Film review: Sky captain and the World of Tomorrow (PG)

OLD movie legends don't die, technology resurrects them as evil scientists who battle younger talent.

Archived footage of Sir Laurence Olivier, spinning wildly in his grave no doubt, is used to make up the megalomaniac Dr Totenkopf in this ingenious fantasy.

In fact nothing is as it seems in Sky Captain, which is another special effects milestone on the road to total computerisation. The actors filmed everything in front of a blue screen and megapowered software filled in the rest.

The retro-futuristic Manhattan of 1939, the giant robots tramping through the city, the zeppelin sky battles: it's all done on a computer.

Intrepid, deliciously cliched reporter Polly Perkins (Paltrow) and flying ace Joe 'Sky Captain' (Law) get together to investigate why top scientists are disappearing and New York is being attacked by robots and weird flying machines.

Their search for Totenkopf, taking in cityscape and island jungle, sees the computer close to meltdown in conjuring a stunning, silvery world for Law and his heroes, including Angelina Jolie as an eyepatched army captain.

For all the pinch-me marvel that much of this film exists only in a digital dreamland, holes gape in the plot and the dialogue often feels silly or inadequate.

Law and Paltrow are respectable, considering they've got that blue bedsheet as a background, but their banter lacks verve and substance.

Writer director Kerry Conran's achievement has been to blend a stunning mock-future feel with a dreamy, matinee look (best exemplified by reporter Paltrow, complete with red lips and fedora hat).

Yesterday's world filmed with tomorrow's technology, Sky Captain takes off but never soars.

Mono rating: six out of ten.