I wanna live in the World of Tomorrow

I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow yesterday. No, it doesn't live up to the hype. Yes, it's still a whole heck of a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see it again. It helps if you go into it expecting to see one of those old Republic serials, a la Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. My review of Sky Captain is up at RevSF:

It works. And how. Furthermore, there is no way Sky Captain could work in any other form. This is a movie that is literally luminous, with lush visuals firmly anchoring the story in the retro-futuristic art deco world the 1930s should have been. From the opening scenes, with the Hindenburg III cruising in to New York to dock with the airship mooring mast atop the Empire State Building, it's clear this is a world apart, a sepia-tinged dreamland steeped in a deep love for the Golden Age of Hollywood. The only film that comes close to encompassing that same atmosphere is 1991's sadly underrated "The Rocketeer," and Conran has acknowledged that earlier film's influence. While the two pictures share the same general conceit-—how our past should have been-—they approach that idea from radically different directions. Whereas "The Rocketeer" strove for verisimilitude and interwove the fantastic as tightly as possible with the everyday reality of history, Sky Captain discards reality entirely and rebuilds the world from the ground up, opting instead for a science fiction fantasy world of breathtaking beauty and texture. It simply feels right.

Also, I have a new music review up over at Green Man Review. I used to do quite a few music reviews, but have gotten away from them of late. This is my return to the form. Anyone who has a love for the old Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns or Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" will want to check out my review of Andean Fusion's Andean Sounds for the World vol. VII. It's a disc I listen to a lot.

Now Playing: Kirov Orchestra White Nights: Romantic Russian Showpieces