sky captain

I stopped by Cinescape this week. A self-professed guilty pleasure as it’s nothing more than a den for ads and sloppy seconds coming from either AICN or Dark Horizons; take your pick. I caught word that the trailer for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow will be hitting theatres and the inter-web next week, a movie I hadn’t even heard about until now. I’m pretty sure Angelina Jolie needs to fire her agent, because the eyepatch looked cool on Johnny Depp for a reason - he's a fucking pirate. Jolie looks like a rejected comic-book villain; it's about as embarassing as when she sported that spandex uni-tard for the sequel to Tomb Raider, forming the duology of films that will only be remembered for their complete perversion of an extremely popular license. Sky Captain piqued my interest because it seems to borrow generously from established settings like Crimson Skies and The Rocketeer. The Rocketeer is probably one of the most underrated films of the early 1990s – it successfully captured the "gee whiz" feel of the science fiction pulp magazines and comic books of the 30s and 40s. However I don’t think I’ve been frightened so much by Timothy Dalton’s acting since I saw him fencing in tights in Flash Gordon.

The movie takes place in the 1930s, and follows the adventures of a swashbuckling airman known as Sky Captain (played by Jude Law) as he tries to foil the plans of a mad scientist trying to take over the world. Awesome, an original storyline! The feature is directed by first timer Kerry Conran, and my expectations are minimal at best. Probably the same as when I saw the trailer for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Update: The trailer is available here. The effects are hopelessly uninspired and the movie overall looks incredibly mediocre. What the hell is Gwyneth Paltrow doing in there?