Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2005, DVD)

...Or The seven minute short film , created on a Mac with Photoshop, that grew and grew...and grew.

This film is one of those that never seemed to hit big news at the box office, and in truth, there are certain flaws which we will discuss. But the story of how this film was made may be as good a story as the film itself. The film itself is very artistically appealing, and that is enough for me to recommend it.

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY

Kerry Conran is a graduate of animation school, and comes from a family of artists including brother Kevin and sister Kirsten.
But this movie was first time film maker Kerry Conran s dream. He started messing with plug in effects and linking images on his Mac at least 7 years before this movie was fully created. At that point, it was an Indy film, and when he wanted to make it a feature length film, he brought with him the seven minute short flick he had created on the Mac. To help him with his vision, he had the help of his talented brother Kevin, a free lance artist and illustrator. Neither of the brothers could have fully imagined what would be a work of two or more years coming to the screen . The production for the film came when Kevin s wife showed the short to a friend who then contacted a producer. John Avnet (FRIED GREEN TOMATOES) , with the backing of his company Brooklyn Films, offered the initial financial support and promise to get the rest of the money needed. It looked like they could go ahead with the film.

The idea was so powerful, and the little short film so impressive, that the producer was able to sign on Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow, two stars that no one could have predicted would be interested. Paltrow claims it was the imagination shown in that seven minute flick that won her over, even before she had seen the script, and she agreed to work at an Indy wage.

Now having the backing and lining up the cast, Kerry Conran worked with Kevin Conran to fully realize the film visually before shooting the actual footage for the movie with the final cast. Using stand-ins they read it, created scenarios, went to work on biotronics and computer generated effects and essentially had a pre-production film to use as reference when actually shooting the scenes with the actors. The entire movie was shot on a sound stage in England, with blue screen. The actors are doing it cold, without props or background or actually having to travel to any of the parts of the world where the action takes place. Did it work? I would say it did, in spades. I never dreamed the entire movie was computer generated until I watched the bonus segments on the DVD.

The little Indy film they had imagined now had the backing of Paramount and 40 million (still a low budget compared to other films with less ambition)and a team of artists of at least one hundred people, most of whom were working cheap. The warehouse they rented for the artistic team was in the porn capital of California. The producer jokes No one can resist making a film in the porn capital , but it was the only space available for the budget. Without air conditioning, on refurbished equipment, the team worked hard, and did the job.

The entire film was shot in black and white, then painstakingly colored. This explains both the saturated muted look of the entire movie, which is sort of like seeing an old photo coming to life, as well the rare coherence of the whole piece. The color builds in saturation as the story develops. It is well constructed artistically. Unfortunately, the lack of bright colors and contrasts in the beginning, which is indeed beautiful, is almost too serene to keep someone s eyes riveted to the screen. The filming that required a live cast was done in 26 days.

What started out as sort of a family project required 8 pages of credits to list the full cast and crew. Because it was so intricately planned, there was little room for spontaneity. One has to believe that genius can sometimes be expressed through happy accidents, and this film is so rigidly structured there would be none of that.

CRITICISMS?

My only real criticism is that although the imagination required for this to work was impressive, even staggering, it comes out as a beautiful piece of work that just failed to grip me emotionally. Of course, it could just be me, or the fact that granniemose activated the sleep-o-meter at 7 minutes in, despite the fact that giant robots were crushing New York. I think Jude Law is gorgeous, I love the actor, but I don t see him as the hero you needed as SKY CAPTAIN in America. Even in 1939, would that have been a Brit? I don t think so. And Gwyneth Paltrow affects me the same way. Beautiful, talented and enthusiastic, she just seems too frail to survive the action here. Angelina Jolie, though, was appropriate for her part.
And Giovanni Ribisi was superb.

I have heard criticisms of this film in terms of chronology and on that score I don t agree. The year was 1939, and the place was New York. THE WIZARD OF OZ was up in Radio City. King Kong is scaling the Empire state building in the distance (this really is in the movie, at a distance, an inside joke). The criticism I noted (not here) wonders why it doesn t show the depression Well I don't know who rewrote history, but America was NOT in a depression in 1939. The other criticism is that there was no mention of the Nazis. Well it could be the writer/director decided not to take the stereotypical way. Or maybe he was trying to reflect the majority opinion of most Americans in 1939. We were isolationists. There was no instant CNN coverage, and the other side of the world was a long way away. On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to assume that WWI would have spawned some kooks with such grandiose views on how to rule the world that is the core of this film. In fact it did. But they were different than the one in this movie.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Little set building occurred, and the costumes, some doorways and weapons were about the only things manufactured. In nearly all the scenes the actors are required to imagine what would later be there, and the fact that the director knew every eye-line, and every single position of the characters to coordinate with the CGI effects in a testament to his ability to coordinate such an elaborate project so meticulously.

But the LOOK of the film was pretty much the domain of the Kevin Conran, who found examples of the art of the period and built a world that looked like that, all on paper. It helps that he has exceptional talent, and this type of art deco art and design is beautiful, identifiable with the period, and by far one of my favorite looks in art history. There are elements of Lang s Metropolis, (without the overflowing angst) Indiana Jones, John Wayne (although not so much with Jude Law in the cast) Lois Lane, and other well known iconoclastic heroes in the characters, deliberately added by the Conrans , but the overall look of things from the city skyline to the costume design came from the imagination of Kevin Conran. Kevin immersed himself in this project, and in many ways he is as responsible for the result as his brother was for coming up with the idea., and writing the script.

CINEMATOGRAPHY-

If it had been done on location , it would have been stunning to see these parts of the world so fully displayed. But the art is actually better than the photography, and nearly everything was manipulated after the fact to sew the project together, including the nuances of lighting. I think it was extremely well done, even though the cinematographer did not have Conrans entire vision with which to work Eric Adkins is listed as the Cinematographer.

MUSIC

There is a soundtrack to this movie, and it is a nice mix that goes well enough with the film that it doesn t distract us from what is going on and does enhance the heroic sequences. It is credited to Edward Shearmur(WIMBLEDON).


THE STORY

If you have any interest in watching the film I don t want to ruin this for you. The year is 1939, the place is New York, or conceivably, an alternative New York. Polly Perkins is an ambitious journalist for a big newspaper. In the opening scene the Hindenburg is docking in New York, and a man visibly nervous, disembarks. Then the headlines read Scientist disappears . Polly has a mysterious meeting with a giuy at Radio City Music Hall. He claims to be the missing scientist, part of a group headed by a mysterious Dr. Totemkopf. As they are speaking , New York is attacked by giant robots , and the scientist is killed, but not without releasing some tiny steel vials, which Polly puts in her bag. Nothing phases these robots, bullets bounce off and they continue wreaking havoc, globally. The call goes out to Sky Captain, a private entrepreneur, and hero, to investigate and solve the problem. The inventive genius that works with Sky Captain, is his buddy Dex. When the robots come to Sky Captain s headquarters, Dex is kidnapped. This brings Sky Captain, and his old girlfriend Polly Perkins, together, and they go off to save the world.

DVD EXTRAS

There are 3 short features in addition to two separate film commentaries, one by producer John Avnet and the other by Kerry Conran and the Special Effects supervisor, Steve Yamamoto. The commentaries offer different points of view on the story of the film, if that interests you. The short features are well worth a look, to see essential background of the finished product. There are also a series of deleted scenes, a gag reel, and Kevin Conran s further discussion of his art for the film.


CAST AND PERFORMANCES

(Note, this is a pretty full cast list, but the ones that count are mainly Law, Paltrow,Jolie, Ribisi and to a lesser extent, Bai Ling and Olivier. Kerry shot extras on the film individually on blue screen so he could play with them later. )


Gwyneth Paltrow as Polly Perkins-I like Gwyneth, but I worried for her ankles every time I saw her running. She does kind of fit the look of the late thirties, and the business suit is marvelous. But I just don t see her as the feisty Polly Perkins, although like Jude Law, the character grew on me.

Jude Law as Sky Captain-I have been a fan of this actor at least since GATTICA. He was nominated for an Oscar for COLD MOUNTAIN , so I know he could have sounded like an American. Despite the persistent British character transfer, I found his performance in the long run to be fun, if nothing more, and I am sure it was much easier for him to be more himself in the role. I liked the fact that this character remains cool and unwilling to be pushed around by Polly.

Giovanni Ribisi as Dex-I really like this actor, and this character serves as the only one really smart enough to figure out what is going on. He delivers most of the good lines as well. Interestingly, he was never filmed live with the other cast members.
I first saw him in THE GIFT, a performance that earned him an Independent Spirit nomination.

Michael Gambon as Editor Paley-Last seen in GOSFORD PARK (by me) , this is a tiny role as he warns Polly not to go meet the mysterious caller.

Bai Ling as Mysterious Woman-This is the character that shows up with the various robot warriors, and she is a formidable martial arts opponent, although I don t think that is her MO as an actress. Never says a word, and doesn t need to.

Omid Djalli as Kaji-This guy is apparently a natural comedian that kept the cast laughing in between takes.

Sir Laurence Olivier as Dr. Totemkopf-The archive footage is impressive as Olivier appears as the ultimate bad guy, a villain who wants to save the best of humanity by...oops. Almost told you.

Angelina Jolie as Franky-I love this actress and her role her both as a romantic rival for Sky Captain s affection and an impressive hero in her own right is probably the one true energetic spark that made this movie fun to watch. I even liked the British accent, which is of course appropriate for the RAF captain of the flying fortress.

Trevor Baxter as Dr. Jennings-this guy has a TV history in the UK and I had never seen him before. Oh well.

Julian Curry as Dr. Vargas-Ditto for this guy

Peter Law as Dr. Kessler-This is Jude Law s Dad. I wonder how Freudian it was for the young actor to watch his father be fried on film?

Jon Rumney as German Scientist-Hmm no bells are ringing here

Khan Bonfils as Creepy-this actor has been in STARS WARS and LARA CROFT (I forget which one) so you have seen him before. So what, you ask?

Samta Gyatso as Scary -may have been one of the extras hired as fill in by the Conrans

Louis Hilyer as Executive Officer-nothing here

Mark Wells as Communications Officer-this guy wants to be a director and is sort of known in the UK, I guess.

James Cash as uniformed officer-nothing

Tenzin Bhagen as Kalacakra Priest-first appearance on film

Thupten Tsondru as Dying old Man-him too

Matthew Grant Crewman 1-also this guy

Steve Morphew Crewman 2-this guy was the stand-in for Jude Law as well.

Nancy Crane as receptionist-worked before, not impressive

Stuart Milligan as Police Sergeant-this guy has a separate voice career

Paul Canter as Police Officer.-first appearance

Demetri Goritsas as Radio Operator-has done Tv work

William Hope as American Broadcaster-ditto

Stephen Cornicard as French Broadcaster-nada

Stephen Ballantyne as German Broadcaster-nein

Mido Himadi as soldier-nope, nothing here

Gerard Monaco as technician-who?

Chris Robson as Hindenburg porter-TV work, maybe

Matthew Coulter as Hindenburg Boy-nothing here

Merritt Yohnka as Construction worker-this guy has been a stuntman for many of the films you know and love.


FINALLY

This may not be the first or the only time an entire movie was generated on computer. But it was probably the lowest budget that ever produced 2000 CGI shots. I am far from an expert on this, but the film is beautiful to look at and I enjoyed it- I believe they were lucky to get Paltrow and Law to get people to see the film, if for no other reason, despite what I think about casting choices.

I was very impressed with the art that was done to bring this film about, and the story of the film from start to finish. When you realize that the live performances were essentially inserted into a tightly constructed animation, it is even more impressive. I don t expect you to take my word for it. You need to see it.

Maybe the best part of this movie is the fact that you can watch it and the kids can watch it. The heroes are good guys. The bad guys are impressive. The hero survives. What more do you need?