Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow!!





Hot! just off the Press!!

I just came back from watching the above movie, Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow, starring Jude Law, Gweneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. I watched at Sun Plaza, Eng Wah Cinemas!

Okok, ive got alot of things to say about the movie, since this is the most anticipated movie so far this year! Let me calm down and organise my thoughts...

Ok.. first off, this is how the story goes:

The movie, i would categorised as Science Fiction. But more accurately, Alternate History, meaning that the movie takes place in real events around the world in the past with some alterations to its history. This movie, takes place post WWI. However, the world is plague by these mysterious huge robots and mechanical birds that terrorises cities throughout the world. When these mechanical robots attack, they dont destroy the city until it ceases to exist, instead the robots, masterminded by this mysterious person called Dr. Totenkopf, attack the cities for one sole purpose. To get equipments ranging from power generators, to uranium, to oil from these countries. Once they get what they wanted, they would leave, leaving no trace of their origin. He is building something that will destroy earth.

Polly Perkins (Gweneth Paltrow) is a newspaper reporter working for The Chronicles in New York City. She was for a while investigating on this group of scientists who has more or less a relation to their project that they were embarking on 30 years ago. However she realised that one by one, they were either getting killed or went missing. So as she was called upon the last surviving scientist, the scientist told her that he is in danger and that Dr. Totenkopf, whoever that is, is searching for something that he possessed. However during the meeting, the city was under attack by robots.

That is where Sky Captain (Jude Law) comes in. He is part of a mercenery group whose sole aim is to track down who sent these robots and to neutralise them if they happened to attack the city.

And on the story went about Sky Captain named Joe i think, and Polly Perkins, ever hungry quest to find out about the missing scientists who are related to this Dr. Totenkopf. They went to many places, finally reaching tibet, and Shangri La, the legendary place of paradise in, on a plateau surrounded by snowcapped mountains. Their sole purpose is to stop watever this evil doctor is building that is dubbed, the countdown machine.

so this is just a generally the outline of the whole story. I would not indulge further than that for the sake of spoiler issues. I will also not tell what that evil doctor is up to as soon youll find out about it when you watch it in theaters.

Now, on to the technical aspects of the movie. The movie was directed by Kerry Conran, in his first ever debut film and i must say that new directors like him, certainly has the guts to do something this big! The special effects, the overall atmosphere of the film, making it look like a classic, yet it is not, really deserve this director credits for his incredible work. Watching this movie is like watching a classical movie in the 40's, yet feeling modern with all the special effects and all the modern action. It really tingles your visual senses and this is what makes the movie unique. It lets you open your eyes to feast on the incredible special effects that feels soo natural.

Furthermore, the movie is that kind of feeling like as if you are reading a comic book. Im serious! It was certainly a unique experience. Its like watching the pages of the comic book flipped by on the big screen! It was a wonderful wonderful feeling. The movie setting that takes place post WWI was depicted fairly accurately. Youll see planes that are of that age and youll also see technologies that were used during that era but also have that modern look with all the robots and mechanical birds etc.

Not only does the atmosphere of the movie makes this movie great, but also the imagery of the entire movie. What do i mean by that? You know, when watching a sci fi movie, or a movie with lots of special effects, say, Star Wars, you expect to have loads of special effects AND colour. However, this movie is one of the most unique movie ive ever watched in terms of the post production of the colour of the entire movie. Let me give you an example:

This is a particular scene in the movie,

Anatomy of a Shot:
Early in the film, Sky Captain (Jude Law) and Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) break into a lab looking for clues to the disappearance of several notable world scientists, and find more (and less) than they bargained for.

In this shot, the actors play the scene against a blue screen.



A computer-generated 3D virtual set, with tiny pachyderm, but no actors.



A complete black-and-white composite of the shot.



The final shot, with color washed over the black-and-white composite to create the film's unique look.





See what i mean. you dont get to see the picture in its full spectrum of colours as vivid as you might expect. Instead, you get a soft yellow brownish, tinge to the picture, making it look like you are watching a classic throughout the entire movie. Amazing isnt it!? Its certainly a break from all the movies that youve watched and all the same of colour and same all special effects. It pays to break from that routine once in a while. Something of this fresh concept couldnt get any fresher.

Another aspect that i like to bring up in this movie that i noticed in addition to using the above techinique to make this movie unique is lighting. I cannot stress this enough but let me tell you, this movie, has one of its most excellent use of lighting ive ever seen. Certain scenes are generally quite dark, however, the use of lighting at specific spots for atmosphere is crucial in dark scenes and this movie has perfected that technique! For example, you know that this movie has a classical feel to it and when they act, the lights normally gets focused in the areas around the eyes to emphasize the person's emotion. The excellent use of lighting has really made this movie an eye candy for audiences and one that catches my attention easily.

Let me give you an example, in this picture when Polly Perkins is aboard his plane:


Here you can see the excellent use of lighting to show the face of Polly Perkins as well as the rays of light coming through, hitting Joe's jaw. The lighting looks very natural yet it emphasized soo accrately.

Another example:

Another good example is when both of them are hiding and peering at something. Not much light enters, but you can see that the light focues on the upper portion of the girls eye to emphasize trepidation in her as well as her cheeks as well as her hair that shines. Behind her, Joe, you can see the subtle use of lighting in him just enough to see the generall ouline of his nose, his forehead and lips. You can see excellent use of lighting.


The actors assigned for the roles are perfect. Gweneth Paltrow as a reporter, certainly looks like one and acts like one. Jude Law, as a charimastic, cool, handsome and skillful pilot, nickenamed, Sky Captain and lots more other casts are just as fantastic. Its every person's dream to be like him, cool, charismatic, but not egoistic. I certainly feel that way, and this movie has accomplished that job of luring audiences to be like anyone of the maltitude of actors that youll see in this movie.

Lastly, i would like to comment on the soundtrack and music. Normally i dont do this because its either the soundtrack doesnt make enough impact on the movie, or its not applicable. But this i must say, that the soundtrack, though not my favourite its really fitting for this kind of movie. Fully orchestrated, loud and has that patriotic tone, almost that kind of soundtrack you hear in Spiderman 2, where youll hear, good truimph and evil loses that sort of tune. Generally it really complimented the movie ALOT and adds to the overall ambience to the movie. Kudos! I might buy the album.

I rate this movie 5 out of a maximum 5 stars! Must watch! This movie must AT LEAST be nominated for best special effects in next year's Oscar.