The story behind Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is considerably more interesting than the movie itself, and if you haven't already heard how Kerry Conran turned a six-minute reel of handcrafted special effects into the best deal for a novice director since Citizen Kane, you need to read this article now. Sky Captain itself is a fascinating, cold, endlessly watchable movie that doesn't raise the pulse, but God, is it gorgeous. Watching it, I thought to myself, "If Orson Welles were alive today, just think of all the amazing movies he wouldn't be allowed to make!"

Seeing Sky Captain the day after I saw F.W. Murnau's Sunrise at the Film Forum was especially instructive. Sunrise is usually considered the greatest work of the silent era, and its experiments with camera movement, artificial sets, double exposures and special effects are the natural precursors to the digital revolution that movies like Sky Captain are just beginning to explore. If Sky Captain represents the future of movies, and I think it does, it's reassuring to know that the future, in this case, looks an awful lot like the past.