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ldhensonI finally got to see Sky Captain in its entirety (the theater blew a fuse during my first attempt).
It's official: It's my new favorite movie of the year.
(Special mention to Hero, though. I really thought that would be it. It's beautifully-shot and underlaid with a layered plot, and the fight scenes are breath-taking. Tony Leung is a particular strong point. But something, ultimately, failed to connect with me to make it truly satisfying. If I had to (reluctantly) point to any one thing, it would be Jet Li's character, who looked great on paper but who, on screen, just didn't ignite the the kind of interest his background and story warranted. As Nameless is the linchpin around which the rest of the narrative turns, this made the entire edifice shaky for me. I admire Hero, but I adore Sky Captain.)
Now, Sky Captain isn't flawless, but I walked out of that theater feeling like I'd had a solid 110 minutes of good old-fashioned fun, and that my nine bucks had been very well-spent. That the people behind this movie love movies is evident in every single frame and sound effect, and all their hard work has paid off.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know this movie is CGI- and stylization-heavy, but the triumph is that it's no mere gimmick. The visuals--airbrushed, desaturated, and luminous--have a delicate, nearly translucent quality, as though the events that take place just barely missed being captured by this medium. And they are simply stunning. It's not just that airships look like airships and giant robots look like giant robots; it's that every frame has been carefully weighed and composed with an artistic eye. Someone on IMDB describes it as "stylistically pure with a uncompromising and utterly stunning esthetic," and I couldn't have said it better myself.
That aesthetic, to our great fortune, extends to more than just the visuals.
The characters and story are in on it as well, this rich distillation of the old 1930s Saturday matinee serials. The story moves quickly from locale to increasingly more exotic locale, with twists and humor and near-misses. I might wish that the adventure didn't contain quite so many deus ex machina last-minute saves: the unlocking of the dynamite-room door, the appearance in Shambala, Dex showing up in the hovercraft. (Although, having said that, I'll give passes to all three: the opened door amusingly undercuts the desperate blow-the-lock gamble; the Shambala bit is unforgettable; and Dex's re-appearance gives Cap reason to hug him, which caused some guy in our audience to overdub Dex's line next with a deadpan "I love you, too.") The strange animals on Totenkopf's island are probably the only real disappointment, since much potential danger is hinted at (the huge thing in the lake, the giant winged creature, the monstrous sabre-tooth at the end of the chain) but our heroes don't actually seem to run into any. The plot was great fun, kept me on the edge of my seat, and didn't break its own rules, which is all that I can ask for.
The characters aren't particularly deep, but so be it. They aren't really required to be. I liked them just fine--larger-than-life heroes with enough small moments to keep them human and (very) appealing (with the exception of Polly, saddled with the "woman who stupidly withholds crucial evidence for selfish reasons but is never really remorseful about it"/"nosy investigative reporter" aspect--though her mostly-unfazed reaction to the various near-death escapades redeems her to some extent). Sky Captain's three-word justification to Franky for his asking her to put her entire base at risk--"They've got Dex"--and her sober capitulation to this speak plenty enough about the characters' backstory to carry them through that turn of the plot. It's spare, it's elegant, and frankly, it was all I needed to know at the time.
The script is similarly lean when it comes to backstory for the world in which this takes place. In an incredibly wise move, there's no introductory crawl or voiceover explaining the setup. The world at the start of the film is mostly familiar, but gradually reveals its differences, and it's up to the viewer to keep up. The first time you hear about Sky Captain is the first time you see him; you piece it together from there. There's a line later about him and his legion being mercenaries, and again later Cap says Dex had a hand in designing Franky's mobile airbase; that's enough right there to explain the existence of Cap's expensive island HQ, and the movie doesn't waste time trying to give us more.
Back to the visuals. I've seen some reviews express concern that any movie with CGI sets must inherently be flat, cold, and unconvincing. While I concede that this is a pitfall that CGI needs to watch out for, I also have to say that this isn't always necessarily true. Are all animated features flat and lifeless? Why would that be any more true of a partially-animated feature? Honestly, that's where the artist's eye comes in. This film successfully transcends that issue. In fact, I didn't even know, while watching the film twice, that practically everything except the actors, small hand-held props, and the Captain's cockpit are real. I found only a few scenes which shouted--unintentionally--"CGI!"--the rest of the time, I was simply content to watch the world unfold.
Jude Law, if I may get a bit shallow here for a moment, was a revelation. I have never really warmed up to Law. Looks-wise, he is not my type; I have never found him even remotely attractive. The first time I saw him, which was in Wilde, I was dismayed that he was the cause of all that anguished fuss. But this time? The moment he first took off his flight goggles, my jaw was on the floor. It wasn't so much that he'd transformed his looks; it was that he had slipped so perfectly into the role of the dashing hero pilot that I was won over without another thought. Same thing goes for Angelina Jolie, who has so much presence here I wish she had a larger role, though perhaps the running time would not have stood for it. Giovanni Ribisi's Dex quickly became a favorite, but I admit to a soft spot for loyal partners. And yes, Dex played a crucial factor in my getting to like the Captain; when he more or less ordered Dex to take on the huge task of analyzing the damaged robot, then paused to soften it with a "You don't mind, do you?," he won me over.
But the best thing about this movie, the glue that holds it together, is the exhilaration that pervades every minute of it. The film is positively giddy about playing up its classic cinema roots...and it has the solid talent to back that indulgence up.
In short, the best experience I've had in a theater all year.
It's official: It's my new favorite movie of the year.
(Special mention to Hero, though. I really thought that would be it. It's beautifully-shot and underlaid with a layered plot, and the fight scenes are breath-taking. Tony Leung is a particular strong point. But something, ultimately, failed to connect with me to make it truly satisfying. If I had to (reluctantly) point to any one thing, it would be Jet Li's character, who looked great on paper but who, on screen, just didn't ignite the the kind of interest his background and story warranted. As Nameless is the linchpin around which the rest of the narrative turns, this made the entire edifice shaky for me. I admire Hero, but I adore Sky Captain.)
Now, Sky Captain isn't flawless, but I walked out of that theater feeling like I'd had a solid 110 minutes of good old-fashioned fun, and that my nine bucks had been very well-spent. That the people behind this movie love movies is evident in every single frame and sound effect, and all their hard work has paid off.
Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you know this movie is CGI- and stylization-heavy, but the triumph is that it's no mere gimmick. The visuals--airbrushed, desaturated, and luminous--have a delicate, nearly translucent quality, as though the events that take place just barely missed being captured by this medium. And they are simply stunning. It's not just that airships look like airships and giant robots look like giant robots; it's that every frame has been carefully weighed and composed with an artistic eye. Someone on IMDB describes it as "stylistically pure with a uncompromising and utterly stunning esthetic," and I couldn't have said it better myself.
That aesthetic, to our great fortune, extends to more than just the visuals.
The characters and story are in on it as well, this rich distillation of the old 1930s Saturday matinee serials. The story moves quickly from locale to increasingly more exotic locale, with twists and humor and near-misses. I might wish that the adventure didn't contain quite so many deus ex machina last-minute saves: the unlocking of the dynamite-room door, the appearance in Shambala, Dex showing up in the hovercraft. (Although, having said that, I'll give passes to all three: the opened door amusingly undercuts the desperate blow-the-lock gamble; the Shambala bit is unforgettable; and Dex's re-appearance gives Cap reason to hug him, which caused some guy in our audience to overdub Dex's line next with a deadpan "I love you, too.") The strange animals on Totenkopf's island are probably the only real disappointment, since much potential danger is hinted at (the huge thing in the lake, the giant winged creature, the monstrous sabre-tooth at the end of the chain) but our heroes don't actually seem to run into any. The plot was great fun, kept me on the edge of my seat, and didn't break its own rules, which is all that I can ask for.
The characters aren't particularly deep, but so be it. They aren't really required to be. I liked them just fine--larger-than-life heroes with enough small moments to keep them human and (very) appealing (with the exception of Polly, saddled with the "woman who stupidly withholds crucial evidence for selfish reasons but is never really remorseful about it"/"nosy investigative reporter" aspect--though her mostly-unfazed reaction to the various near-death escapades redeems her to some extent). Sky Captain's three-word justification to Franky for his asking her to put her entire base at risk--"They've got Dex"--and her sober capitulation to this speak plenty enough about the characters' backstory to carry them through that turn of the plot. It's spare, it's elegant, and frankly, it was all I needed to know at the time.
The script is similarly lean when it comes to backstory for the world in which this takes place. In an incredibly wise move, there's no introductory crawl or voiceover explaining the setup. The world at the start of the film is mostly familiar, but gradually reveals its differences, and it's up to the viewer to keep up. The first time you hear about Sky Captain is the first time you see him; you piece it together from there. There's a line later about him and his legion being mercenaries, and again later Cap says Dex had a hand in designing Franky's mobile airbase; that's enough right there to explain the existence of Cap's expensive island HQ, and the movie doesn't waste time trying to give us more.
Back to the visuals. I've seen some reviews express concern that any movie with CGI sets must inherently be flat, cold, and unconvincing. While I concede that this is a pitfall that CGI needs to watch out for, I also have to say that this isn't always necessarily true. Are all animated features flat and lifeless? Why would that be any more true of a partially-animated feature? Honestly, that's where the artist's eye comes in. This film successfully transcends that issue. In fact, I didn't even know, while watching the film twice, that practically everything except the actors, small hand-held props, and the Captain's cockpit are real. I found only a few scenes which shouted--unintentionally--"CGI!"--the rest of the time, I was simply content to watch the world unfold.
Jude Law, if I may get a bit shallow here for a moment, was a revelation. I have never really warmed up to Law. Looks-wise, he is not my type; I have never found him even remotely attractive. The first time I saw him, which was in Wilde, I was dismayed that he was the cause of all that anguished fuss. But this time? The moment he first took off his flight goggles, my jaw was on the floor. It wasn't so much that he'd transformed his looks; it was that he had slipped so perfectly into the role of the dashing hero pilot that I was won over without another thought. Same thing goes for Angelina Jolie, who has so much presence here I wish she had a larger role, though perhaps the running time would not have stood for it. Giovanni Ribisi's Dex quickly became a favorite, but I admit to a soft spot for loyal partners. And yes, Dex played a crucial factor in my getting to like the Captain; when he more or less ordered Dex to take on the huge task of analyzing the damaged robot, then paused to soften it with a "You don't mind, do you?," he won me over.
But the best thing about this movie, the glue that holds it together, is the exhilaration that pervades every minute of it. The film is positively giddy about playing up its classic cinema roots...and it has the solid talent to back that indulgence up.
In short, the best experience I've had in a theater all year.
