Capitaine Sky et le monde de demain

Oui, le film a une histoire intéressante. Mais lui reprocher cela reviendrait à manquer les dinosaures dans La Liste de Schindler. Car Sky Captain est un pur plaisir pour les fans, dont le principal atout est ce que Star Wars a et dont manque 90% de la production hollywoodienne actuelle. Sky Captain est un bel hommage aux vieux films, il ne manque pas d'humour agréable, de superbes musiques héroïques et de héros sympathiques (Jude Law et Angelina Jolie sont divins, seul Gwyneth Paltrow me semblait un peu incertaine dans son rôle). La réalisation ne nécessite pas de commentaire, la "vallée récréative" tibétaine me rappelait Fondcombe dans Le Seigneur des Anneaux. Par moments, j'en étais même ému. La perfection n'est plus qu'à un traitement en noir et blanc spécialement adapté près. P.S. Le film suggère une ère où les acteurs physiques seront remplacés par des acteurs numériques dans les films. (11/01/2005)

A deliberate essence of stupidity. I can’t understand why anyone would want to make something like this and why anyone would want to watch it. As an attempt at naive retro sci-fi it’s successful, as a film for the 21st century viewer is an epic fail. Listening to most of the dialogues felt like slow, painful death; if the film was half an hour longer, I wouldn’t have been able to write this review. (04/08/2010)

The stylized visuals are complemented by excellent sound and a great orchestral soundtrack. However, the story lags a long way behind the quality of the technical aspects. Although it is completely obvious that this is intentionally naive as a dime novel, but perhaps they go too far. It’s nice that it was basically made by one person in his garage, but that is no excuse for all of the shortcomings. Another disappointment is Jude Law: he simply isn’t the heroic adventurer type. Conversely, the lately rather back-seated Paltrow seems to really enjoy her role as the journalist. Another plus point is the goading humor between the central duo which, luckily, works, saving a lot. (01/11/2004)

Although The World of Tomorrow is playful and its patina of old movies is charming, the flimsy and predictable story cannot be hidden by the most compelling visuals. There were moments when I was actually bored. Even so, Conran's film reminded me a bit of some of Karel Zeman's films with its visual innovation and retro mood. I'm definitely curious about Conran's next project. (19/01/2005)

Why pretend I'm doing something new when everyone around me is pretending the same thing? Why not admit that everything important has already been done and film a fun and naïve retro with futuristic tricks, endearingly terrible acting performances, the atmosphere of old comic books and the plot of the most hilarious trash? Conran managed to do it really well... His Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a well-balanced mix of retro (everything listed above) and modern technical procedures with a special atmosphere of colorized movies, old photos and comics. If there was even more humor and perspective, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow would be almost flawless, closely related to the similarly conceived Indiana Jones trilogy. The way that it is, it is sometimes spoiled by an excessive insight into its own visual perfection and a lack of distance from the triviality of the story. But it still functions as a spectacle, it’s almost a schematic parody, it’s infectiously entertaining, adventurously wild and cheerfully picturesque. Conran and his team’s attempt to achieve retro works on almost all fronts (the editing, acting, directing, soundtrack, artistic stylization) and if you accept it, you will see one of the most entertaining films of this season. Even with all the naivety, it’s much more intelligent than 99% of the adventurous production made in Hollywood. By the way, isn't it symbolic that entering the new visual age of the film is happening through a designer return to the immortal years of the 1920s and 1930s? (06/11/2004)