I just got home from Sky Captain, to find that P-C has already tagged the line I was going to tag! Hmph. It's such a fun movie. I got a big Indiana Jones vibe from it, except with sci-fi overtones rather than pseudo-religious overtones. I agree that Gwyneth's character was pretty annoying at times; it always bugs me a bit when I realize halfway through a movie that I'm being set up to want A (Jude Law) and B (Gwyneth Paltrow) together, when really I think A and C (Angelina Jolie) are far better suited to each other. Or A and D (Giovanni Ribisi)... but then, it's nearly impossible for me to not see the slash anymore, especially with the group of people I went with tonight. "Frankie! They've got Dex." Ah, I love it.

Oh, and the Wizard of Oz look was really cool, and I hadn't really picked up on it being a direct reference either, but you're totally right, Nonian. Also, I liked the bit where she realizes that the reflection of the letters on his plane spell "polly", though it took me a minute to get it.

Other things I really liked included the jetpack! Woo! And the tiny elephant in Dr. Jennings' lab. All the stuff in Tibet/Rivendell (and I was pleased to be able to pick up on a couple of familiar Tibetan phrases). One minor nitpick: When Joe and Polly are flying through New York and their fuel tank gets shot, and then they plunge into the river to evade the pursuing bird machine thingies, and then they come flying out again... wouldn't their fuel tank have been full of water, and therefore pretty useless??

I haven't read any of the negative reviews, so I don't know what people disliked about it, but I enjoyed it a hell of a lot.

I just got home from Sky Captain, to find that P-C has already tagged the line I was going to tag!

Hee hee. As soon as I heard that, I laughed so much I realized I had to tag it. I just loved the history it implied between them.

And my slash moment was at the end, when Joe and Dex were reunited. (But really, it took you half the movie to realize A & B went together? They're the male and female stars! Come on!)

The bit about the letters on the plane was something I noticed when they resurfaced in Dagobah. I don't know if we'd seen the markings before, but it was suddenly so obvious what they spelled upside-down. And I pointed it out to my friend, and I was wondering whether the movie would just let it be a small detail, but then it let everyone else in on it.

As for nitpicks, my friend remarked that after that whole jetpack thing, Frankie's going to have a monster case of the bends.

I haven't read any of the negative reviews, so I don't know what people disliked about it, but I enjoyed it a hell of a lot.

Story, character, dialogue. The usual suspects.

I didn't like the use of Laurence Olivier, but it set up a chuckle for the "Is it safe?" line.

Did anyone else spot Godzilla during the Japanese part of the news clip montage?

Re: P-C's whitefont:

And my slash moment was at the end, when Joe and Dex were reunited. (But really, it took you half the movie to realize A & B went together? They're the male and female stars! Come on!)

No, of course I knew before the movie even started that Joe and Polly would wind up together. But we didn't meet Frankie until halfway through the movie, at which point I realized that Joe should TOTALLY be with her because she was about a hundred times cooler than Polly. Unless he was going to be with Dex, which would be just fine by me. They were so cute together. The wink! And my friends also thought that Frankie would have had the bends pretty badly, but then we thought maybe she was wearing a pressurized helmet or something.

dcp, I think I'm movie-illiterate, because I didn't even recognize Laurence Olivier! I don't think I've seen any of his famous movies, but you'd think I would have seen pictures of him.

dcp, I wouldn't have "recognized" him, but I knew he was in the movie. But hee hee on the "Is it safe?" I haven't seen Marathon Man, but I know the line, although I didn't remember Olivier was in it, so I didn't put two and two together. And while we're in that scene, the "I meant throw something" was hilarious. I totally called it, but it was still funny.

And yep, dcp, I saw Godzilla. That was hilarious.

And Kate, you haven't mentioned the most ridiculous nitpick of all: this rocket was going to INCINERATE THE FUCKING EARTH with mere BOOSTERS.

I think the only movie of his that I liked was Marathon Man.

But...but...recognizing the silly technology and science isn't nit-picking, it's part of the humor.

Heh. See, there's a certain level at which I just turn off the rational brain and handwave away the most ridiculous plot widgets with ease, especially since half the time I'm not really following the made-up science anyway (see: Spider-Man 2, for another recent example). Like I wasn't sure whether it was the actual rocket that was going to DESTROY THE EARTH AND EVERY LIVING THING UPON IT! or whether it was something in the rocket that was going to communicate with the base and trigger a bomb or doomsday device of some kind there. At that point, all I need to know is "something BAD will happen, la la it doesn't matter how!" It's at the simpler, smaller level, where I actually understand what's going on, that I feel free to nitpick.

Was there ever mention of where the rocket was supposed to be headed once the Earth was destroyed behind it?

Barsoom, maybe.