Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow will quickly take a place of choice in the Museum of Digital Special Effects, next to Jurassic Park, Twister and The Mask.
I tried to stay away from reading anything about that movie to not spoil my first impression when I finally watched it.
Of course the story is flat, the characters dull and the dialogs contrived. That was to be expected from the very premise of the movie. You could not get an hommage to 1940 movies to work if it had not been that way. People who complain about this are missing the point – this movie is not about storytelling, it is about sitting on a visual ride.
I had a great time just sit through it and enjoy the trip while trying to spot the many nods and references to classical sources.
The visual effects are simply stunning. Except for a couple of scenes, like when Cap’s plane is emerging to the surface of the water in the tropical island, it is difficult to remember that the sets are completely computer generated.
The soft blur applied to the images throughout the whole movie was a little intense at times (or maybe I am getting older and I am starting to lose my vision). It surely helped to blend in characters and sets, but it could have been more discrete at times.
It is actually refreshing for a while to sit through a story that is so openly discarding any consideration of gravity, acceleration, pressure, and other laws of physics. Unlike movies like Armageddon or Independance Day, which were misleadingly advertised as serious dramas, this one is fun to watch…. But then again, I loved ‘Mars Attacks’…