Had Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow come out in 2011 or 2012, it may have been a blockbuster hit. If Sky Captain came out today, 20 years after its first release on September 17, 2004, it would probably attract a lot more attention than the film did back then. The reason? In the third decade of the 21st century, there’s an entire science fiction subculture primed to be interested in moody nostalgia pieces that casually assert an alternate timeline. From the Joe Johnston’s Captain America to Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, the 2010s were ready for a dieselpunk sci-fi aesthetics.
But in 2004? Not so much. Despite a critically acclaimed, arrestingly unique, specifically retrofuturistic noir style, a fantastic cast, and a fantastic score from Edward Shearmur, director Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain failed to capture the box office in the summer of 2004, denying us the possibility of future installments in the series. And yet just like how Sky Captain presents an alternate version of 1939, it’s tempting to long for an alternate version of 2004, one in which this movie was a bigger hit. Two decades later, Sky Captain remains fun as hell, smart with its own limitations, and better than most franchise films with similar goals.
