New York City in the 1930s: Reporter Polly Parker (Gwyneth Paltrow) is investigating the mysterious disappearance of famous German scientists when the city is attacked by giant flying robots. She teams up with former lover Sky Captain Joe Sullivan (Jude Law), who runs a private fighter plane squad, to stop the evil Doktor Totenkopf (a digitally resurrected Lawrence Olivier) from destroying the planet.

The big selling point of this movie is its rather unique visual style, but there is not much else to it. Punch lines can always ameliorate plot holes, so the actors (especially Angelina Jolie, who is hardly in it at all) should have been given more screen time, which instead went to lots of very silly action scenes.

5 points