Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow (HD-DVD)
Picture: B- Sound: B+* Extras: C- Feature: D
Kerry
Conrad made his feature debut with Sky
Captain & The World Of Tomorrow (2004), thanks to a six-minutes-long
short he managed to show to Gwyneth Paltrow.
She decided to take a risk and support the project of a feature version
to fruition. It did not work, but kin
the long run, it did not hurt her or co-stars Jude Law (so overexposed at the
time) and Angelina Jolie (who has succeeded him in media frenzy
popularity). The film is very screwy and
not in a good way, beginning with a German “Hindenburg II” docking in an
American-like city.
Nothing
is ever explained clearly in this mess of a production and the opening implies
something like the German’s winning WWII, or vat least making more progress in
winning that they did in real life. It
is the epitome of how dangerously loose the film plays with history, though the
brainwashed and apologists who don’t want to think (or want you to think) that it is “only a movie”
(harder to argue when all HD) and “only” entertainment. Both are a myth and all films have an
ideology, even when they are this loose.
Confused will not apply, because this is too shallow to have enough
substance to be incoherent. It also
leaves this in dangerously proto-fascist waters.
It turns
out giant robots are on a killing spree and the trio has to figure out who is
responsible. However, that storyline is
actually out of another short film, the classic animated Fleischer Superman short The
Mechanical Monsters, reviewed elsewhere on
this site. It has a much better script,
better action, good performances and is more memorable than this mess. However, competing with whatever ideology
this is coming from is the worst thing it could ever be as a feature, and that
is boring. It is eye candy at best that
falls flat very quickly. If this is the
world of tomorrow and you watch it, you will see the future and know it does
not work.
The 1.78
X 1 image was totally shot in digital High Definition and the 1080p version
here reveals something the 35mm film and lesser video versions failed to do,
and that is part of the image problem has to do with a purposely softened look
that is stylized to be “dreamlike” perhaps and eventually plays itself
out. It does not help the digital visual
effects look better, it never achieves a safer version of the surrealism of Sin City and cinematographer Eric
Adkins really does not do anything too memorable or original.
*The sound is the first time DTS HD has been offered on
any format and sounds good for as good as we could play it back, but no DTS HD
receiver/chip is available yet. There is
also the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix and it ironically is piggybacking on DTS chips
in many systems. We will revisit it for
sound later, but both sound decent, though we give the edge to DTS HD even
without the DTS HD chip. Edward
Shearmur’s music is nothing memorable, but the use of sound with machines can
be. This is the highlight by default
that keeps the disc from being a drink coaster.
Extras include the six-minute short that got the film
made, two audio commentary tracks, three HD trailers, a gag reel, deleted
scenes and three featurettes, one of which is in two parts. I did not much more interesting that the subject
they were covering, but they were slightly.
In the end, it made me want to see Universal put Russell Mulcahy’s The Shadow (1994) on HD-DVD
instead. At least it was more ambitious,
a bigger hit, a larger commercial success, felt more like its time period and
had a better script.
- Nicholas Sheffo
