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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 128 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-fi | Suspense/Thriller
Written by: Kerry Conran
Directed by: Kerry Conran
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 17, 2004
DVD: January 25, 2005
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: USA / UK / Italy
Summary
RATING: PG for sequences of stylized sci-fi violence and brief mild language
Starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon, Bai Ling, and Omid Djalili
Famous scientists around the world have mysteriously disappeared, and reporter Polly Perkins (Paltrow) along with ace aviator Sky Captain (Law) are on the investigation. Risking their lives as they travel to exotic places around the world, can the fearless duo stop Dr. Totenkopf, the evil mastermind behind a plot to destroy the earth? Aided by Frankie Cook (Jolie), commander of an all-female amphibious squadron, and technical genius Dex (Ribisi), Polly and Sky Captain may be our planet's only hope. (Paramount)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
In its heedless energy and joy, it reminded me of how I felt the first time I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It's like a film that escaped from the imagination directly onto the screen, without having to pass through reality along the way.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Sky Captain is a gorgeous, funny, and welcome novelty.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
As an imaginative visual experience, there's nothing like it. Today, at least.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
A triumph not only for its technical mastery but for its good taste.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Everything here from costuming and production design to the note-perfect score from Edward Shearmur works in tandem to create not so much a film as a singular and joyous tribute to a vanished age when wonder only cost a nickel and played three time daily at the Bijou.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Gloriously retro, unashamedly celebratory of the joy of moviemaking and the love of old-fashioned heroism.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The result owes a little to the 1927 "Metropolis," a little to film noir, a little to early depictions of H.G. Wells' science fiction -- notably the 1936 "Things to Come" -- and a little to lovably far-fetched sci-fi serials.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt
Conran has got himself a looker, with Paltrow in soft focus, the whole world larger than life and a title that, said in the proper low-pitched voice, conveys the tone of the film: exuberant, idiosyncratic and timeless.
Read Full Review >Premiere Peter Debruge
Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a pastiche of everything from "King Kong" to "The Wizard of Oz," a movie that escalates to a breathless cliff-hanger every 20 minutes or so and reinvents itself with every reel.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
The film's save-the-world scenario may be the stuff of crusty cliff-hangers, its imagery may be borrowed, and its jaunty dialogue anything but deep, but there's something exhilarating going on here. It's darn sublime.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden
Other than the actors, their costumes, and a few props, everything in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is digital illusion, and the effects are often exhilarating.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
A collection of such dazzling digital illusions you can't wait for it to hit DVD so you can freeze individual images.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
No one has really been asking for a fusion of "Independence Day," Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," and an old Buck Rogers serial, but here it is anyway, and the only thing keeping it from greatness is a good story.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Despite its flaws, Sky Captain indulges that inner kid who always wanted a single movie crammed with robots, airships and dinosaurs, with World's Fair hopefulness and panache.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
70% style and 30% substance. It has a plot and characters, but those are almost beside the point.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Park
Conran takes the ghosts in his machine seriously, and the results appear at once meltingly lovely and intriguingly inhuman.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Sheila Benson
For Conran, after they finished shooting pesky actors, the real fun began at the computer screen with his delirious imagination in free-fall.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Its an exhilarating experience, and raises the bar for the use of digital technology in film.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
Arresting at first but gradually trails off under the weight of its hyper-derivativeness and anxiety to please.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
The filmmakers' investment in their weird visions is wildly unorthodox, but the payoff is oddly satisfying.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Too fixated on 1939 for its own good. Its passionate immersion in a past that only dimly resonates with younger audiences may be a badge of its integrity, but that immersion trumps its vision of the future and leaves us in a land of nostalgia.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Missing beneath its fabulous surface, however, is anything like a beating heart.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
This is a sophisticated movie, but one whose sophistication is surprisingly simple-minded.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A lovingly rendered visual treat struggles with indifferent direction and torpid plot.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The best way to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow -- if you see it at all -- is as an interesting experiment that failed.
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
For all its Buck Rogers-style derring-do, gorgeous vistas of an Art Deco New York and sepia-toned cinematography, Sky Captain is a static, uninvolving experience.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
The movie is like one of those newfangled Vegas casinos, where what appears to be open sky is really painted ceiling. What's initially dazzling becomes stifling.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Worse, the story is so thin and clichéd, it seems as if a computer wrote the screenplay and a robot directed it.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
So captivating to look at that you can almost forget there's virtually nothing to it.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Conran hasn't attached his technical virtuosity to a ripping yarn or infused it with behavioral brio. The first of its kind often doesn't work; Sky Captain may be the Moses that leads other directors to a blue-sky, blue-screen promised land.
Read Full Review >Empire William Thomas
For its writer-director, Sky Captain was a labour of love. For almost everyone else - including the wooden cast - its just a labour.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Like so many technological marvels, at the human level it's not only merely dead, it's really most sincerely dead.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.6 (out of 10) based on 128 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Abby gave it a3:
When I saw this movie I almost died of bordem. If you have insomnia I would recommend this movie to cure it.
Paul I. gave it a7:
Although the movie is visually stunning and the plot is constucted well, the conflict between the main chacter and the damsel in distress is somewhat annoying.
Moe L. gave it a0:
One can only appreciate this film if one has a smooth brain and breathes exclusively from the mouth.
Matt C. gave it a0:
Sure it has poor dialogue, an incoherent story, hackneyed adventure sequences (taking down plodding metal behemoths with a tow cable, hmm, where have we seen that before?), lazy acting, but it was so imaginative and technically-- wait, no, this is a cinematic abomination. If you want to give Mr. Conran a A+ for working a computer, great. Is this a film? No. 0% style and -1,000,000% plot and acting. Stop giving films a pass because someone used a new gadget on their Mac.
Lomax Hunter gave it a0:
May be the single worst entertainment product I have ever witnessed. Shame on everyone involved.
Alistair gave it a9:
I love this movie. I have to admit it's main appeal is visual with the wonderful sci-fi deco retro design. The opening sequences with the berthing of the Hindenberg in the snow are beautiful. The scatter-gun plot captures the feel of classic 30s/40s movie serials (the same ground that Star Wars mined so successfully) well. Sure its a bit silly but it's a great achievement. This is the way of the futrure: marries the capabilities of CGI with human actors.
Don H. gave it an8:
A wonderful tribute to the early sci-fi serials and movies. It’s Flash Gordan in the 21st Century, truly. It was fun to watch and brought me back to my younger days (I was watching reruns). I can see why some may not like this style but if you enjoyed the era of those early serials this was fun. As for the plot it fits that era also. Those looking for the deep meaning are looking under the wrong rock. It was meant to be fun and whimsical which fits the era re-visited.
