Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)

* * *

Possibly one of the most Hollywood affected films I’ve ever seen. Every line is a cliché, every shot is produced to look as dramatic as possible and the way it is created is purely for audience interest, not for effect. It is entirely filmed in front of a green/blue screen and with only very minimal sets. This is done as a promotional tool and to show how far technology has progressed in the 21^st century. Unfortunately the people working on this film seemed to not be the masters of CGI and the whole film looks quite horrible; this is then worsened as the actors don’t even look comfortable in their fake surroundings.

The reason this hasn’t got a lower rating is because I whole-heartedly believe that the makers of this film were aware of how bad it was and therefore exaggerated it. Everything is far too over the top; no one could have created a film like this without making some fun of themselves and it. Therefore the rating is 3 stars as long as it is taken with some humour; if it is deadly serious then I don’t know if I would even give it one star.
The acting is bad, not necessarily the fault of the actors but more because their situation is difficult. The script is bad because there was nothing original about it; even the characterisation was poor as, for some reason, they decided that every character should be strong and this just created constant clashes of characters. The film looked bad because it was poor CGI and everything that was meant to look magnificent simply looked fake. The plot was bad as it was way too far-fetched and just seemed to keep escalating until utterly bizarre.
Essentially the entire film was terrible but to the extent that it is impressively bad. You have to watch this film with a group of people and a light-hearted attitude. Do not think of how big its budget is ($40 million) or how big the stars are in it (Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow); just think of this film as entertaining and purposely so and it is enjoyable.