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Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow

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Before seeing Spiderman 2 last night I saw a number of previews. One movie stood out as extremely interesting and visually spectactular: Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow. The synopsis:

In 1930's Manhattan, reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) has noted the disappearances of many of the world's most famous scientists. After the city falls under attack of giant flying robots, she decides to team up with her old flame/aviation officer Joseph "Sky Captain" Sullivan (Jude Law) and fly to Nepal in search of Dr. Totenkopf, whose plan is to destroy the world.

What really got me interested in the trailer at the movie was the astounding visuals of it. Apparently the entire movie was made in front of a blue screen, even scenes in normal-looking settings! Here's an article about this fact:

http://voicefilms.typepad.com/voicefilms/2...tain_and_1.html

The movie is said to be made in retro comic book fashion, and the the old trailer reflects this pretty well.

The new trailer unfortunately has taken out the corny comic book style, so I suggest checking the old one out!

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That looks like it could be a neat movie.

On a sidenote, the musical theme that plays during the older trailer has been used in *at least* four other films. The first time I heard it, and it is probably best known from this, was as the theme to Stargate. I wonder why they keep using the same music over and over for different films. Kind of strange. At least it's good music.

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Speaking of interesting movie trailers that look promising, has anyone else seen the trailer for The Aviator. It's about Howard Hughes and is starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It looks pretty good.

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Yes I have Elle, it looked pretty interesting.  :(

I'm looking forward to it, but casting DiCaprio as Hughes could be bad. He just looks like such a young kid, while Hughes, in my mind, should look like someone in his late 30s -- very clearly a man in his prime, not some pretty-boy.

DiCaprio is a good actor, at times -- see "Catch Me If You Can" -- so I'll give him a chance. Maybe he'll do well here, too.

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I'm looking forward to it, but casting DiCaprio as Hughes could be bad.  He just looks like such a young kid, while Hughes, in my mind, should look like someone in his late 30s -- very clearly a man in his prime, not some pretty-boy. 

DiCaprio is a good actor, at times -- see "Catch Me If You Can" -- so I'll give him a chance.  Maybe he'll do well here, too.

I think DiCaprio has been moving towards better and better films, and away from his young pretty-boy image (e.g. Romeo & Juliet, Titantic, etc.) His acting in Gangs of New York was impressive, although the movie on the whole lagged.

I haven't seen Catch Me If You Can, I should.

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I'm surprised so many found the trailers for this movie so intrigueing, I think it looks awful. One should be very wary of any script that would attract Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Jude Law based on who they are outside of movies and what they have made in the past (I'm thinking specifically of one of the worst films I've ever seen, "The Talented Mr. Ripley")

All three are also on the slide with the bombs beginning to rack up, I would stay away from this movie, which looks entirely cartoonish and has no discernable plot, at least going by trailers.

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I'm surprised so many found the trailers for this movie so intrigueing, I think it looks awful. One should be very wary of any script that would attract Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Jude Law based on who they are outside of movies and what they have made in the past (I'm thinking specifically of one of the worst films I've ever seen, "The Talented Mr. Ripley")

Despite their off-screen antics, all three are physically attractive people and actors who have and can convincingly portray heroes.

I would stay away from this movie, which looks entirely cartoonish and has no discernable plot, at least going by trailers.
Here's the write-up from IMDB:

In 1930's Manhattan, reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) has noted the disappearances of many of the world's most famous scientists. After the city falls under attack of giant flying robots, she decides to team up with her old flame/aviation officer Joseph "Sky Captain" Sullivan (Jude Law) and fly to Nepal in search of Dr. Totenkopf, whose plan is to destroy the world.

It could be a dud, but there are some promising elements: 1930's Manhattan (Art Deco stylization), a Nazi-like villian ("Totenkopf" means "dead head" in German), and a career woman in search of disappearing scientists (sounds familiar).

There is only one person, Kerry Conran, listed as both the writer and director which tends to be a very good sign, esthetically. The fact that Conran has no other credits, yet is being trusted with a big budget film, is strange. It might be a pseudonym for a writer and director who does not want his real name associated with the film.

I'm hoping for the best, but we'll see.

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I'm looking forward to it, but casting DiCaprio as Hughes could be bad.  He just looks like such a young kid, while Hughes, in my mind, should look like someone in his late 30s -- very clearly a man in his prime, not some pretty-boy. 

DiCaprio is a good actor, at times -- see "Catch Me If You Can" -- so I'll give him a chance.  Maybe he'll do well here, too.

Actually I think DiCaprio is 30, he just deoesn't show it. But I agree, Hughes did look much older.

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On a sidenote, the musical theme that plays during the older trailer has been used in *at least* four other films. The first time I heard it, and it is probably best known from this, was as the theme to Stargate. I wonder why they keep using the same music over and over for different films. Kind of strange.

This happens a lot. Often, music from an older movie by the same studio will be used in the trailer, or even symphonic concert music that was never part of a movie score. The reason is that the trailers are sometimes made even before editing is completed (which is why you'll occassionally see a scene in a trailer that isn't even in the finished film). The addition of the score into the soundtrack is usually the very last step before the film is sent off for duplication/distribution. When a trailer is made, sometimes the score hasn't even been composed yet.

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I think I saw the preview for this movie at The Day After Tomorrow, and if I remembered that correctly, it was the best part of the whole two hour experience.

As for themes in trailers and so forth: I don't know if anyone noticed, but the trailer music for the second Lord of the Rings movie (or possibly the third, I'm not quite sure) was the theme music for the movie Requiem for a Dream, directed by Darren Aronofsky. The music was performed by the Kronos Quartet and written by Clint Mansell (of Pop Will Eat Itself fame), for anyone who is interested. It is a simple but powerful theme, and very fitting for such a depressing but well-crafted movie.

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I think I saw the preview for this movie at The Day After Tomorrow, and if I remembered that correctly, it was the best part of the whole two hour experience.

Haha, my thoughts exactly!

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I think DiCaprio has been moving towards better and better films,

I think DiCaprio's best movie so far was What's Eating Gilbert Grape? He plays Gilbert's (Johnny Depp) younger retarded brother Arnie and his acting is excellent. I also liked Depp in that movie too.

If you haven't seen the movie, Depp's character is struggling with having to give up any thought of having a life because he has to take care of his retarded younger brother and his mom who weighs like 600 lbs. and is home-bound. When he does start to have something of a life on the side, of course things go wrong with his family to suck him back in. Despite the prevalent altruistic theme, there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for his character.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who hasn't seen it.

And Catch Me If You Can is good as well.

VES

PS: Yes, I want to see Sky Captain as well.

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I saw an article on slashdot.org that the director was a fan of movies like Rocket Man. Rocket man for those unfamiliar is a great movie with a great sense of life, classic figures of heroism, right verses wrong, etc. That and Air Boy comics which I used to collect.

He worked years in his basement producing a few minutes of a very stylistic film on an ancient computer. He did it for the love of it. He kept it to himself ala Dominique's statue until a family member basically forced him to show his 6 minute flick to a producer friend. The producer saw that this was a very different film and ran with it.

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  • 2 months later...
The gulf between motion picture technology, such as computer-generated imagery (CGI), and Hollywood's ideas is widening and it is abundantly clear in Kerry Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/reviews/?id=skycaptain.htm

:)

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The reviewer, Scott Holleran, is a friend of mine, but we almost never agree about movies. Interestingly, over half of Box Office Mojo's readers gave Sky Captain an "A".

I'm going tomorrow and I hope to really like it.

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There is only one person, Kerry Conran, listed as both the writer and director which tends to be a very good sign, esthetically.  The fact that Conran has no other credits, yet is being trusted with a big budget film, is strange.  It might be a pseudonym for a writer and director who does not want his real name associated with the film.

Check out this article about Kerry Conran from Apple:

http://www.apple.com/pro/video/conran/index.html

The man seems to be pretty innovative with using relatively common, yet still expensive and complicated, software. I agree with his prediction that more and more movies, including ones like this that seeming look grand, will be made by "no names" like him.

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Ive not been able to see this movie yet (for a number of reasons).  But I thought others were anticipating this film.  So Im surprised no one has commented on it yet.

This thread should probably have been moved to this forum.

My fault. Done. - GC

Edited by GreedyCapitalist
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Ive not been able to see this movie yet (for a number of reasons).  But I thought others were anticipating this film.  So Im surprised no one has commented on it yet.

I was rather disappointed.

The technique itself was exquisite, a perfect approach to creating the world in Atlas Shrugged. Digital stylization. But the story and the characterizations did not match up to the technique, though at times it approached it. I was expecting, or, perhaps, hoping, for something more, a whole package. It was not there.

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