Yesterday, I saw "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" at the local theater, and let me tell you: IT ROCKS! Everything was great: from the plot, the visuals, the characters, and the dialogue. And to think everything was made 100% in a bluescreen (with the effects added later on) and directed by an virtual unknown who also developed the film's groundbreaking visual effects (his name is Kerry Conran, FYI)! Even Sir Lawrence Olivier plays the role of the villian Dr. Totenkopf in the film, even though he's been dead for 15 years (it still fits in the film, though)! This is clearly the Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark for the next generation! Like those two films, "Sky Captain" pays painstaking homage to old sci-fi serials, pulp fiction, comic books and even German expressionism as evidenced by the setting (its set in the year 1939) and its overall visual style (a blend of B&W, sepia, and color tone makes it look like an authentic film from that era thanks to effective chiaroscuro lighting). Despite the many sci-fi anachronisms present in the film (which includes robots on a rampage in NYC, a hidden air base in the sky, and a mysterious island inhabited with a strange menagerie of creatures), it's still a good film to watch because well... it's fantasy, not reality. This is a fun-filled romp filled with chills and thrills, a film packed with action, adventure, romance, mystery, and comedy! "Sky Captain" officially kicks off the fall movie season, which offers much more intelligent films to cater to the palate of the movie audience (especially with the Oscars on the way). With fall already fast approaching, let me share with you the 10 best films I have seen this past summer in the theatres:

1. Spider-Man 2 - Bigger, better, and much livelier than the original! Good character development.
2. Hero - The best martial-arts epic since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
3. The Terminal - Though not Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg at their much finest (think Saving Private Ryan), I still enjoyed this sentimental gem of a movie courtesy of a Chaplinesque performance by Hanks. In fact, I even bought the soundtrack CD by John Williams, which is superb!
4. Shrek 2 - Best cartoon of the year so far, and just like Spider-Man 2, it's bigger and better than the original!
5. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - The Harry Potter film franchise gets better and better with every new film, and this one tops it all! More darker and more edgier, this was the first HP film not to be directed by Chris Columbus, it went instead into the hands of Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron, best known for his critically acclaimed yet sexually explicit coming-of-age film "Y Tu Mama Tambien".
6. Fahrenheit 9/11 - Michael Moore gives us a stunning and riveting account on the Bush administration which is now contending for "Most Controversial Film of the Year" with The Passion of the Christ
7. Imelda - Thank God! I managed to see this award-winning docu with my family in a nearby theater. This film, which examines the life, times, and the surreal personality of Imelda Marcos, deserves an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature.
8. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - The funniest guilty pleasure of the summer, Will Ferrell and Co. kept me cracking up down to the end! I can't wait for them to show the deleted scenes in the upcoming DVD.
9. I, Robot - Though it wasn't faithful to Isaac Asimov's works, it's still a great summer popcorn movie
10. The Stepford Wives - Another great guilty pleasure of the summer, despite some huge plotholes

FILMS THAT WERE RELEASED THIS SUMMER THAT I WANTED TO SEE BUT I WASN'T ABLE TO, AND NOW AWAITING ITS FUTURE RELEASE ON DVD: Super Size Me, Garden State, Napoleon Dynamite, Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, The Village, and Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut (they say its better than the original version which I saw, too bad my neighborhood theatre didn't screen it)

FILMS I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS FALL: After Sky Captain, there's Shaun of the Dead, The Last Shot, Shark Tale, I Heart Huckabees, Team America: World Police (must-see!), Sideways, Ray, Beyond the Sea, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Finding Neverland, The Incredibles, The Polar Express, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Meet the Fockers, Ocean's Twelve, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Phantom of the Opera ... (that's all, I think!)

If you notice, most the films I mentioned opening in the fall are either cartoons, in limited release, or rated R (but since I will be 17 by then, I don't have to worry about it).