# Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 29, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726 "2004-05-29T23:49:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/21 "2004-05-30T17:13:03Z")
> [@DirkGntly](#):
>
> I saw the previews on a rented DVD recently - kinda looks fun! But apparently they don’t have a _score_ for this thing yet…
>
> I kept listening to the music and thinking, “I’ve heard that before…” and then I finally pegged it…
>
> …for the previews, at least, they’ve recycled the theme music from _Stargate_.
That’s actually fairly common. _Gladiator_ used the music from _Conan_ in one of it’s trailers, and other movies have done it as well. They might do it because the score’s not ready yet, or it might be that the music for the film just doesn’t match up very well with the trailer.
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/22 "2004-05-30T17:45:10Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> Only “c” would be a cause for concern.
>
> After all, _Manos, the Hands of Fate_ was made by a guy who never made movies before.
So was _Citizen Kane_!
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### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/23 "2004-05-30T18:03:30Z")
> [@vibrotronica](#):
>
> So was _Citizen Kane_!
I never thought I’d see _Citizen Kane_ and _Manos…_ mentioned in the same thread. 😃
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### Author:  [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/24 "2004-05-30T19:32:39Z")
I’m betting this will suck like a $300 Hoover. It’ll look purdy, but the one thing I’m not seeing in the Wired article and elsewhere is any mention of the story.
Also, here’s one reviewer’s take on the movie [[www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html+“Sky+Captain+and+the+World+of+Tomorrow”&hl=en](http://www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html+%22Sky+Captain+and+the+World+of+Tomorrow%22&hl=en)]based]([http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:o0RamwgCZHUJ:](http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:o0RamwgCZHUJ:)[url) on the trailer. (I’m using the google cache version because the bandwidth was exceeded on the main site).
One quote from the review:
"Enter Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, starring Jude Law as crackerjack flying ace Johnny Americaflag (or similar), who wages a one-man war on an invading robot menace. Johnny’s a two-fisted, tough-as-nails, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-bootstraps 1940’s American Joe, making Law’s unsuccessful attempts to sound remotely American in the trailer that much more embarrassing. It’s one thing to poorly conceal your Britishness in some crappy period drama, where everyone’s speaking with an unconvincing accent anyway. But it almost seems obscene when playing an American archetype hero in a U.S. blockbuster. Imagine how Dirty Harry’s famous monologue would have turned out: “I dare say— did I fire six shots, or merely the five, do you think? Dashed mystery that, I’ll forget my own head next. Er, you didn’t happen to count, did you? Would you feel lucky enough to wager a guess?”
"Alright, so Law’s not quite that bad. But he’s pretty bad. He’s probably about as bad as British audiences found Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves’ cockney accents in Dracula. For that matter, it’s as bad as any audiences found Ryder and Reeves’ cockney accents in Dracula. Jude Law’s American accent sounds about as authentic as my French accent— and my French accent pretty much just involves me saying “Zut alors!” and “Sacre bleu!” a lot while mincing around with an armful of baguettes.
"Sky Captain also stars Angelina Jolie as “a courageous naval officer,” so in that respect it’s frighteningly accurate to the time period. I’m still shocked at how easy it was for women to just fly up the ranks of any military institution in the 1940’s. Thank God a few males are finally starting to break through the glass ceiling among the upper echelons of the Navy, that’s all I have to say. "
I’ll probably still see it, because I love the look and feel of those old movies. But what do I know? I liked “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns” and I’m seeing “Van Helsing” tomorrow. YMMV.
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### Author:  [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/25 "2004-05-30T19:37:22Z")
[[www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html+&hl=en](http://www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html+&hl=en)]Let]([http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:o0RamwgCZHUJ:](http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:o0RamwgCZHUJ:)[url) me try that link again . . .
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### Author:  [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/26 "2004-05-30T19:39:24Z")
Botheration! Look, plug the line below into Google and when it comes back, click on “Show Google’s cache of [www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html](http://www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html)”
[www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html](http://www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html)
Sorry about that.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/27 "2004-05-30T20:40:45Z")
> [@pesch](#):
>
> [www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html](http://www.thetrailertrash.com/skycaptain.html)
Wow, he managed to come up with such an illinformed, snotty assessment based on a few minutes. Impressive. :rolleyes:
From all appearances, I’ve seen twice as much (if not more) of this movie as he has, but I’m not going to claim I know twice as much. I think movies like this are impossible to judge without some context–how the characters are ntroduced, what is asked of the audience’s suspension of disbelief, and how do the small CMG quibbles look in the larger scope of the artistic effort. Sure the movie might suck, but given that it’s trying something fairly different from other films in the genre, judging an itty bitty part without knowledge of the whole is prematurely glib.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/28 "2004-05-30T20:44:55Z")
But seeing those Giant Robots on the big screen sure will be fun!!! 🙂🙂🙂🙂
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/29 "2004-05-30T22:02:40Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> After all, _Manos, the Hands of Fate_ was made by a guy who never made movies before.
_Manos, the Hands of Fate_ was directed by somebody who’d never _seen_ a movie before.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/30 "2004-05-30T22:21:20Z")
…A man who just happened to be a fertilizer salesman.
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### Author:  [@Santos\_L\_Halper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santos_L_Halper)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/31 "2004-05-30T22:58:54Z")
I first saw a trailer for this several months ago. I love the old serial / Fleischer Superman cartoon look, and you just can’t go wrong with giant robots. 🙂 I don’t get around to seeing most films until they come out on DVD, but this is one that definitely looks like it should be seen in a theater.
It looks like it could completely blow the suspension of disbelief factory for me with some of the flying, however. I’m a big fan of old war planes, etc. and it’s all too common for film makers (now that they can create it all via computer) to have planes do all kinds of over the top maneuvers that are _way_ beyond what they could do in real life. I know I’m probably too sensitive to it, but that kind of thing really can ruin a film for me.
And I don’t know if I’d say **Jude Law** is doing a bad American accent - it doesn’t sound like he’s trying to do one at all. It makes sense that the character would be American, but maybe he’s actually supposed to be British?
Anyway, I’m cautiously hopeful that it’ll be a lot of fun, but I guess there’s a lot bigger chance that it’ll be “visually exciting” but really suck story-wise.
Eric
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)
#### Post date: [May 30, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/32 "2004-05-30T23:04:32Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#):
>
> [http://www.skycaptain.com/](http://www.skycaptain.com/)
>
> I didn’t think that happened anymore!
>
> A full-length motion picture tribute to the Republic Science Fiction thriller serials!
Wow - someone’s in extreme denial over the Star Wars prequels…
😃
> [@tuckerfan](#):
>
> Gladiator used the music from Conan in one of it’s trailers, and other movies have done it as well.
Hmmm. You’ve inspired me to start a thread.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2004, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/33 "2004-05-31T02:51:40Z")
I know a little about since I work for Paramount Pictures.
The film has had it’s release date changed once.
From June 25th for one or two reasons.
One not ready.
and/or
Two Spiderman 2 moved it’s date from Friday July 2 to June 30th with probably shows starting at 12:01 am. That would cut into the first week of SCatWoT considerably.
That review is really strange. For one, the trailer does not identify Sky Captain as an American. He is flying a p-40 Warhawk but that doesn’t mean he is an American.
Another thing is that Jude Law appeared in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and his accent work this is perfect.
I’m also sure the Ryder and Reeves were not going for Cockney accents in Dracula.
The film is 100% CGI with the following exceptions. No people are CGI. That’s a rule the film maker has for himself. So even tiny people you see in the background are real people.
Of course their costumes and any props they hold are real but everything else is CGI.
The film maker went to film school and in the middle of his final project a movie came out. His final project was blending animation and live action in a way not previously attempted. The film that came out was Roger Rabbit. He was a little crushed. He has worked as film crew for a while in Hollywood and in his spare time decided to make a movie in his apartment. He set up his own blue screen adn started making Sky Captian on an Apple IIe. About six years later he had about six minutes. A friend of his wife saw it and insisted on showing it to Avnet. He loved and sent the script to Jude Law. Law liked it so much he signed on as a producer and talked his friend Gwynth Paltrow to be in it.
All of that I read in an article in either the NY Times or WSJ. Or maybe it was the Times Sunday Magazine.
I’ve seen those five minutes and they are great. One thing the trailer does not show is that it is a world wide adventure ala Indy Jones.
I hope it’s good. I really want it to be good.
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### Author:  [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/34 "2004-05-31T06:02:47Z")
I saw the trailer for this almost a year ago, before _Return of the King_. I’d heard nothing about the movie beforehand, and hadn’t heard much about it afterwards, so I kind of thought I’d dreamed the whole thing.
It was natural for me to believe that since this is the kind of movie I’ve wanted to see forever. All _The Rocketeer_ had going for it was great style and a kick-ass poster; it just kind of under-delivered. With this one they’re clearly going for style all the way. It’s just a nice touch that they’ve made some very clever casting choices – actors who are big box-office draws, but hip enough to get what’s going on in this kind of movie.
Of course it’s going to be cheesy and melodramatic – who goes to see a movie called “Sky Captain” with giant robots and WWI-era planes and expects great acting? Well, other than the people who go to see a movie with Dracula & the Wolfman & Frankenstein and then complain about the plot?
Whatever; there’s no way in hell I’m going to miss this one. The first time I saw those giant robots, I’d already set aside the cash for my ticket.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2004, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/35 "2004-05-31T10:28:23Z")
I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I first heard about it. I was in heaven when I first saw the preview.
It’s worth going to see because it’s going to change the way many films are made, so it’ll go down in cinema history. It’s a 10-year labor of love for the writer/director and I’m all for supporting that level of commitment. Above all though, I love the look of it. I’m there first show, opening day!
I saw this on another message board and had to steal it to post. It certainly got my little heart beating fast! (I can say with fair certainty that this person is not a plant from the studio)
> [@](#):
>
> I read the script for it last year sometime, and I was blown away. It has the potential to be the biggest geekasm of all time. Really. The trailer shows maybe 5 or 6 seconds from after the first 20 minutes. The trailer is really playing up the aerial opening, but really, there’s some stuff in this that I’m shocked they haven’t played yet. People are going to be blown away when they see where the movie goes. That is if the director can nail it visually, and I can’t see why he can’t.
>
> Jude Law’s Sky Captain is going down in cult history forever, regardless. If it’s a hit, he’s the new Indiana Jones.
>
> The effects aren’t finished, or are at least getting more work done. You have to realise, this is probably the biggest epic of the year. It’s HUGE. Only Jackson and maybe Spielberg could even tackle some of this stuff. It’s extremely ambitious, more so then any other movie this year by far.
>
> I have utmost confidence in it. I was literally dancing around the room with glee while reading the script. I have no doubt I’ll be doing that in the movies.
>
> Another reason is Oscar. Really. Summer is chock-block with ignorant effects films, while this is something much more. It could really take 4+ noms, and I have money on it winning Best FX. I talked to a guy who works in effects and when I brought up Sky Captain he just smiled like he was thinking about Christmas. It’s a BIG DEAL for people in the effects world, and if it manages not to suck, I can’t see them not nominating it.
>
> I pray it’s a sucess, just so I can have sequels. Really, don’t worry. If this look’s like your kind of movie, don’t worry. If it looks stupid to you, tough, go see Catwoman instead. If it’s even half as great as the script (for me, a major geek), it’ll be in my top 10, with ease. There’s a reason Knowles is going LOTR-crazy about this movie, and it’s the script. There’s no way they would have gotten the money (or indeed Jude Law), without a solid script. And it’s SOLID. The only worries you need to have is about the first time director, but even then…I have faith.
Whooo! Except for the disappointment of not seeing it as soon as I wanted, everything about the move to September is a Very Good Idea. No competition. They can work the marketing and advance screenings. Word of mouth will have time to build.
It’s all good. I hope.
Oh, I also heard that the studio ok’d a sequel based on loving the rough cut. Do you know anything about that Zebra.
I can provide a cite for that post if someone insists.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2004, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/36 "2004-05-31T10:42:30Z")
I don’t think a studio is going to approve a sequel until they see if the movie actually makes any money. Maybe they would OK some preparations, I don’t know.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/37 "2004-05-31T14:15:44Z")
Marvellous. I haven’t watched the trailer due to an old computer and a dial up connection. But I like what I saw on that site.
I feel that there just aren’t enough mad scientists or giant robots in films today.
I suspect I am not the only Doper hoping for merchandising that includes Flying Legion patches and brass decoder rings.
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### Author:  [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/38 "2004-05-31T14:36:37Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> I suspect I am not the only Doper hoping for merchandising that includes Flying Legion patches and brass decoder rings.
Don’t know about that, but the tie-in novelisation has just come out… with an 8 page photo insert.
Onyx paperback, $6.99, ISBN 0451411633
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/39 "2004-06-01T12:45:29Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> I don’t think a studio is going to approve a sequel until they see if the movie actually makes any money. Maybe they would OK some preparations, I don’t know.
You’re probably right, but the same person who posted that script rave (it was on [oscarwatch.com](http://oscarwatch.com)) said it. This is his quote: “Did you hear Paramount’s greenlit the second Sky Captain film after seeing the rough cut, and the script is already being written? Hell yeah!!”
We’ll see. I’m just anxious to see the first one. If it’s great, and I have a good feeling that it will be, it’d be nice to know that a 2nd one is in the works.
I can’t wait to see what [this character](http://equipoise.teemingmillions.com/images/skycaptain2.jpg) is all about!
---
### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [June 1, 2004, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sky-captain-and-the-world-of-tomorrow/247726/40 "2004-06-01T13:00:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I can’t wait to see what this character is all about!
Ah yes, the Mysterious Woman.
I would put money on her being a Maria-type android, programmed to kidnap the World’s Great Scientists while the Giant Flying Robots are providing a distraction to the Forces of Goodness (including Sky Captain and Captain Franky’s Aquatic Squadron).
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