Sky Captain

[ffutures]

Just back from the pictures, and like everyone else I know who's seen it I'm more or less in awe. It's wonderful; a few plot holes, but the whole thing is very much what I've had in mind for much of the Forgotten Futures RPG.

So much so that I came VERY close to writing a scenario with more than a little resemblance to it about three years ago. It's outlined in Forgotten Futures VII, and if I'd written the whole thing it would have had H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as the evil masterminds behind a plot to steal the secret of flight (the monopoly of the benevolent world government) to power their rocket ship. Lots of differences of course, such as a whole "Apocalypse Now" vibe that was less obvious in Sky Captain, but if I'd written the damn thing there would have been people thinking that I'd ripped off their ideas, or vice versa. That isn't the case, of course, it takes a lot longer than that to make a film like Sky Captain, but it's one of those odd missed opportunities. Trouble was that there was another mad scientist adventure in FF VII, and I really didn't want to write too.

Of course the person who is really gnashing his teeth right now is heliograph, who pressed very hard for me to write that version of the adventure, and might have had it in print just as the publicity for Sky Captain started if things had gone exactly right. Sorry...

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Now wait...you're unfair.

It didn't have SOME plot holes; it had a few frayed threads holding the plot holes together.

But y'know..it WAS wonderful!

[peteyoung.livejournal.com]

OT: Tun on Thursday? I have a fanzine with your automatons in it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll be along some time that evening if the cold I seem to be developing doesn't catch up with me.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Meh. I had high hopes this would be the movie to revive an interest in all things pulpy, but it's pretty clear it isn't.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think maybe it's trying just a little too hard. I lost count of all the film, comic, and SF magazine references I saw in it, and while I'd imagine it was great fun to design and produce, sometimes it looks like they had stuff in it just for the sake of knowing that someone in the audience would be going "squeee - the flying trucks from Forbidden Planet", "the spaceship ark from Astounding SF", etc. etc., and lost the plot a little.

[doctor-toc.livejournal.com]

With all the bouncing I was doing over the many and varied references in the movie, my poor wife rolled her eyes so many times she nearly pulled a muscle. It even had Godzilla in it!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

for "write too" insert "write two" or "write too many" as you prefer.

Dyslexixly,

Mucus..

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

I am so excited you liked it. I've been begging my husband to go with me since it came out, but he says all he's heard is negative stuff. I can point him here and say 'ha!', someone liked it, now you have to take me.

[beams happily]

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The trouble is that I am the type of person that goes "squeee" at that type of thing, so maybe I'm not the best person to quote as an authority on cinematic excellence.

Having said that, I did laugh a lot, I didn't feel I'd wasted my money, and I will eventually be buying the DVD.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Thought you would. :o)

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's definitely worth seeing on the big screen well-projected: it's a beautiful movie, right up there with the Harry Potter film in terms of visual quality. I was hoping it would be available in IMAX, and failing that I sought out DLP (digital projection), but alas, no luck.

I've seen it three times. I really love it up to when they head for Tibet. What stops it from being a great movie is the script: everything else is fabulous. I took the boys (a six year old and eight year old) and they were script doctoring it on the drive home (Polly as robot, Frankie as Totenkopf, other more interesting options).

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Also, it's been very well reviewed in the US:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sky_captain/

74% of critics gave it a positive rating.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

I just got back from seeing it, and I wasn't all that impressed. I think that part of the problem may have been the theatre I was watching it in. I think the projectionist screwed up, and the whole movie was badly framed, and not very well focused. There was also a big splotch in the middle of the screen.

As to the actual film, my god Polly was an idiot! Starting with the scene at Radio City Music Hall. "So who's the next victim going to be?" I almost shouted "You're talking to him, you moron!" at the screen.

And then there are the two vials that can end the world if the bad guy gets them. Let's stick them in our pocket while we go flying off around the world to look for him. No need to make him search for them. We'll deliver them right to him!

I suppose that what they were trying to do was one of the 1930s style serials, with production values, but Lucas and Speilberg did a much better job of that with the Indiana Jones movies. The CGI made for impressive eye candy, but there was no substance behind it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The important thing to remember about melodramatic / pulp romantic leads (as opposed to heroines) is that their whole reason for existence is to cause problems for the hero and/or advance the plot. If Polly hadn't prodced the vials there would be no reason to launch the rocket etc., and the plot grinds to a halt. Polly's behaviour is very true to period characters such as early Lois Lane etc.