Product Description

Paramount Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Blu-ray)
In this science fiction adventure set in the 1930s, New York City reporter Polly Perkins starts to investigate why so many famous scientists are being reported missing. Soon, she gets clues, as strange flying machines and giant robots threaten the city. Luckily, her old flame, aviator Captain Joseph Sullivan aka Sky Captain, is there to battle thebad guys with the Flying Legion, in his Warhawk P-40. Now Polly must fly away with Sky Captain to Nepal to find a crazy scientist, Dr. Totenkopf, whoapparently wants to destroy the world!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8474 in DVD
• Brand: Paramount
• Released on: 2008-06-03
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English, German, Tibetan
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 3.00 pounds
• Running time: 106 minutes

Amazon.com
While setting a milestone in the progress of digital filmmaking, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow resurrects a nostalgic fantasy world derived from a wide variety of vintage inspirations. It's a dazzling dream for anyone who appreciates the look and feel of golden-age sci-fi pulp magazines, drawing its unique, all-digital design from such diverse sources as Howard Hawks adventures, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Buck Rogers, Blackhawk comics, The Third Man, cliffhanger serials, and the action-packed Indiana Jones franchise. Writer-director Kerry Conran's feature debut is also guaranteed to inspire digital dreamers everywhere, suggesting a paradigm shift in the way CGI-dominated movies are made. It's a giddy adventure for the young and young-at-heart, in which ace pilot "Sky Captain" Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) and intrepid reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) must save the world from a mad scientist whose vision of the future has tragic implications for all humankind. Angelina Jolie drops in for a glorified cameo, but it's the ultra-fortunate neophyte Conran who's the star here. His clever riff on The Wizard of Oz is a marvel to behold, and the method of its creation is nothing less than revolutionary. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
At first, it might seem curious that the writer-director Kerry Conran chose to use his digital wizardry to re-create the look of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" and other Expressionist films, but the nineteen-twenties were a time when the language of film was in a fluid, experimental stage, as directors refined their use of montage, transparency, and camera effects. Now, with the increased realism of computer-generated images, directors like Conran seem propelled by a new sense of possibility about what can be accomplished onscreen. In any event, "Sky Captain" is an amazing technical achievement, seamlessly integrating A-list actors into an imaginary world-only, at times, one wishes that this world weren't so dark (literally). Would Conran's computer renderings seem fake in full daylight, or is his commitment to noir just a shade too extreme? His dedication to the celluloid past, however, is beyond question-among the plentiful homages, the immortal Laurence Olivier has a cameo from the crypt. The story is a pastiche of classic sci-fi adventures, with Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow as an aviator and reporter on the trail of a doomsday cult. If the movie is powered more by its rousing, brassy score than by its emotional connections, the slack is taken up by the continuous revelation of Conran's visual inventions. -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Technically and stylisitcally intersting but falls very flat
This is hard movie to rate, it's interesting to see once for the FX, for the designs, for the production. It was one of the first films to use a 'digital backlot' with almost no sets or props just blue screens and computers.

The idea is also fun, it's a homage to 30s serials with a high-flying ace in his super plane and a spunky reporter tagging along as he travels to lost civilizations and battles a mad scientist.

But Sky Captain is horribly miscast, Jude Law sleepwalks through this never having fun, never bringing any energy to the part. A film like this calls for an over-acting scenery-chewing he-man instead it gets a calm, polite understated Englishman.

Calling Sky Captain! Repeat, calling Sky Captain !
Cornball plot but cool movie nonetheless. Although Gwyneth Paltrow, as Polly Perkins acts and talks like she's spaced-out (i.e. reading from a script) like she tends to do in a lot of her movies. Jude Law's (Sky Captain) voice somehow always seems to grate on me.

The digital special effects seem to take one back to another time in film-making (yeah, I know). Though the acting was rather stiff; especially from Angelina Jolie, it was a fun adventure film. Funny also with Gwyneth Paltrow and her camera; deciding whether or not to take a shot, knowing full well she's almost out of film.

The "robot monsters" were pretty cool. But it was kind of stupid that Sky Captain was flying a "prop job" (P-40) with some "futuristic hardware" that didn't go with the airplane.

Giovanni Ribisi plays Dex, the chewing gum chomping stereotype of a mechanical wiz that's a throwback from the "old movies" - yeah, I know, that's the way it was meant to be. But he over-acted to the point of being very annoying.

Surprisingly good
Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is perhaps the first film whose computer special effects wizardry was trotted out as a reason to see it that I can honestly say is a good film, a very good film. Are there films that bowl one over more impressively? Yes. But this film is virtually all special effects, and was filmed on a blue screen soundstage. The texture of the film, the lighting, and the iconographic imagery, as well as stylistic techniques, all evoke the feel of 1930s-1950s era science fiction films, especially the serial films of that period.
First time director Kerry Conran does a marvelous job of recreating the feel of when the world was still large and dark and fearsome, in this late 2004 film, even more so than Peter Jackson did in last year's late sci fi entry King Kong. Where that film was a remake of a classic sci fi film from that era, this film is an homage, and it succeeds all the more for it. Perhaps the only thing that could have made it more rollicking was the use of chapter breaks, which the DVD commentaries say was tried, but ultimately cut out of the final cut of the film, which is only 95 minutes long, and moves briskly. The plot is threadbare, but that's perfect for this action oriented sci fi serial homage. The pre-World war Two world is being decimated by giant flying robots who steal all manner of industrial equipment. New York is laid waste, and reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) has a lead as to who may be behind it all.
Yet, as referential as it is, the film establishes its own identity, with repartee between Polly and Joe hinting at a romantic past that went kaput, and their banter about her only having two photograph shots left, add quite a bit to characterization, in an offhanded way. Paltrow evokes the sort of heroine a Faith Domergue played in many such films. There are also many small touches that enhance scenes and characters, such as when Polly and Joe land on the Totenkopf's island, she notices that the reflection of his plane's serial number h110d spells Polly, in the reflected water, or the excellent use of scenes from The Wizard Of Oz in Radio City Music Hall, as Polly questions a scared scientist. Almost every scene has such details that subliminally enhance the overall work. Compared to Steven Spielberg's lame Indiana Jones serial homage film series from twenty years ago, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow shows how to do it right, using special effects as an integral part of the tale, not just for a wow factor. It will be interesting to see, if after a decade making this film, Conran is only a one hit wonder, or a true young stud of cinema. He's already shown he has a better visual style than Spielberg, and certainly a better understanding for character and plot, for he knows that such beautiful fluff plays best when played straight.