Too Close To The Reference Sinks The Attempt At Nostalgia That Is Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow!

The Good: I like the title
The Bad: Characters and plot is canned, Effects, Acting
The Basics: When writer-director Kerry Conran created a parody or recreation of the 1930s sci-fi serials, like Flash Gordon, he fell short of either.


There is an episode of The Simpsons that I have loathed for quite some time. Quite early in the series, The Simpsons did an episode where they showed clips from upcoming spin-off series', the last of which was "The Simpson Smiletime Variety Hour." It was a parody of the Sonny and Cher or Lawrence Welk style shows. The reason I loathe the episode is because that act so closely imitates what it is parodying, it becomes it. That is, instead of being an effective gag on the concept, it becomes all the worst parts of that type of show. Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is essentially the same thing, with the campy serialized sci-fi movies of the 30s as its subject.

When New York City is invaded by giant robots that steal a power generator, it appears the world is under attack by a force quite unlike anything the world has seen. In desperation, the military calls in the Sky Captain to fight off the robots and learn the truth behind them. With intrepid reporter Polly Perkins, technical sidekick Dex and his British counterpart Franky along, Joe - the Sky Captain - journeys from high in the sky to under the sea almost to outer space to discover the truth.

And it's not worth it.

Like that episode of The Simpsons, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow creates something that exposes all the weaknesses of what it is calling back to by imitating them. And because the story needs to work, the writer/director Kerry Conran becomes trapped in the conventions of the story he is telling with the characters he is telling. The problem here is that the choice Conran is force to make is either to defy the conventions of the serialized hero movies and basically mortgage the audience on the idea that the first half of the movie was a parody or stick with the conventions and recreate a cinematic experience that is neither suspenseful nor unpredictable and basically subject the audience to an ultimately droll experience.

Conran seems unsure which way to go, in that on the story and character front, Conran takes the latter option. Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is a modern-day 1930s serial. It's silly, it's campy, it's predictable. It is laced with cliches and the actors are forced to play within them in order to tell the story as it is written. It feels inorganic, none of the characters pop out of their molds and this is truly unspectacular. Add to that, the annoyance of the music (which, admittedly should be in the "effects" column). It is soaring and completely telegraphs the emotions the movie is trying to evoke (that is to say on its own, the story and characters are not creating an emotional resonance, so the music tells the viewer how they ought to be feeling). Down to the punchline ending of the movie, this film is a predictable, faithful recreation of a style of storytelling that we are well beyond. In short, our society (surprisingly) has become sophisticated enough where we can handle stories that are more intelligent, character driven, realistic and genuinely adventurous than what the '30s audiences seemed to go for in this genre.

The problem is that while Conran remains faithful in the story and characters to the genre, his attempts with the effects that the route of mortgaging the faithfulness of the look and feel of the serials. The movie opens with a wonderful grainy quality, as if the movie were a black and white film that had been colorized. There is a washed out quality to the lighting that instantly transforms recognizable actors and actresses into heroes from days of yore. The problem is that while the lighting and grain quality is generally consistent, the mold gets broken in some of the battle sequences with clearly current special effect techniques. Those moments wrench the viewer out of the experience and beg the question, if you were trying to update the 30s serials, why didn't you go all the way? That is, what is the point of recreating the look and feel (through effects) of the old serial movies when you're just going to throw in a clearly computer-generated skeleton of a scientist who was just electrocuted? Moreover, the final sequences are ludicrously current in look and feel, which then makes the hammy overacting of the principles troubling.

There is not much to say on the character front. The Sky Captain is the Hero, Polly Perkins is the independent woman who still needs the hero to matter, and Dex and Franky are just types that play off those two archetypes. Unfortunately, this also means that there is little to say on this movie on the acting front. Perhaps it would have worked better if the bit part Angelina Jolie had had been credited as a surprise cameo as opposed to one of the three top-billed actors in the movie. She is barely in the film. Jude Law plays Joe and the truth is, I'm just realizing I can't remember ever liking a part he's played. Here he plays the role, but it is not an excessive challenge, it's an extended schtick.

Gwyneth Paltrow just made me sad for taking this role. There are moments she seems to be having fun and perhaps that's a good enough reason to take the part; it's fun. I suppose when you're rich, you can take a couple of months to shoot a movie essentially as play. The problem is, this film makes no real use of her talents.

There's a moment midway through this catastrophe that Paltrow as Perkins glares at Joe in an annoyed fashion. That exact expression mirrored how I felt about the movie at that point.

For other works with Bai Ling, be sure to visit my reviews of:
Angel - Season 1
Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith
Southland Tales
Lost - Season 3

3/10

For other film reviews, be sure to check out my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the movies I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Impressive Rendering Of Hamlet, The Criterion Collection Brings The Best Picture Back!

The Good: Wonderful characters, Great acting, Decent (if simple) plot, Generally good use of medium
The Bad: Some very campy moments, No bonus features, Makes cuts
The Basics: To date, the only Shakespeare adaptation to win the Best Picture Oscar, Hamlet translates Shakespeare's masterwork adequately, if not purely.


It is hard to argue what is the best Shakespeare play, though in disagreements over which is the Bard's best tragedy, many fall with The Tragedy Of Hamlet. Shakespeare's Hamlet, though, is one of his longer plays and one of the more complex. As a result, unless one is making a very long film, Shakespeare purists are pretty much bound to be disappointed in the cinematic rendering of Hamlet. As well, because Shakespeare had to relay many off-stage events to viewers, there are elements of virtually all of his plays that do not translate as well to the cinematic medium. That said, Laurence Olivier's Hamlet is arguably one of the best cinematic renderings of the Bard's play made for the big screen.

It has been years since I last read Hamlet and the truncated nature of my Complete Shakespeare (reviewed here!) made it less-than-ideal for following along. As a result, tonight when I took in the film, I had the chance to simply enjoy Hamlet and while there were a few noticeable omissions, all of the essential elements were present and I remembered why I was such a fan of Shakespeare again! And while some might be intimidated by the language of Shakespeare, director Laurence Olivier did an excellent job of translating the play into a film and making Shakespeare's implied directions vivid and clear.

In Elsinore Castle in Denmark, King Claudius is consolidating his power and trying to bring cheer to his court, which has a notable dark cloud: Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark. Hamlet, in mourning for his father, is even more troubled to learn from his friend Horatio that an apparition has been appearing on Elsinore's battlements each night. Hamlet joins his friends for guard duty and sees the ghost of his dead father. His father informs him that it was Claudius (his brother) who killed him and he is now deeply disturbed over the fact that Claudius has married Gertrude, his wife.

This sets Hamlet off on a journey of revenge, but when faced with Claudius, he decides to not kill him outright. Instead, he feigns insanity and works to expose Claudius's evil deeds. He engineers a plan to expose Claudius, by having a play performed which illustrates how Claudius killed his brother. But just as Hamlet has his machinations, Claudius has his. He employs his aide, Polonius, to expose Hamlet's insanity as a fraud. To do that, Polonius is forced to use his daughter, Ophelia, as bait and see how Hamlet treats her. Unwilling to expose himself or his bigger plan, even to the woman he loves, Hamlet is compelled to play crazy to Ophelia . . . with disastrous results!

Hamlet in this cinematic rendering is a compelling character study of a man who does his best to gain revenge and justice, as opposed to doing nothing (which is what the initial voice-over indicates). In fact, the only moment of inaction in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet is when he has the opportunity to kill Claudius and he does not stab him in the back. In this cinematic rendering, Hamlet's actions do not seem like those of an impotent man, but rather one who is showing mercy. This is a decent interpretation and it works.

In this version of Hamlet, the viewer gets more than they could get out of the average theatrical production of the play. Olivier takes the time to show things that could not be easily shown on stage, like the killing of the King by Claudius. Similarly, Ophelia's tragic demise is shown with sets and a visual richness that could not be done in a stage production. Even so, there are some annoying conceits, like the "wavy air" effect that introduces both flashbacks and the moment of Hamlet's lightheadedness which begins his "To be or not to be" soliloquy. Visually, though, the movie makes sense for the most part and it looks good with the DVD transfer.

As for the cast in this production, Olivier takes some flack from Eileen Herlie's Gertrude being younger than Olivier (who plays Hamlet), but had I not read that in the DVD liner notes, I would not have noticed it. Instead, I was impressed by Jean Simmons as Ophelia and Felix Aylmer's Polonius. Aylmer is given a rather large role and it seems like Polonius has a bigger role in this production than in Shakespeare's play.

Much of the film, though, comes down to how credibly Laurence Olivier plays Hamlet and in this regard, Hamlet is a success. The classic lines like "Alas, poor Yorkic . . ." are delivered with a classic sense that is a bassline for all who follow. Olivier is classically trained and he speaks each line of the dead English dialect with a convincing and realistic presentation that makes Shakespeare's words resonate and seem both poetic and common. As well, Olivier has a great physical sense to him which makes things like the climactic battle seem like it is the same character who has been brooding through much of the rest of the film.

Also notable is the way that director Olivier illustrates such things as Hamlet's capture by pirates, which is often underrepresented on stage or in other cinematic renderings of Hamlet. Olivier, though, takes the time to make this a real event which has the appropriate sense of chance and menace to it. It also allows the director to get away with such things as omitting Rozencrantz and Guildenstern from the film. While much of the film is true to the original play, there are some elements which had to be omitted for the movie and Olivier makes decent choices in that regard.

On the Criterion Collection DVD, Hamlet arrives with no bonus features or a commentary track. Rather disappointingly, there is only an essay on Hamlet in the DVD's liner notes and those hoping for more bells and whistles will find this set lacking.

Still, the film itself is poetically and visually rich enough to recommend enthusiastically. Those looking for a good production from a great actor will find this fits the bill.

[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this is part of my Best Picture Project available here! Please check it out!]

For other classic film reviews, please visit my takes on:
All Quiet On The Western Front
Citizen Kane
The Verdict

7/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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