(Cert PG, 106 mins): Starring Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. Directed by Kerry Conran

I say, Biggles, those CGI chaps are simply spiffing. Can you believe Sky Captain contains more than 2,000 computer-generated effects shots? Top-hole stuff.

The plummy accents and stiff upper lips of Thirties movie serials meet pure sci-fi fantasy in Kerry Conran's ground-breaking pulp fiction fantasy.

More than six years in the making and using virtually no sets and no locations, Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow is brought to life by the wonder of CGI.

Actors filmed their sequences against a blue screen and the backgrounds were added later, conjuring a world of gargantuan rampaging robots, lost dinosaurs and mad scientists.

Referencing everything from Fritz Lang's Metropolis to Raiders Of The Lost Ark, it's a visually magnificent film.

It was director Kerry Conran's childhood love of noir and classic adventure yarns that inspired Sky Captain - buccaneering space tales like Flash Gordon had him hooked and that passion shows clearly in the film.

As the giant Hindenburg 3 Airship docks on top of the Empire State Building, tenacious reporter Polly Perkins (Paltrow) gets the scent of a sensational front-page article.

A number of famous scientists have disappeared and the spirited New York Chronicle journalist believes a brilliant but reclusive German, Dr Totenkopf (a resurrected Laurence Olivier) may be to blame. In the wake of these disappearances, huge mechanical monsters descend on the Big Apple, destroying buildings wholesale.

Mercenary aviator Sky Captain Joe Sullivan (Law) flies to the rescue in his beloved plane - but not before the metal invaders have robbed the city of its vital power sources.

Joining forces with old flame Polly and technical genius Dex (Giovanni Ribisi), Joe embarks on a daredevil mission that takes him from the Himalayan Alps to the tranquil valley of Shangri-La.

The digital trickery creates a world of ice caves, underwater flights and a mobile floating airstrip, captained by cycloptic squadron leader Franky Cook (Jolie).

Clever lighting and a smattering of cliches in the screenplay add to the illusion of an old-fashioned adventure yarn.

There's not a great deal of substance to the plot, which is really just a series of big set-pieces with a modicum of dramatic padding, but the Princess Leia/Han Solo-style banter between Joe and Polly has some kick to it.

Mostly though, Law and Paltrow seem content to go into acting auto-pilot - which is the problem with CGI. When the special effects are the real stars, actors often get reduced to scene-fillers. It must also get pretty boring standing in front of a screen pretending you're being menaced by a giant robot. Unfortunately, this shows.

No matter how convincing your monsters, you really do need a proper narrative arc to hold everything together. This is a family film though and, ultimately, the spectacle is good enough to keep children and parents entertained.

With most reviews giving Sky Captain good but not great mark-ups, it's a solid bet for some visual wonderment, a fizzing romance plot and some spot-on wisecracking.