SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (2004) **1/2 It's about the most comic book lookin' film I've ever seen, and I don't mean that entirely as a complement. I mean, what's the point of having a film look like a comic book? Is it for comic book readers with even worse imaginations than the others? I don't know, but there is something kind of cool about it, in a relatively unimportant way. So what we've got here is a comic book film about Kerry Conran's technique, which appears to mostly be about being all grey and putting together scenes that themselves are so multimedia, nothing seeming to have much in common with the anything that's around them. I found myself wondering if the actors had shot every single one of their two-dimensional scenes from the same room or closet, you could practically see the paste dripping off the sides of their heads. Kerry had some actors to work with, too, but he and they all seem determined to be as comic-like as possible. The result being that Gwyneth Paltrow exhibits very, very little of the charm of which she's capable (though there are several amusing comic book poses), Angelina Jolie none, and Jude Law only the most scattered and remote possibilities-so brief that they couldn't be fairly described as even "fleeting"-that there's anything leading mannish about him at all. There's not much plot, but somehow by the time they drag the carcass around the turn into the homestretch, Conran allowing in some light for emphasis, Gwyneth and Jude still steadfastly determined not to develop their characters in any way that wouldn't be meaningful to a five year old, and the action starts really breaking out, and the virtual sets get cooler...I really enjoyed the last half hour or so, there's no point in pretending that I'm too cool or artsy to, because I did.
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