{"id":278,"date":"2016-01-29T10:00:58","date_gmt":"2016-01-29T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/?p=278"},"modified":"2016-01-16T15:22:28","modified_gmt":"2016-01-16T20:22:28","slug":"sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/2016\/01\/29\/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Poster<\/a>
Poster for the movie, showing the flying robots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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:<\/p>\n

I just got back from seeing Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow<\/em> 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<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

The plot, summarized for any of you who haven’t seen the film, involves ace-pilot Sky Captain<\/strong>, whose real name is… er… uh… I don’t know. I’m told his name is Joe Sullivan<\/strong>, but I guess I missed that part. Anyway, there’s also his sidekick, Dex<\/strong>, and Polly Perkins<\/strong>, 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!<\/p>\n

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<\/em> go to see a movie more than once. But I might see this one a second time. It’s that good.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Sky<\/a>
Sky Captain, as played by Jude Law.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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).<\/p>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Giovanni<\/a>
Giovanni Ribisi played Dex.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong> War of the Worlds<\/em> broadcast.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not quite word-for-word from Orson Welles’ infamous 1938 War of the Worlds<\/em> broadcast, but darn close. In the original radio broadcast, the lines were:<\/p>\n

“Wait a minute. Enemy now in sight above the Palisades… crossing Sixth Avenue… Fifth Avenue… one hundred yards away… it’s fifty feet…”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Polly<\/a>
Polly Perkins, played by Gwyneth Paltrow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

SPOILER ALERT<\/em><\/div>\n

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?<\/p>\n

END SPOILER<\/em><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>
These robots could fly!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think it was film critic Roger Ebert<\/strong> who said that this film gave him the same feeling as when he first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark.<\/em> And I’ve got to agree. The hour and 45 minutes just whizzed by. I left the theater exhilarated.<\/p>\n

The theater at my local 10-plex was only showing Sky Captain<\/em> 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<\/a><\/strong>?)<\/p>\n

Kudos to the writers, producers and actors. They made me happy. The spirit of pulp lives in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"That's Pulp! looks at 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.' #pulpmags #scifi #movieserials","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[82,84,81,83,80,79],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-pulp","tag-dex","tag-dinosaurs","tag-polly-perkins","tag-robots","tag-sky-captain","tag-sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/files\/2015\/12\/SkyCaptain3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6SOGR-4u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions\/337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/thatspulp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}