"Calling Sky Captain, do you read?"
Oct. 9th, 2004 07:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilmanWent to see Sky Captain yesteday, because it was decided that we needed a break from Real Life, which was getting rather intense and Meaningful.
It was, amazingly, just what the doctor ordered!
Okay. Apologies to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala, but Sky Captain is, first of all, a truly beautiful movie, giant art deco robots and all. The matte paintings are to die for, the costumes are perfect, and the cinematography is right out of the best ever serial adventure of the 1940's. Great music (lifted 80% from the entire Indiana Jones ouvre, but hey, steal from the best, right?), solid acting from leads who knew exactly what kind of movie they were in and what it required from them, and a couple of really funny lines/visuals just when they were needed. Gorgeous fun.
It's also perhaps -- and a nod tomatociquala here --- the stupidest movie I have ever seen. Really. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, they pick up and drop characters as needed. and the leaps of alleged logic they take to arrive at conclusions are... astonishing. At one point I honestly had to start hitting my forehead to get my brain out of the "But... But... But...that's stupid!" rut it was stuck in.
Don't just leave your brain at the door, use the coupon they give you with your popcorn and get the lobotomy before you sit down. It can only help. It's not even a movie (c.f. Armageddon) that you can mock for being stupid, because it's so damn stupid.... but also so knowingly stupid. It's a gung-ho, 1940's style, wide-eyed adventure serial. And if you mock, you lose that wide-eyed enjoyment and diss the prettiness of it all. So you just sit back and say "okay, I have the i.q. of a sitting president....entertain me."
I'm not going to say run out and see this movie. It's not for everyone -- and you have to be in the right frame on non-mind for it to work. But
if you think you are, it's worth the price. Especially if, like me, you faunch after well-done Deco (not so much the robots, for me, as the newspaper offices. O.M.G.) or are (also like me) a cinematography geek. O.M.G. the cinematography...
Having a few drinks afterward is not out of place, either. So you can sit there, shake your head, and say "my god, that was the best, stupidest movie
I have ever seen." Not that we did any of that, oh my no.
And got home far too late and woke up far too early, so the brain is still set stubborn on exhausted. Going to go read something smart, to get my IQ back up to normal....
It was, amazingly, just what the doctor ordered!
Okay. Apologies to
matociquala, but Sky Captain is, first of all, a truly beautiful movie, giant art deco robots and all. The matte paintings are to die for, the costumes are perfect, and the cinematography is right out of the best ever serial adventure of the 1940's. Great music (lifted 80% from the entire Indiana Jones ouvre, but hey, steal from the best, right?), solid acting from leads who knew exactly what kind of movie they were in and what it required from them, and a couple of really funny lines/visuals just when they were needed. Gorgeous fun.It's also perhaps -- and a nod to
matociquala here --- the stupidest movie I have ever seen. Really. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, they pick up and drop characters as needed. and the leaps of alleged logic they take to arrive at conclusions are... astonishing. At one point I honestly had to start hitting my forehead to get my brain out of the "But... But... But...that's stupid!" rut it was stuck in.Don't just leave your brain at the door, use the coupon they give you with your popcorn and get the lobotomy before you sit down. It can only help. It's not even a movie (c.f. Armageddon) that you can mock for being stupid, because it's so damn stupid.... but also so knowingly stupid. It's a gung-ho, 1940's style, wide-eyed adventure serial. And if you mock, you lose that wide-eyed enjoyment and diss the prettiness of it all. So you just sit back and say "okay, I have the i.q. of a sitting president....entertain me."
I'm not going to say run out and see this movie. It's not for everyone -- and you have to be in the right frame on non-mind for it to work. But
if you think you are, it's worth the price. Especially if, like me, you faunch after well-done Deco (not so much the robots, for me, as the newspaper offices. O.M.G.) or are (also like me) a cinematography geek. O.M.G. the cinematography...
Having a few drinks afterward is not out of place, either. So you can sit there, shake your head, and say "my god, that was the best, stupidest movie
I have ever seen." Not that we did any of that, oh my no.
And got home far too late and woke up far too early, so the brain is still set stubborn on exhausted. Going to go read something smart, to get my IQ back up to normal....
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Sky Captain
Date: 2004-10-09 08:10 am (UTC)Re: Sky Captain
Date: 2004-10-09 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-10-10 02:54 pm (UTC)Stupid, but beautifully so
Date: 2004-10-10 07:44 pm (UTC)The late Damon Knight talked about First and Second Order Idiot Plots.
The First Order Idiot Plot only works because the protagonist is an idiot.
The Second Order Idiot Plot only works because everyone in the story is an idiot.
Sky Captian was a Second Order Idiot Plot. The only character in the film who seemed to have a clue was Paley, Polly's long-suffering Editor in Chief.
That said, I loved it, and will cheerfully buy the DVD at some point, just for the visuals. It wasn't a movie: it was a proof-of-concept demonstration of new filmmaking technology. But God, it was gorgeous.
______
Dennis