Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

With a premise as awkward as its title, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a visually arresting but leaden sci-fi thriller. Set in the late 1930s, the comic book-style narrative follows the intrepid Joe 'Sky Captain' Sullivan (Jude Law), a daredevil aviator, who helps protect New York from a marauding alien race, intent on pillaging the earth's raw materials. Paltrow plays the sassy Polly Perkins, an ex-of the heroic pilot and an ambitious reporter desperate to get the inside scoop on our alien invaders. Throw in a plot as steady as a mountain of jelly and you've got the basic raw materials of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Borrowing heavily from the likes of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman and James Bond, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a mess of movie reference points. The world imagined by first time director Kerry Conran may be a stunningly designed one - reminiscent of Fritz Lang's classic Metropolis - but the narrative lacks sparkle and originality. Relying on cliche more than definition, the characters are non-existent, armed only clunky and pallid dialogue. Similarly, the predicament that they find themselves in is one of the more ludicrous in recent memory, devoid of the charm and easy humour that characterised its influences.