Toronto

The greatest thing about this movie is that it is blatantly obvious the director is a gigantic Star Wars fan. Everything about this movie screams Star Wars: the action, the characters, the dialogue. Unfortunately, it is not done nearly as well, not even as well as the recent Star Wars prequels. The effects in Sky Captain, while really something to look at most of the time, come off looking unbelievably fake at other times. All of the movie's backgrounds are computer graphics on a blue screen, and there are times when you can tell just by looking, ruining the effect. Gwyneth Paltrow is more annoying than Jar Jar Binks, but at least she gets something Jar Jar never got, which to me raised the movie to a 7/10 instead of a 6/10. All she does is whine and complain and moan about her camera, and not in a cute, funny way, but rather in a way that would make even the most mild-mannered chap turn into an abusive monster. While some people seem to like the washed-out, blurry effect meant to simulate 1930s cinema, I found it just plain irritating. I kept rubbing my eyes to see if I had any gunk that was obscuring my vision. I don't fall for these kinds of movie tricks and neither should you. It hurt the look of the film and that's that. The final insult was not the use of Sir Laurence Olivier's likeness as the villain Totenkopf, but the fact that they put his name in the credits, for cryin' out loud. In case you didn't know, Laurence Olivier has been dead for 15 friggin years. They finally did it. They resurrected a dead guy with computer graphics, which, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. But to actually credit his corpse is an insult to the intelligence of even the most premature baby. Bottom line: Sky Captain is a fun time at the movies, but you have to overlook a lot of flaws to think it's great.

Note: The review posted on this page is a personal opinion of our reader. We are not responsible for its content.