I finally got to see this on a decent screen. The copy I have is quite dark so that on my old computer screen it was near invisible and very difficult to make out what was supposed to be happening. Now, with this new screen I can see the film, though it is still quite dark. I take the darkness to be an attemt at using the 'film noir' premise to create a period ambience ...and hide the sometimes dodgy c.g.i.
There is a lot to be said for the idea behind this film, but alas, the execution is some what flawed. The casting is a problem and and actors don't always seem to mesh well with their backgrounds.
Apart from that it also suffers from its ambitions, and tries to cram as much into the film as possible. I think perhaps that is another attempt at recreating an ambience, in the this case, that of the 1930's comic books. These are alluded to on several occiasions and the flying airfields are straight out of Dan Dare ...come to think of it Sky Captain is a DD clone too... I need to read more DD for -ROCKETMAN- inspiration!
Any way, the film was okay. Nothing fantastic. It had some really nice moments and sound ambience happening, but the wooden acting was a let down, they should have taken their lead from the Flash Gordon movie and gone right over the top! I suspect they were trying to meld the comic world with the 'film noir' ambience though, and in that they failed.
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