Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow’

Written by Scott Edwards 

Sometimes I really need to hand it to reporters when their investigations take them places they did not even expect to go. When following up on tips that get them some basic information that eventually takes them to the top of the food chain, they could easily be persuaded to give up the hunt. While some do, others follow the story to the bitter end and while it can put them in the line of fire, the drive to get the truth out to the masses is so powerful in them, they will do anything to make sure that their story sees the light of day. In this time of massive cover-ups and fear looming around every corner, it is good to see that some people may want to make the world a better place by bringing the truth out, even if it's for a basic news story.

While working on her column Polly Perkins gets a new tip that she needs to follow up on. Getting an invite to meet with someone that has first-hand knowledge about the scientists that have recently gone missing, Polly is face to face with Dr. Jennings who fears that he will be the next one to go. Trying to pass on the information about what is happening around the world, Dr. Jennings leaves a blueprint on the floor of a giant robot design. Thinking little of this, Polly sees firsthand what these robots look like when they come flying into New York and attack the city.

While the local defenses can do little to stop these robots from running amuck, they put a call into Sky Captain who can be their savior. While his normal tactics are not able to take down the robots, being able to disable one of them causes the others to retreat for the time being. As the robots seemed to be after the power generators in the city, Sky Captain Joe must find out who is controlling the robots and why they have taken their attacks to more civilized areas. When Polly shows up in his hanger, Joe does not want to discuss what he knows, but Polly has information and a name of the man who may behind the attacks. Doctor Totenkopf is the mind behind these massive robots, but he is just a name and nobody is able to find his last known location since he went off the grid many years ago.

When going to talk to Dr. Jennings with her old friend, Polly finds the old man close to death in his laboratory. But the Doctor has held on long enough to pass on a message, along with two vials of something that will keep the world from being destroyed. Before being able to pass on the information to Joe, the city is attacked by another string of robots, this group all flyers that target the same power generators in the middle of the city. Getting back to the hanger, Joe finds that his hideout has been attacked by another group of robots, but this time they have taken his right-hand man with them. Dex was able to pinpoint the origin of the signal that is controlling the robots and now that Joe has it, he is ready to assault it head on, but even the greatest fighter pilot in the land knows that he will need help from his fiends if he is going to be successful in bringing Totenkopf down.

Just a good old shoot ‘em up movie with plenty of action, but this one has some thinking behind it. When this movie first came out, I was not sure that I wanted to waste my time in seeing it, since it was filmed to look much older than it actually was. It is a different feeling when watching it, that is for sure, but not a bad one after seeing how they made it work. The storyline is solid, and the cast was fantastic. I really liked the tension between Joe and Polly, even in their oddest situations, they want to know what they did to each other in the past to break them up. Dex was a surprise for me, I did not expect him to be much of a part of the story, but he was featured the right way for a science guy and was able to steal most of his scenes. A light hearted movie that anyone can sit down and watch as there is plenty of banter between the characters, but also plenty of action to keep you glued to the screen.

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