, I start thinking it wasn’t as good as I originally thought. I start remembering characters who mysteriously disappeared mid-story. I start thinking of plot elements that didn’t mesh. At the time I was reading the story, I was swept up in the excitement. It was only later that I started to recognize its flaws.
Raiders of the Lost Ark. I gotta agree with you, that’s the ultimate pulp movie. I’m hearing the theme music in my head as I write this.
I was disappointed AS I watched the movie. The effects were very good and I loved the tips of the hat to various things from my childhood. I really thought “These two are in love?” because it seemed like one of those Bugs Bunny jokes – We’re in love – Why? – because it says so, right here in the script!
So the characters were a big problem, even Angelina Jolie seemed to be phoning in her performance, even though she was still much better than Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law.
I often review movie previews as “must see” or “it can wait until it’s on Netflix”. I immediately had buyer’s remorse with Sky Captain, since I go out to movies only a few times a year, and I could have gone to see something else on the big screen that year.
Really amazing what was accomplished on green screen sets. Beautiful looking and ground breaking in many ways.
One homage after another. So, it was fun and a celebration of a style we pulpy geeks enjoy.
I agree that some of anachronisms were a bother. I recently read “black eyed blonde”, a new Philip Marlowe novel, and it was so loaded with anachronisms that I tossed the book across the room. (It sounded very much like a bat fluttering through the air before smacked into the far wall and left a nice dent…)
As usual, I enjoyed your write-up, John.
This was the first film to so extensively use green screen technology. And it was widely touted as such, in advance of the film’s release. So I was curious to see the movie for that reason, in addition to everything else. As I sat in the theater and watched it, I was partially distracted as I marveled at what they had accomplished without physical sets… even though the scenery admittedly seemed a little soft-focused. Although I was trying to concentrate on the story, in the back of my mind I was constantly intrigued by “how they did it.”
And now a decade later, we take all this for granted, and even low-budget TV shows regularly use digital effects. How quickly things change!
On YouTube, you can view Conran’s original “Sky Captain” short that the movie was based on. In it, when the mystery man crosses out Vargas’ name on the list, three other crossed out names are Dr. Max Fleischer, Dr. Dave Fleischer (yep, the brothers who made “Superman and the Mechanical Monsters”! It was the first Fleischer Superman I ever saw.) and Dr. George Petty, after the great 40s pin-up artist!
It’s well worth six minutes of your life to watch this most excellent YouTube video. I recommend it to everyone. Just search for “Sky Captain Original Short” and get ready for thrills and excitement.
The movie was originally envisioned as a movie serial, with the chapters shown back-to-back to make a complete film. Even down to the chapter titles, cliffhangers and resolutions. But that concept was scrapped later in the development stage. I sure would like to have seen that version, since I often watch old movie serials in just that very manner.
I’m also a serial fan. Not much for when they compile the episodes together as one edited movie. I like the cliff-hangers.
Speaking of ;
Been watching the Buck Rogers serial with my daughter and, even at her young age, it was easy for her eyes to spot the elements later used in Star Wars and Star Trek. (Title scrolls, blaster design, communicators, and the transporter.) Even the explanation of how the transporter works is the same.
I, also, would have liked to have seen Sky Captain as a serial. If it were pitched today, instead of back then, the serialized version might have flown on Netflix or Amazon.
Wait, what’s that now? A Netflix series of Sky Captain? I love that idea! It seems like a natural fit, now that I think about it. Maybe ten episodes. Each with a cliffhanger. Boy, would I ever watch that!
Amazon might do it all right, too, but I’m a bit put off by “The Man in the High Castle”. I had great hopes when I heard they were doing that. But it failed to capture my interest, and I have yet to finish watching it. But I’d give them another chance if they picked up the Sky Captain idea.
Good thinking, there, John!