I caught Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow the other night and really liked it. The look of the movie was so cool, and I think it succeeded almost completely in being exactly what it wanted to be, which was kind of a '30's adventure serial if they had had cool CGI effects. I mean, giant robots smashing stuff! Planes that turn into subs! Angelina Jolie in an eyepatch! What's not to like?
Well, as it turns out, Gwyneth Paltrow. Now, I mean, I know Gwyneth can act--I seen Shallow Hal and totally believed she was a fat chick!--so I guess she just chose not to in this movie, or else the director was too busy with the CGI to try to get a decent performance out of her. I mean, I knew the whole movie was CGI except for the actors, but I bought the illusion in every scene except the ones where Gwyneth, bored expression on her face, was not really acting very scared as she almost got crushed by giant robots. Or as her plane plunged into the sea. Etc.
It made me appreciate the acting chops of even somebody like, I don't know, that girl who played Kitty Pride in X-Men: the last stand. We think of these big effects-driven movies as not being acting showcases, but it turns out that it takes some serious acting skill to stand against a blue screen and pretend something's happening, which I never really appreciated until I saw Gwyneth Paltrow not doing it.
