# I enjoyed "Sky Captain" (SPOILERS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2005, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350 "2005-02-22T15:55:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/21 "2005-02-23T13:56:51Z")
It has Giovanni Ribisi? That’s it, now I _have_ to see it. I’ll see anything he’s in. Was hemming and hawing over it before, but now it’s a must rent. ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/22 "2005-02-23T14:17:27Z")
I really wanted to like it…but I just couldn’t. I confess, I was unable to even watch it all the way through, so if the last 10 minutes proved me wrong, then I’ll just have to live with it. Horrid plot, worse acting, pretty much everything folks have pointed out already. Law was good, but I hated Paltrow. The side characters were much more fleshed out than the main characters. The 1930’s homage was clever, but how many of us are really up on that era? I guess we’ll have to throw this one into the same dustbin as Final Fantasy and Showgirls for interesting ideas that might have kicked of a new genre…but didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/23 "2005-02-23T14:18:47Z")
I love Sky Captain. It was probably my favorite movie of last year aside from _The Incredibles_. People have pretty much already mentioned why, but I’ll add that Jude Law in that movie is just gorgeous beyond comprehension. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/24 "2005-02-23T16:23:03Z")
If the damned thing had a script, it would have been a masterpiece. Last weekend I was at a film festival that screened _Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Adaptaion_. It was a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders done by a bunch of kids from Mississippi over an eight year period. You can actually see them growing older and younger (since it was shot out of sequence) as the movie progresses. It gives the cinemamatically minded much to think about, but the biggest thing I brought away from it was an appreciation of _Raiders_’ script. Even without the big-budget stunts, fights, and special effects, it’s still a rip-roaring great movie. ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/25 "2005-02-23T18:15:29Z")
I’ve recommended it to a lot of people. The opening 20 minutes alone are worth it; sweetie and I were literally laughing with delight in the theater, totally entranced by the visuals. I just give the caveat, “Gwyneth Paltrow’s going to gripe about her stupid camera in every scene right to the very end of the movie; accept that, move on, and you’ll be able to completely enjoy the rest.” ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/26 "2005-02-23T18:22:51Z")
I think \*\*Fortean[b/] definitely nailed the strengths of the movie and **Exapno Mapcase** nailed the weaknesses. Calling it “a series of 6 minute shorts” really captures it. It seemed like objects disappeared and reappeared, like the hole in the wing of his plane early on. And also, did it make sense to anyone that they traced that signal to Nepal and then they got to Nepal, but the place had been deserted for years? It was just an excuse to put the characters in Nepal. Also, while I thought the writing, for the most part, was pretty weak, I thought “lens cap” was classic. It almost made all the griping about the camera worth it. I also thought it showed a little guts on the director’s part to just end it right there. No big kiss, no floating off into the sunset, no super-tidy resolution. Just a nice little “rug pull”. ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/27 "2005-02-23T18:58:32Z")
> [@sleeepy2](#): > > Either Iron Giant is paying homage to the same source material, or Sky Captain stole the giant robots from them. Practically identical. It’s definitely the former – robots like those in \*Iron Giant \* and _Sky Captain_ graced probably hundreds of pulp sci-fi covers in the '30s and '40s. However, I’d imagine the majority of aiudiences just assumed the alternative – that the whole movie was a cheap ripoff of other films – and that probably explains its failure. After all, there’s a fine-line between _homage_ and _rip-off_. Viewers familiar with '30s/'40s sci-fi and serials recognized it as a loving tribute to those things, while everyone else just thought it was a patchwork ripoff of more modern movies (many of which were themselves homages). Personally, I loved \*Sky Captain \* in the same way I enjoy the old Republic serials: I didn’t expect anything more than a rip-roaring, cheesy pulp adventure tale populated by bigger than life, stereotypical characters. Only _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ has managed to raise the “homage movie” to a whole new level (and will probably never be topped), but \*Sky Captain \* did a fine job with the tools it had. I hope it does well on DVD, maybe becoming a cult classic, if only so Conran will reap some reward for his effort. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2005, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350/28 "2005-02-24T12:16:15Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Also, while I thought the writing, for the most part, was pretty weak, I thought “lens cap” was classic. It almost made all the griping about the camera worth it Too bad the DVD menu blew the joke by naming that chapter “Lens Cap” with a pic of gwynneth looking stunned, holding up th camera. I should start another thread about DVD menu titles that have spoiled key plot points… So…lazy… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-enjoyed-sky-captain-spoilers/291350.md?page=1)