E-Mail This Article to a Friend SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

Noteworthy for its created-on-computer evocation of 1939 New York, Kerry Conran’s debut feature is an eye-popping bore. A triumph of Art Deco production design and all-too-studied homage, Sky Captain teems with a retro-futuristic jumble of spare parts culled from Republic serials, Lost Horizon, King Kong, and the 1951 sci-fi chestnut When Worlds Collide. In the promising opening, with the Hindenburg III moored atop a snow-whipped Empire State Building, maladroit reporter Polly Perkins (a shrill Gwyneth Paltrow) enlists former flame Joe Sullivan (Jude Law, rakish yet bland) as she ineptly tries to uncover a plot to kidnap the world’s pre-eminent scientists. Soon, this "Sky Captain" and his languid Girl Friday are battling a mysterious army of giant robots with his P-40 Warhawk. What could it all mean? Try pretext: loads of synthetic gee-whiz action awaits, but the novelty will wear thin for all but the youngest moviegoers. Welcome but short-lived relief comes in the perfectly cast form of Angelina Jolie commanding an all-female "Amphibious Squadron." Shot over a scant six weeks at London’s "George Lucas Stage," the rest of the actors are little more than puppets in Conran’s blue-screen toy box of nostalgia. Lucas would be proud. The rest of you should consider yourselves warned. (107 minutes)