Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: September 17, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
11
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
In its heedless energy and joy, it reminded me of how I felt the first time I saw "Raiders of the Lost Ark." It's like a film that escaped from the imagination directly onto the screen, without having to pass through reality along the way. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Sky Captain is a gorgeous, funny, and welcome novelty. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
As an imaginative visual experience, there's nothing like it. Today, at least. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
A triumph not only for its technical mastery but for its good taste. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Everything here from costuming and production design to the note-perfect score from Edward Shearmur works in tandem to create not so much a film as a singular and joyous tribute to a vanished age when wonder only cost a nickel and played three time daily at the Bijou. Read full review
88
PremierePeter Debruge
Conran's Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a pastiche of everything from "King Kong" to "The Wizard of Oz," a movie that escalates to a breathless cliff-hanger every 20 minutes or so and reinvents itself with every reel. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The film's save-the-world scenario may be the stuff of crusty cliff-hangers, its imagery may be borrowed, and its jaunty dialogue anything but deep, but there's something exhilarating going on here. It's darn sublime. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
Conran has got himself a looker, with Paltrow in soft focus, the whole world larger than life and a title that, said in the proper low-pitched voice, conveys the tone of the film: exuberant, idiosyncratic and timeless. Read full review
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Gloriously retro, unashamedly celebratory of the joy of moviemaking and the love of old-fashioned heroism. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The result owes a little to the 1927 "Metropolis," a little to film noir, a little to early depictions of H.G. Wells' science fiction -- notably the 1936 "Things to Come" -- and a little to lovably far-fetched sci-fi serials. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
Other than the actors, their costumes, and a few props, everything in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is digital illusion, and the effects are often exhilarating. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
An extraordinary technical achievement. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
A collection of such dazzling digital illusions you can't wait for it to hit DVD so you can freeze individual images. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. Russell
Despite its flaws, Sky Captain indulges that inner kid who always wanted a single movie crammed with robots, airships and dinosaurs, with World's Fair hopefulness and panache. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
No one has really been asking for a fusion of "Independence Day," Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," and an old Buck Rogers serial, but here it is anyway, and the only thing keeping it from greatness is a good story. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
70% style and 30% substance. It has a plot and characters, but those are almost beside the point. Read full review
70
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Arresting at first but gradually trails off under the weight of its hyper-derivativeness and anxiety to please. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
The filmmakers' investment in their weird visions is wildly unorthodox, but the payoff is oddly satisfying. Read full review
70
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Too fixated on 1939 for its own good. Its passionate immersion in a past that only dimly resonates with younger audiences may be a badge of its integrity, but that immersion trumps its vision of the future and leaves us in a land of nostalgia. Read full review
70
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
It’s an exhilarating experience, and raises the bar for the use of digital technology in film. Read full review
70
Village VoiceEd Park
Conran takes the ghosts in his machine seriously, and the results appear at once meltingly lovely and intriguingly inhuman. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklySheila Benson
For Conran, after they finished shooting pesky actors, the real fun began at the computer screen with his delirious imagination in free-fall. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Missing beneath its fabulous surface, however, is anything like a beating heart. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
For all its Buck Rogers-style derring-do, gorgeous vistas of an Art Deco New York and sepia-toned cinematography, Sky Captain is a static, uninvolving experience. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
It's a gimmick, it's not a movie. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
This is a sophisticated movie, but one whose sophistication is surprisingly simple-minded. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
A lovingly rendered visual treat struggles with indifferent direction and torpid plot. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The best way to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow -- if you see it at all -- is as an interesting experiment that failed.
50
San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer
The movie is like one of those newfangled Vegas casinos, where what appears to be open sky is really painted ceiling. What's initially dazzling becomes stifling. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Worse, the story is so thin and clichéd, it seems as if a computer wrote the screenplay and a robot directed it. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
So captivating to look at that you can almost forget there's virtually nothing to it. Read full review
50
TimeRichard Corliss
Conran hasn't attached his technical virtuosity to a ripping yarn or infused it with behavioral brio. The first of its kind often doesn't work; Sky Captain may be the Moses that leads other directors to a blue-sky, blue-screen promised land. Read full review
42
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
For 12-year-old boys, period. Read full review
40
EmpireWilliam Thomas
For its writer-director, Sky Captain was a labour of love. For almost everyone else - including the wooden cast - it’s just a labour. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Like so many technological marvels, at the human level it's not only merely dead, it's really most sincerely dead. Read full review
25
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Crass and soulless. Read full review
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