Yes, well, let’s remember our manners, shall we? The awkwardly named Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow represents a ten-year labour of love for debut director Kerry Conran, and my goodness, doesn’t it show? A meticulously, lovingly crafted homage to the Art Deco aesthetic and early twentieth-century matinees, the film is entirely composed using only digital effects and actors, although Jude Law occasionally blurs the distinction between the two.
Unquestionably, it’s a spectacular noirish curtsey before Metropolis, Flash Gordon, Lost Horizon, King Kong, The Island Of Lost Souls and lord knows how many other movies, and its progressive state-of-the-art methodology even manages to resurrect Laurence Olivier for a Wizard Of Oz inspired cameo (I’m surely not the only person who finds this inordinately creepy).
There’s nothing terribly wrong with the plot either. Jude Law stars as a Biggles style hero out to save the planet from an army of sinister robots, aided by glamorous, reckless reporter Gwyneth Paltrow (check out her fabulous Veronica Lake tresses), boffin Giovanni Ribisi and the ludicrously accented Angeline Jolie (does this girl imagine she’s the queen?) whose blow-up doll features blend perfectly with the computer generated environs.
Alas, despite decent action sequences, the relentless artifice is just too cold to sustain a feature length film, and the obsession with style becomes something akin to being trapped in a lift with an obnoxious gaggle of clothes-horse trophy wives.
Something of a cinematic event then, but one I suspect will leave only academics and CGI anoraks actually moist with excitement.