Monday
9/18/04
Movie Curmudgeon Redux. Redux.
It was a balmy autumn afternoon in 1974 that saw a tousled haired youth enter the cool darkness of the Admiral Theater with two of his friends for a showing of Jason and the Argonauts. A mere ninety minutes later the tousled lad, who was otherwise only remarkable for his striking resemblance to me, reemerged into the blinding afternoon sunlight with sticky shoes, a mild stomachache caused by two boxes of Ju Ju Bees and rather too much Dr Pepper, and a newfound love of special effects driven cinematic kitsch.
And now, thirty years later to the day, I found myself, with my own tousle-haired lads in tow, entering our local Lowe’s Colosso-Huge-Googleplex theatre for a screening of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. And… sure enough, 110 minutes later we reemerged not into the blinding afternoon sunlight, but into the mall’s pallid neon glow with sticky shoes, mild tummy-aches and, most importantly, the sort of wide, satisfied grins that can only be caused by post-cinematic bliss.
In short, Sky Captain is a truly fine movie, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is, apparently, the first movie made without a single set or location; every shot is completely CGI with the actors having been filmed in front of a green screen. The resulting soft focus and watercolor palette, combined with impossibly beautiful and epic backgrounds, lends an almost surreal, dreamlike quality to the whole affair.
The movie is not without its problems of course, such as its awkwardly bad and occasionally anachronistic dialogue, or the mildly odd and uncomfortable chemistry between Paltrow and Law, but these are mere quibbles. The action sequences and settings are so incredibly creative and original, and the locations are so extraordinarily beautiful in a distinctly Maxfield Parrish sort of way, that I found the whole thing absolutely irresistible. Early on in the movie, for instance, Paltrow gets caught up with giant robots marching through Manhattan in a sequence that is simultaneously the most surreal, dreamlike and absolutely stunning action sequence I have ever seen.
So, during the drive home I wondered if perhaps I should be just a little wistful when recalling the old fashioned simplicity of Jason and his Argonauts fighting a brace of stop-motion skeletons. How, after all, can they compete with the brute force of today’s digital monsters? But I thought better of it; Sky Captain and his tricked out P-40 clearly rule. And hell, Angela Jolie in a black leather uniform and eye patch? I’m still getting chills.
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Movie Curmudgeon Redux. Redux.
It was a balmy autumn afternoon in 1974 that saw a tousled haired youth enter the cool darkness of the Admiral Theater with two of his friends for a showing of Jason and the Argonauts. A mere ninety minutes later the tousled lad, who was otherwise only remarkable for his striking resemblance to me, reemerged into the blinding afternoon sunlight with sticky shoes, a mild stomachache caused by two boxes of Ju Ju Bees and rather too much Dr Pepper, and a newfound love of special effects driven cinematic kitsch.
And now, thirty years later to the day, I found myself, with my own tousle-haired lads in tow, entering our local Lowe’s Colosso-Huge-Googleplex theatre for a screening of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. And… sure enough, 110 minutes later we reemerged not into the blinding afternoon sunlight, but into the mall’s pallid neon glow with sticky shoes, mild tummy-aches and, most importantly, the sort of wide, satisfied grins that can only be caused by post-cinematic bliss.
In short, Sky Captain is a truly fine movie, and unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It is, apparently, the first movie made without a single set or location; every shot is completely CGI with the actors having been filmed in front of a green screen. The resulting soft focus and watercolor palette, combined with impossibly beautiful and epic backgrounds, lends an almost surreal, dreamlike quality to the whole affair.
The movie is not without its problems of course, such as its awkwardly bad and occasionally anachronistic dialogue, or the mildly odd and uncomfortable chemistry between Paltrow and Law, but these are mere quibbles. The action sequences and settings are so incredibly creative and original, and the locations are so extraordinarily beautiful in a distinctly Maxfield Parrish sort of way, that I found the whole thing absolutely irresistible. Early on in the movie, for instance, Paltrow gets caught up with giant robots marching through Manhattan in a sequence that is simultaneously the most surreal, dreamlike and absolutely stunning action sequence I have ever seen.
So, during the drive home I wondered if perhaps I should be just a little wistful when recalling the old fashioned simplicity of Jason and his Argonauts fighting a brace of stop-motion skeletons. How, after all, can they compete with the brute force of today’s digital monsters? But I thought better of it; Sky Captain and his tricked out P-40 clearly rule. And hell, Angela Jolie in a black leather uniform and eye patch? I’m still getting chills.
