TODAY'S DVD REVIEW: 'Sky Captain' Redux


Here's the thing about the freelance life: Sometimes you write about the same subject multiple times, using as many new sentences as you can muster.

Just so today -- when my all-new second review (with sidebar) of the "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" DVD appeared in today's Oregonian.

Compare it to my far longer DVD Journal review, and you'll get a feel for the difference between geeking out on the Internet and crafting something for a strict print-pub news-hole. Anyway:




One of the great things about DVD is the way it allows filmmakers to do postmortem analyses of their work.

This is especially interesting when the movie in question is widely considered a failure.

Used well, commentary tracks and making-of documentaries can become a sort of digital endnotes: Directors and producers can dish on the compromises, arguments and technical obstacles that kept a movie from being all it could be -- or (even better) they can make a case for misunderstood years of effort.

Case in point: "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," which hit stores last week as an extras-choked, one-disc DVD. This wildly ambitious homage to 1930s adventure serials used every technical trick in the book (and created a few new ones) to create a movie that looked like a sepia-toned postcard come to life. Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, as the dashing Sky Captain and reporter Polly Perkins, acted out their roles in front of gigantic, sterile blue-screen sets -- with robots, dinosaurs, airplanes, jungle fortresses and even most of the props and furniture added later by about 100 special-effects technicians.

It's a strange, and possibly insane, way to make a movie. It was also a bit of a financial gamble: Producer Jon Avnet ("Fried Green Tomatoes") plucked first-time director Kerry Conran from obscurity, where he'd been laboring on a six-minute version of "Sky Captain" on a desktop Mac for four years.

Conran's bluescreen technique -- designed so he could make a huge movie at home on the cheap -- lends "Sky Captain" a massive, dynamic scope, with Law and Paltrow running around on gorgeous, mile-wide virtual sets. But it also leaves Paltrow looking a bit flummoxed by her nonexistent surroundings. And while Conran and his designer brother Kevin really know their way around the tropes of the serials, comics and the cityscapes of Hugh Ferriss, "Sky Captain"'s scenes of exposition and banter can fall a bit flat. Only Giovanni Ribisi and Angelina Jolie -- in supporting roles as an inventor and amphibious commando -- really seem to "get" the film's elaborate joke.

Audiences certainly didn't. "Sky Captain," promoted for months as heralding the arrival of a major new geek talent, barely made back half its production and marketing costs worldwide. But this is where that great leveler DVD comes in: The "Sky Captain" platter makes a stirring case for the film, and it's also fascinating in the way it exposes the egos, sweat and innovation behind the project -- while revealing a couple of the blind spots that kept it from being a total success.

Wading through the extras, a few things about "Sky Captain" become apparent. One is that Avnet, who commandeers his own commentary track, feels bittersweet about the years of effort poured into helping Conran finish his movie. While Avnet goes out of his way to praise Kerry and Kevin's visual panache, he also dishes at surprising length about the push-and-pull of the editing process, the way they ran out of time and had to bring in outside effects houses to finish the film, and the almost pathological shyness of Conran when it came to asserting himself or dealing with actors. Meanwhile, on a second track, the Conrans and their effects team (who never mention Avnet's contributions) focus on technical triumphs at the expense of discussing their ideas or inspirations.

Throw in a fascinating 52-minute making-of documentary, a featurette in which Kevin reveals his gorgeous production-design drawings, and Conran's original six-minute short, and you have a surprisingly meaty history of a film that shot for greatness and ended up a fascinating, flawed geek-out. It’s well worth discovering on home video.
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Among the special features:

• Commentary by producer Jon Avnet -- A slightly maddening yack track. Avnet is wry, bittersweet and honest about his experiences bringing Kerry Conran into the big leagues. Takes his share of credit.

• Commentary by writer/director Kerry Conran, production designer Kevin Conran and the effects team -- Hugely disappointing. Filled with silent stretches, it focuses exclusively on the film's technical achievements at the expense of the movie's artistry, ideas and inspirations.

• "Brave New World" making-of documentary -- 52 informative, funny, harrowing minutes on how "Sky Captain" blew up from Kerry Conran's pet project to major studio release. Required viewing for aspirant DIY filmmakers.

• Featurette: "The Art of the World of Tomorrow" -- Hands-down the DVD's best extra: production designer Kevin Conran sharing his incredible "Sky Captain" concept art.

• Kerry Conran's original six-minute "Sky Captain" short -- Made on a Mac over four long years, this is a wonderful peek at Conran's original vision. In some small ways, it's peppier than the final product.


In the cockpit with 'Sky Captain'
SIDEBAR: World of extras
(The Oregonian, Feb. 4, 2005)


Posted: Fri - February 4, 2005 at 04:11 PM        

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