This 1930s Sci-Fi story of superheroes and super villains leaps to the screen in a uniquely fuzzy representation from some virtual comic book of the era, since, to my knowledge, there never was a Sky Captain comic book. The plot line is patently hackneyed with the good guys struggling against overwhelming odds and an evil genius lurking somewhere and threatening earth. Knowing where the storyline is going destroys some of the tension that a good plot needs. But it's worth a look for three reasons: first, the film's genesis was four years of effort by Kerry Conran, holed up in an apartment jammed with computer equipment to create a six minute video demo. Second, the producers found first class actors for the roles. And finally, this whole low budget project was filmed in the cheapest old building they could find with all the acting done in front of a blue screen and all the background computer generated in a combination of B&W and color.

The screen presentation is so different, that it takes a few minutes of run time to get used to it. But then it rolls on quickly for about an hour and forty-five minutes. I found that a bit too long considering the film is so weak on plot. However, it's representative of new directions that are available to story tellers using cheap computer power. It's a new category next to various kinds of animation and computer generated graphics.

In this story, there are really three protagonists, Jude Law as Sky Captain, Gwenth Paltrow as the reporter, Polly, and one of my favorite support role actors, Giavonni Ribisi as Dex, the techie wizard, a role type he also played in Flight of the Phoenix (2004). Michael Gabon is cast as Polly's editor and Sir Lawrence Olivier as Dr. Totenkopf. This latter casting is particularly interesting since Olivier died in 1989.

So we have a weak plot in a film with high-powered acting matched with low-tech cinematography and some clever computer generated scenes.

I didn't notice anything scarier or more violent than you can see on Saturday morning cartoons. So I'd deem it okay for kids in the five to seven range and older who understand that this stuff doesn't happen to real people.

MPAA: Rated PG for sequences of stylized sci-fi violence and brief mild language.