# "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow": Why the hate?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 24, 2005, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662 "2005-06-24T13:16:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/21 "2005-06-24T19:40:01Z")
> [@Only Mostly Dead](#):
>
> Went on Rotten Tomatoes right after submitting the OP, and realized it’s fresh there. But the box office was under its goal
That was because it didn’t have Adam Sandler, Will Smith, or Paris Hilton in it. 😉
I liked _Sky Captain_ myself, though I agree it’s more “matinee” than “full price”. Very purty to look at, and the breezy plot was very in keeping with the whole '40s serial motif of the darn thing. You’re supposed to just enjoy it, not nitpick it to death.
---
### Author:  [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/22 "2005-06-24T22:48:18Z")
I agree. It’s not a movie I’m can’t wait to buy on DVD, but I may tape it some time. It was a good, fun way to duck out of reality for a few hours, and the weekend I saw it, I needed that. By the way, **Merijeek** , I’m with you on the last line, especially since the fellow I’ve been seeing is a photographer! 😃
CJ
---
### Author:  [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)
#### Post date: [June 24, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/23 "2005-06-24T23:24:02Z")
There is one thing I really - unreasonably perhaps - hated, and that was the stupid pseudo-leet writing that Sky Captain had on his plane. Right side up it appeared as “hll0d”, but later Polly saw the reflection in a pool of water and saw it read “p0lly”. The problem is, you have to _rotate_ the first phrase to get the second. By inverting it vertically, you instead get “μll0q”.
---
### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/24 "2005-06-25T01:24:00Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> I think we all wanted this to be really great.
This, to me, explains the unreasoning hatred some people have for this movie. It _should_ have been fantastic. It _should_ have been a hybrid of old-style swashbuckling adventure and modern action sensibility, as suggested by Mr. **Voodoo Lou**. Instead, it was just sort of middlin’. And when genre fans get rabid about a film (and you can’t tell me the anticipation for this movie wasn’t huge in certain quarters), it had damn well better live all the way up to expectations, or they’ll totally overreact the other direction.
In other words, if the target audience expected an A+, the B- it turned out to be feels like an F.
---
### Author:  [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/25 "2005-06-25T02:04:23Z")
> [@sturmhauke](#):
>
> There is one thing I really - unreasonably perhaps - hated, and that was the stupid pseudo-leet writing that Sky Captain had on his plane. Right side up it appeared as “hll0d”, but later Polly saw the reflection in a pool of water and saw it read “p0lly”. The problem is, you have to _rotate_ the first phrase to get the second. By inverting it vertically, you instead get “μll0q”.
To nitpick the nitpick, it would read “p0lly” if you were seeing it from within/above the plane, which is how Joe presumably would have been looking at it.
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/26 "2005-06-25T02:40:25Z")
> [@Dr. Rieux](#):
>
> Conran should do a Doc Savage movie.
Hey that’s a good idea! Someone should ask him.
---
### Author:  [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/27 "2005-06-25T10:27:56Z")
I believe he is working on “A Princess of Mars”. Which could work for him.
Brian
who thought SK was a fun movie
---
### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/28 "2005-06-25T18:43:17Z")
> [@Asylum](#):
>
> I think if you’re aware that the movie is an homage to sci-fi and adventure films of the thirties and forties you’re more likely to review the film positively (unless you don’t like those types of films).
The problem, i think, is that some film-makers seem to think that making an homage, with lots of in-jokes and genre references, is enough. They sometimes forget that the movie should also stand up by itself.
---
### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/29 "2005-06-25T18:51:50Z")
I found it tolerable, except for the extremely overused runner about the camera, which totally killed it for me.
And the special effects were poorly crafted. The computer animation was neat and all, but half the time the lighting in the background plates didn’t match the lighting of the actors. Most distracting indeed. It reminded me of the horrible Pierce Brosnan surfing scene in one of the recent James Bond disasters, but for the length of the entire movie!
---
### Author:  [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2005, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/30 "2005-06-25T21:22:55Z")
I suspect that a lot of people were prepared to cut it a lot of slack. Coming out of left field as it did (i.e., this wasn’t a SW or ST production), there was no bar for it to fall short of.
But the story. did. not. work. Almost from the first. If Conran was paying attention to '30s newspaper movies, he would have known that Polly would not be writing her story in what looks like the office of the newspaper publisher. (And that scrolling headline behind her irritated me as well. We already saw that; why repeat it? Oh, I know why: Conran had it in his original trailer, and no one told him to lose it.)
And the ending didn’t make much sense to me, either: fire the Noah’s Ark rocket and destroy the earth behind it? Why? And how were they going to know which planet they were going to colonize. (It seems to me it would have been better to take the ship into the atmosphere, wipe out life on Earth, then return the rock to restock. Who knows, maybe they were going to do that and I missed it.)
And that last line? Weak. At least it was a line that was moderately funny, but still …
---
### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2005, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/31 "2005-06-26T03:03:38Z")
I saw the movie in the theater, bought the CD, I’m happy I did both. A great watch anytime. Between it and ATOC, I’m a happy camper. Sin City I’ll wait and rent the CD because of the violence, but I’m looking forward to it, too, because I’m really curious about the look of the film.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/32 "2005-06-26T03:15:23Z")
_SCWT_ falls, I feel, into the same trap as _The Last Starfighter_, _Willow_, _Dragonheart_, _Tron_ and numerous other films that were technically groundbreaking, but tended to lack interesting characters and compelling storylines. Contrast these to _Star Wars_ or _Terminator 2_ and it’s clear that if your characters aren’t interesting, the movie won’t be, either.
---
### Author:  [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2005, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/33 "2005-06-26T03:32:59Z")
I know it was a great technical achievement, but it was just too dark. I don’t know if it was the theatre I was in dimming its bulb, or if that was how it was supposed to look, but it was so dark I had trouble making out what was going on at some points of the movie. The story didn’t hold my interest either. I liked Dark City much more.
---
### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/34 "2005-06-26T15:09:42Z")
> [@mike1dog](#):
>
> I know it was a great technical achievement, but it was just too dark. I don’t know if it was the theatre I was in dimming its bulb, or if that was how it was supposed to look, but it was so dark I had trouble making out what was going on at some points of the movie. The story didn’t hold my interest either. I liked Dark City much more.
I think this was the biggest flaw of the movie. On many scenes, I wanted to run them through Photoshop and blow out the midtones until I could see what was going on. Interestingly, a lot of Poser artworks I’ve looked at have had the same problem – way too dark – and are improved immensely by being run through Photoshop.
---
### Author:  [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/35 "2005-06-27T18:39:07Z")
Deux ex machina all over the god danged place!
Which is okay for a 1930s serial audience but today we want a bit more.
Raiders did it right and this is nowhere near in the same league.
Darn, wanted it to be good. Prefer Gerry Andersen over this anyday.
Beautiful look though.
---
### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/36 "2005-06-27T19:48:16Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#):
>
> _SCWT_ falls, I feel, into the same trap as _The Last Starfighter_, _Willow_, _Dragonheart_, _Tron_ and numerous other films that were technically groundbreaking, but tended to lack interesting characters and compelling storylines.
Considering that **Tron** continues to be a geek cult classic after all these years (20th anniversary edition DVD boxed set, woot!), that’s not a bad fate to suffer. 🙂
And don’t you be dissin’ _The Last Starfighter._ It had Robert Preston, after all.
---
### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/37 "2005-06-27T21:05:30Z")
> [@rjung](#):
>
> Considering that **Tron** continues to be a geek cult classic after all these years (20th anniversary edition DVD boxed set, woot!), that’s not a bad fate to suffer. 🙂
>
> And don’t you be dissin’ _The Last Starfighter._ It had Robert Preston, after all.
Gotta agree with **rjung** here. _Sky Captain_ might not have been “all it could have been” with reference to plot and acting, but it had just enough of the right elements to ensure that people will be watching and admiring it for years to come. Personally, I loved it. Showed it to my parents, who grew up watching the 1940s serial matinees every Saturday, and they declared it one of the best movies they’d ever seen.
And, yes, Robert Preston is a god.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/38 "2005-06-27T21:34:13Z")
Yeah, but c’mon. A young man doomed to a life of boredom in a dusty wasteland has a gift which will help him fight the evil invader and is guided by a wizened old codger who dies and then the young man strikes the main alien spacecraft in the one vulnerable spot, even though the main bad guy escapes and the codger who’d died reappears…
Geez, all it needed was Alex and Maggie turning out to be brother and sister.
I liked Preston, though. Minor factoid: Marc Alaimo, the oft-recycled _Star Trek_ actor, appears as the hitchhiker.
---
### Author:  [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2005, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662/39 "2005-06-27T21:48:28Z")
I greatly enjoyed it. But then, I am also one of those people who greatly enjoys movies that everyone agrees are horrible just because it’s so fun to laugh at them. So don’t trust my judgement.
[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow-why-the-hate/309662.md?page=1)