Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow represents a major cinematic achievement. It is the first movie filmed without any sets or locations. Jude Law and Gywneth Paltrow didn't have to actually suffer through the lack of room service in Nepalese hotels or tangle with New York traffic. Instead, they filmed all of their scenes in front of blue screens. All of the sets and locations were added, courtesy of CGI after the fact. The result is a visually impressive, one-of-a-kind film. Part old-school Technicolor, part impressionistic painting, part sepia tone and hand painting, the look and feel of Sky Captain is lush and indulgent. I wish the story and the characters had benefited from some of that same care and attention to detail.

The plot is simple. Joe 'Sky Captain' Sullivan (Jude Law) must save New York City and the world from the clutches of the evil Dr Totenkopf (played by the very dead Sir Laurence Olivier courtesy of archive footage). Along for the ride are old flames, Polly Perkins (Gywneth Paltrow), a plucky news reporter looking for the big scoop and Captain Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie), as the tough British fleet commander. Of course, no hero is complete without a brainy sidekick, Giovanni Ribisi fulfills that role as faithful Dex Dearborn.

Owing a lot to comic books and a huge debt to movies and serials from the 30's and 40's, Sky Captain fails to capture the heart and intelligence of those movies. Law, who usually oozes charisma and sex appeal, fails to even register in Sky Captain. I think writer-director Kerry Corgan was going for a Bogart-Bacall kind of banter and chemistry but his writing isn't that good. While Law and Paltrow look wonderful in this movie (I love 1930's and 1940's fashions), their relationship had all the heat of a cold shower. Only Jolie, who played up the campiness of her role, was really enjoyable to watch. Maybe that's the problem, while there are a couple of good one-liners, Sky Captain seems to take itself too seriously.

Movies like Sky Captain are the reasons why I often dread seeing special-effects laden movies. They spend so much time and effort on the effects that the story and the characters suffer. That is definitely the case here. I loved the look of the movie: the soft lighting, the plush coloring, the trench coats and fedoras. But once you get beyond the visuals, there is nothing else there.