Polite Dissent

We just got back from an afternoon showing of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Good flick; it’s everything I hoped it would be. It’s a fun movie that easily kept our attention for the entire two hours. The film perfectly captures the flavor of the science fiction pulps of the 1930s down to the design of the costumes, ships and robots. Sure, the characters are a tad bit two-dimensional, but name me one pulp character that wasn’t. Go on, I’m waiting.

The cinematography is spectacular and has to be seen to be believed. There are some brilliant shots and the muted palette captures the sepia flavor of old photographs. Both Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow are good fits for their roles, but Giovanni Ribisi as Dex steals the show (and he’s a comic book fan, to boot). Even Angelina Jolie didn’t irritate me like she usually does. For all you comic fans, I’ll say just one more word: helicarrier.

My dad is a big fan of the pulp stories, and one of my favorite books of his was 2000 A.D: Illustrations from the Golden Age of Science Fiction Pulps. It was an oversized paperback that reprinted hundred of covers and interior illustrations from the best science fiction pulps. I used to spend hours poring over those pictures. This movie brings those illustrations to life. I swear those tentacle-armed robots are taken directly from this book.

The ornithopters flown by the villains were a clever touch. Ornithopters are airplanes that move by flapping their wings, and they used to be featured frequently in classic science fiction tales. Several more contemporary authors have used them in their stories as well, particularly Michael Moorcock, Frank Herbert and Robert Heinlein.

If you are a fan of pulp science fiction or just want to see a fun and exciting action movie, then you’ll enjoy Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. I strongly recommend seeing it in the theater to fully experience all the special effects on the big screen.

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The perils of an overeducated mind: At one point in the movie, the characters are using RADAR and I’m thinking, “Wait a second…this movie is set in the 1930s but RADAR wasn’t fully developed until World War II.” Then I realized they have robots and death rays, so why am I having a problem with RADAR?