I saw the movie Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow today. It was pretty good overall and I'd recommend it, mostly because of the look of it. It's an odd sort of retro sci-fi, like an updated version of the old Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials. The colors are dark and washed out to give it an old-fashioned look, and it takes place in the late 1930's.

Future film buffs may look back on this one as a pioneer in a newish way of making movies. There were no sets or locations used. The entire movie was shot in the studio with the actors in front of a blue screen, and all the sets and effects were added digitally after the camera work. If this movie does OK at the box office, Hollywood may make a lot more movies like this, as it's likely to cost a whole lot less than filming on location and building elaborate sets.

I thought it worked pretty well. I knew beforehand, and was looking specifically for any telltale clues to the CGI work, and I was impressed how well they pulled it off. I did notice a few times when some obvious actions occurred while the camera was pointed elsewhere. For example, there's a scene where Gwyneth Paltrow breaks a glass door, but we only hear the glass break while the camera looks away at Jude Law, and then the camera shows the broken glass and the rock in Gwyneth's hand. Of course, there was no glass door, just a blue screen, so this was a bit of a cheat. I noticed a few more incidents, but it was pretty easy to miss unless you were looking for stuff like that.

Now the bad stuff. Jude Law may be a fine actor, but he's a bit of a cold fish for a dashing, romantic Indiana Jones sort of lead required for a role like this. There just wasn't much chemistry between Law and Paltrow. And the plot was definitely a throwback to the Buck Rogers days, so leave your brain at home and just enjoy the visuals for this one.