Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Blu-ray

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

 (2004)

Action | Adventure | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

In this science fiction adventure set in the 1930s, New York City reporter Polly Perkins starts to investigate why so many famous scientists are being reported missing. Soon, she gets clues, as strange flying machines and giant robots threaten the city. Luckily, her old flame, aviator Captain Joseph Sullivan aka Sky Captain, is there to battle the bad guys with the Flying Legion, in his Warhawk P-40. Now Polly must fly away with Sky Captain to Nepal to find a crazy scientist, Dr. Totenkopf, who apparently wants to destroy the world!

For more details about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow on Blu-ray, see the Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Blu-ray Review

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon
Director: Kerry Conran

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

The picture quality of Sky Captain is really difficult to judge. The 2:35:1, 1080p, MPEG-2 encoded picture is so highly stylized; the usual descriptive adjectives just do not apply. The picture is designed to look surreal with an almost romantic quality. It has been digitally soften to create a look of a retro 40’s serial. While the picture does looked blurred, there is quite a bit of detail in the picture, and certainly more than you see on the DVD. Colors and hues have been desaturated in some places, and vivid in others. Sepia tones prevail throughout, black levels look correct although the bleached out look of the video can sometimes make the picture look a little silver. There was no chroma noise or bleeding to be found. The source material looked pristine, no pops (this is not film), or any other artifacts are found. Some problems that I did notice is that often the actors did not blend in well with the backgrounds, it was not convincing to these eyes. The best example of that is seen when the robot began their walk through retro Manhattan. As Paltrow runs across the street, it does not look like here feet are on solid ground. When she gets to curbs, she does not step up on them, she runs over them. This is really a small flaw however as most will probably miss this altogether. When I judge the quality of a highly stylized picture designed to create an effect, I judge it on whether it works, or it doesn’t. In this case it does.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

As difficult as it was to judge picture quality on this disc, the audio quality was a different story. The 5.1 Dolby Digital 1.5 mbps encode was a sonic blast to say the least. There are quite a few audio reference moments in this movie. The first being the robots’ walking through retro Manhattan while Polly tries and shoot pictures of them. The footsteps in this sequence literally shake the room with every step. You sub better have a strong constitution to take the punishment this segment will induce upon it. My Real Time analyzers registered very high output at 20hz and below in the LFE, and the left and right mains as well. How is that for power? Imaging was absolutely terrific. The front soundstage was as high as the floor/ceiling, and as wide as wall-to-wall. Image depth was just a little flat compared to other great mixes. Dialog was always clear, even in the presence of full bore sound effects. Guns shots and explosions rang from every corner of my room with power and authority. Side and rear wall imaging was stable and well defined. Sonic detail (the individual details within the sound effects) was excellent, as you could clearly hear metal rubbing against metal and the transient attacks of the guns from the airplanes. The score by Edward Shearmur is finely rendered, with a nice neutral midrange and highs. Sound staging was a little diffused, but not objectionably so. This is one well-put together mix.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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