Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Year: 2004 Rating: PG Overall Evaluation: 8.0 Significance Suppositions Story Style 8.0 / 10 8.0 / 10 7.0 / 10 9.0 / 10 Click HERE for evaluation criteria.

Style

Rated PG for sequences of stylized sci-fi violence and brief mild language. Fun comic book style, nothing gratuitous.

Story

The story is a "vision of the future" told from a 1920's-type perspective. The world is being terrorized by giant robots who appear out of nowhere and steal technology and power related items for some unknown purpose. Sky Captain is a flying ace with a cool airplane that has all kinds of James Bond type appliances on it (and can do Morse code from the sky!). A selfish, nosey reporter / love interest tags along as Sky Captain tries to save the world.

[SPOILER WARNING!]

We discover that an "evil genius" is trying to create a modern Noah's Ark - a rocket that will simultaneously save two of every animal and blow up the earth for its wickedness.

Suppositions

The film is shot to look like a kind of artsy comic book. The gadgets are pretty unbelievable of course but that's sci-fi.

Significance

Some have seen this as an attack on Christianity by its making the villain a type of a biblical hero. But there is an introductory remark made once the hero discovers what is going on: "He thinks he's God." I think this saves the film from a negative message. The madman thinks the world is evil and he is right - this fact is not even contested in the film. The problem of course, as the hero says, is that he is not God and therefore has no right to his chosen course of action. While there may be a liberal agenda here it is not made obvious, at least to me. Besides that it's your basic fight evil and save the world message.