Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (not review)

[tree_and_leaf]

So... it's taken me this long to watch Sky Captain, even though I actually meant to see it at the flicks when it came out.

ETA: I was finally inspired to go and rent it, I should mention, by stumbling across legionseagle's excellent Fog on the Clyde. It's slashy, but the primary interest for me was the well plotted mystery and interesting characterisation, including a cameo by Lord Peter and Pickled Gherkins, who gets himself sent down in a manner that could only happen in the Sky Captain AU, but is nevertheless perfectly in character. Highly recommended!



Very enjoyable, though there are some biggish plot-holes, and I'm not sure about the animation technique: there were moments when some of the figures looked very unrealistic.

That said, the movie is a lot of fun, though the central character, a hard-nosed press photographer by the name of Polly Perkins (Gwynneth Paltrow) is somewhat unlikable. Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), the "Sky Captain" of the title, the leader of a bunch of mercenaries who rather struck me as International Rescue on a profit-making basis, made a good, honourable flying ace of fortune, struggling to defeat a plot to end the world in an alternate 1930s.† Jude law is astonishingly dishy with dark hair and a thirties parting, but I wish someone had made him pronounce 'Todtenkopf', the alias of the villain, correctly, as it drove me mad everytime he attempted it (and what was with the estuary accent?). I'm tempted to say that Angelina Jolie was miscast as Commander Franky Cook, but she actually did an excellent 1930s cut-glass accent and acted well - it was just difficult to buy her as British gentry, even one who had apparently run away to join the navy. On the other hand, the British Navy didn't exactly look like the Senior Service we all know and love, so I suppose we can over look that - and I'd rather have had Franky as heroine, anyway.

I would have liked to know more about the Evil Villain, who wanted to destroy and recreate the world, but we learned no more of him than that he had a dodgy war record and had abandoned all hope for humanity (the two things may, or may not, have been connected), but unfortunately he was played posthumously by a recording of Laurence Olivier reading the gloomier bits of the Old Testament. However, the dignity and nobility of Olivier's reading did succeed in giving us a villain absolutely convinced of his own righteousness, and rather saddend to be driven to such lengths, which makes an agreeable change from the gloating, no-Mr-Bond-I-expect-you-to-die type.

And as a keen amatuer photographer, I must admit that I did share Polly's pain during parts of the film, even though I deplore many of her moral choices throughout. Poor girl, though. If she'd had an Exacta the final disaster could have been avoided entirely, though I admit that waist level viewfinders have their disadvantages also.

/ photo nerd :)

†When, exactly, did airships become the standard indicator for alternate history?

Comments

[sophysduckling.livejournal.com]

though there are some biggish plot-holes,

Yes. Oh, Lord, are they huge. The times don't add up at all in the first part of the movie.

When, exactly, did airships become the standard indicator for alternate history?

When the (first) Hindenberg blew up, I think.

On a side note, the Empire State Building really does have a zeppelin dock on it.

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, Lord, are they huge. The times don't add up at all in the first part of the movie.

Bid enough to drive an airship through, perhaps?

On a side note, the Empire State Building really does have a zeppelin dock on it.

That's very cool - I assumed that was part of the alternate historyness.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Interesting report. I've been intending to watch the film in part so I can properly appreciate Fog on the CLyde (http://legionseagle.livejournal.com/) by legionseagle (complete with the Sayers crossover section), but was having problems bringing myself to bother with something starring Angelina Jolie, a woman who seems to occupy my mental blind spot re. understanding what on earth people see in her.

[tree_and_leaf]

Don't let her put you off. She's (a) better than I expected - and I don't muchliek her either - and (b) doesn't have much screen-time. I think the only reason that she gets a higher billing than Giovanni Ribisi, who plays the engineer, Dex, is that she's more famous - I'm pretty sure Dex has more screentime. Par for the course for Hollywood, I suppose.

[tree_and_leaf]

Incidentally, I can entirely see what legionseagle (and it was Fog on the Clyde which spurred me on to watch the film - I meant to mention that in my original post, but that's what you get for lj-ing when you're tired) means about about the slashy undertones. Though I think myself that it may just be because Joe obviously likes Dex, in a non-sexual sense, much more than he does Polly, and although I think we're supposed to feel that the bickering is a sign of sexual attraction, there is actually very little chemistry between the two actors. If I was going to write shippy fanfiction for he film, I'd be more inclined to go for Joe/ Franky, as long as I could blot out the image of Angelina Jolie from my imagination. However, I think I'll leave the fanfiction to other hands.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Clearly I am going to have to go for it (and Gherkin's Clyde cameo was deliciously funny).

[tree_and_leaf]

The cameo was brilliant - absolutely the sort of daft thing Jerry would do, but only possible in that universe, and giving rise to highly entertaining mental images.