DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Recommended) (1 Viewer)

[Stephen_J_H]

If you're going to get picky, The Wizard of Oz never played at Radio City Music Hall either; Conran is clearly playing with the past and having a great time of it.

 

[Daniel Windsor]

I thought the film looked a bit strange but I always liked the artwork.

Glad I bought the R1 DVD as I loved it. I can't quite put my finger on why I liked it so much.

For those having problems I noticed (first time in many years) that the dual layer jump (at 53 minutes) was noticeable on my Toshiba player.


I wonder how much this film cost to make?

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Sounds like the Wal-Mart bonus disc is a lot like the Best Buy promo disc that was released as a giveaway when the movie was about to come out theatrically.

 

[David Williams]

Similar but not the same. The WM gets technical whereas the BB disc is mostly overview. The WM version of Sky Captain was definitely the one to get for fans of the movie (and my Wally World had the cheapest price in the metro area to boot!)

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Watched this last night and I was extremely impressed with the sound quality. Picture quality was also very good, as I never saw a single artifact! Of course the intentional soft focus of the movie means the video will not jump out at you like "being there", but it is quite beautiful nonetheless.

As for the movie, I would have liked a better plot and more character development, but still found it enjoyable.

 

[Ric Easton]

Well, as a big fan of trailers, I wish I had read this whole thread before I picked it up at Best Buy! D'oh!

Ric

 

[John Alderson]

I feel like this was a more obvious attempt to do what Lucas wanted to do with Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Stylized, "out of era" dialog, that feeling that you're jumping into the middle of a running storyline, etc. I loved the 1138 on the doctor's office, it was a great nod by the filmmakers.

This was one of my favorites of 2004.

 

[Brian L]

Went to buy this at my local WM, and the only versions with the "Bonus Disc" sticker were the Full Screen (the had 3 times as many Full Screen copies as WS).

I have not opened my WS copy yet, but methinks I will not be enjoying the bonus everyone is yacking about.

Dang.

BGL

 

[Kenneth Harden]

Just saw it a few night ago.

I really liked it. Gwen (sp?) Pal... (sp?) acting was terrible (I HOPE this was on purpose) - but other than that, excellent.

Really my sort of movie.

It was something new and different.

Certainly in my 'A list' of movies.

 

[Jim Barg]

It's unfortunate. I have a coworker who also works at the local WM, and he'd mentioned that the first shipment of WS copies (with the disc) had sold out within hours on the 25th. The second shipment arrived last Friday, and had no disc with them.

 

[Matt Leigh]

The storytelling, editing, camera work, pacing, and visual design were all part of the period and genre that the film was trying to emulate...why would the acting be any differn't?

Paltrow was hired because she looks the part of a serial heroine/damsel just like Jude Law was hired because he has that mix of boyish good looks and heroic avaitor style. If the acting was anything more than what was delivered it probably wouldn't have been true to itself and its period.

Sky Captain is a movie that seems to get better with every viewing. The movie takes a while to get on its feet and grab some momentum. Around the time they get to Tibet I find that it finally grabs hold. Until then it just has a sloppy meander.

 

[Paul D G]

I enjoyed the movie to a certain point but agree it could have been better; more exciting. I picked it up, tho, as I'm sure I will enjoy it when I watch it again, and my son will probably enjoy it when he gets a little older.

As for WalMart - when I went to buy it all they had was FS versions at two different stores. I ordered from walmart.com and it arrived with the bonus disc. I happened to run into WM yesterday for something and checked the DVD section. They had new stock of the DVD but every one was FS.

-paul

 

[Patrick McCart]

I got my copy of Sky Captain from Wal-Mart and both versions had the bonus disc.

It's worth getting since it has the original teaser (which made me want to see the movie in the first place), as well both regular trailers.

While I haven't had the chance to watch it yet, I skimmed a few minutes... this is a flawless transfer. Sure, it's 100% digital, but Paramount refrained from adding a bunch of filtering and excessive compression artifacts. You can see so much fine detail... In comparison, Disney filters digital intermediate films to the point where they look plastic.

 

[John Alderson]

I listened to the producer commentary... it repeats A LOT of what's in the documentaries, and is almost never scene specific. I was disappointed. I wonder why the director wasn't involved, they seemed to get along well.

Speaking of the documentaries though, they are very good. I hope they end up with a profit after DVD sales; it didn't do well in theaters and I think it deserves better. I could see it being discovered by many on DVD.

Hey, "DVD" got flagged by the spell checker

 

[Jeff Adams]

My thoughts exactly. The acting went along with what the movie was trying to portray and it's time period. I don't think the movie took itself seriously for a moment. That is what I liked about it. It was pure cinema fun and I applaud the director for it. Paltrow pulled off Polly Perkins perfectly. Man if that one is not a tongue twister.

 

[Yocke]

The r3 is in Dolby Digital 6.1 Ex and DTS 6.1 ES. Well that's what the cover says anyways. I don't have the equipment to check for myself. It doesn't have the commentaries though, but it does have a third disc which is a cd-rom game. All the extras are on a second disc. Check out dvdword.nu (can't type urls for some reason) for pics.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Well said. As a fan of all the things it was inspired by (noir, serials, robots, Fleischer cartoons, on and on and on), I just drank it in. It's one of those cases when a friend criticizes it for plausibility or logic, I say "it isn't that kind of movie".

I admit that in the theater I thought the soft-focus, blown out and sepia look was overdone...to use a Spinal Tap analogy, it was set on "11" and I'd have preferred the style to be dialed back to 8 or 9. My eyes tired of it, and I wanted to shout to the non-existent projectionist "focus, please!"

On TV it doesn't bother me nearly as much.

My only other major criticism is that the film is LOADED with extraneous and/or redundant dialogue. "We went underwater!" Yes, Polly, we can see that. It's like a radio script--characters can't help describing what they see. A telltale of a first-time screenwriter (and an editor unwilling or unable to talk her director and/or producer into some tightening--Sabrina Plisco has a long resume, so I must assume she saw the fat for what it was).

Between stuff like that, and the blatant and unneeded exposition in the cockpit where Polly is reading from the professor's notes, the film could be trimmed by ten minutes without losing one bit of clarity.

That said, I proudly own the DVD.

 

[Patrick McCart]

I don't know... there's some real gems in serials:

"In all of the excitement, I forgot to turn on the oxygen!" (Dr. Zarkov in the first Flash Gordon serial)

 

[Steve Christou]

Which reminds me of a great line from Flesh Gordon, Dr.Flexi Jerkoff walks out of his spaceship takes a deep breath and says "Good. There is oxygen on this planet".

 

[Danny*B]

I went by WM last night, they still have the bonus disk in FS versions. They only had 1 copy of the WS version but without the bonus disk. Can i purchase the FS version with the bonus disk, remove the extra disk, then return it to WM and exchange it for the WS version. I normaly wouldnt condone this type of action but I think WM is doing a disservice to its customers by making more FS versions available weeks after the release without having WS versions for the customers. Technically it isnt stealing because WM is getting the full price of the DVD.