The first image you see in the utterly bizarre retro fantasy epic “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” is of the fictional Hindenburg III. The spectral zeppelin coasts through a forest of searchlights towards the Empire State Building, to moor there. The dreamy visual is both familiar and alien – the designers of the famed skyscraper actually did include a mooring

mast for just such a purpose – and it succeeds in conjuring a time when the future was a nearby frontier filled with hope, wonder, and possibility.

That ideal is reflected in every frame of “Sky Captain,” first-time director Kevin Conway’s mostly computer-generated homage to 1930s futurism. This is, simply put, the weirdest, corniest, goofiest, most endearing special-effects extravaganza of the year, a milestone of derivative originality.

The film combines real actors (including Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, and Laurence Olivier – sort of) with completely fabricated backdrops and “sets,” mining a cultural vocabulary of Flash Gordon serials, Max Fleischer’s Superman cartoons, the World’s Fair of 1939, and Fritz Lang’s Art Deco Metropolis. Along the way Mr. Conway also tips his hat to such important men of cinema as King Kong, the Wizard of Oz, and Indiana Jones. Somehow the director takes the old refashions it into something new, vibrant, and accessible.

Filmgoers hungry for old-fashioned escapism these days are stuck between pretentious “serious” films and disposable popcorn flicks. True escapist cinema is an adventure in itself: You might know the ultimate outcome, but you never know what thrill is about to pop out at you. Today’s popcorn flicks offer a comforting predictability that “Sky Captain” entirely lacks. It is simplistic but brisk, entertaining in a ludicrous way; its performances are sincerely campy. This will make you roll your eyes in cynical disbelief one moment, then marvel the next.

Who is Sky Captain? Why, he’s high-end hunk and budding action hero Mr. Law, vigilante flying ace and defender of New York City. When giant robots go on a rampage, it’s up to Sky Captain and his gadget-filled fighter plane to save Gotham. With the help of ex-girlfriend and intrepid reporter Paltrow, he sets off on a quest that takes them from the concrete canyons of New York to the Himalayas, to deep under the ocean.

Why are robots attacking? Why have a group of German scientists been kidnapped? Who cares? But here’s a hint: It involves someone evil who’s bent on destroying the world.

Mr. Law here finally proves he can let go of the papier-mache gravitas that has plagued his other Oscar-wannabe movies. He’s game, heroic, self-deprecating, a golden boy who’s rough around the edges. With this and “Alfie” on his plate this year, he’s beginning to take on the glow of an old-fashioned movie star.

Ms. Paltrow plays her character like a cross between Lois Lane and Audrey Hepburn, a stone tomato with diamond-bit lips and a glowing pair of getaway gams. Ms. Jolie shows up halfway through the film as a one-eyed British daredevil pilot who once had a dalliance with Sky Captain; her high-energy cameo is a treat. That three superstars of young Hollywood would gamble on a rookie director helming a risky big-budget cliffhanger suggests real faith in the material, and their committed performances hold the movie together.

Mr. Conway seems to know that his eye-popping special effects are merely accessories, useless without flesh-and-blood actors who believe what they are seeing, fighting, running from. Filled with 2,000 FX shots, the film was, like Lucas’s Star Wars prequels, shot entirely against blue screens. But Kevin Conway could teach George Lucas a thing or two.

The CGI itself is impeccable, creating an alternative 1930s full of Frankenstein-like technology, and the gauzy cinematography makes the entire film looks like a colorized version of a black-and-white movie. But possibly the strangest use of special effects in “Sky Captain” comes from the villain himself, played by Mr. Olivier. Yes, Laurence Olivier.

Using past, unused footage of the great actor, the director has conjured the long-dead thespian in a strange scene that recalls “The Wizard of Oz.” It’s perplexing, this casting, respectful and affectionate but also scary – this is the scene we will blame, a decade or so from now, when Humphrey Bogart shows up as a wacky police chief in another bad buddy cop movie.

“Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” is awful and brilliant, and it should keep children, adults, and Ming the Merciless happy.

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The programmers of BAM are offering a film retrospective of the works of the generally unloved director John Boorman, an important filmmaker who gave us a vengeance drunk Lee Marvin in “Point Blank” (later remade as Mel Gibson’s B.C. vehicle, “Payback”); the much-parodied “Deliverance” (“Jaws” with rednecks); and “Excalibur,” a perfectly imperfect Arthurian fantasy that’s equal parts obscene, elegant, and gritty.

Then there is “Zardoz,” his underappreciated 1974 sci-fi film. Starring a middle-aged Sean Connery as a brutish killing machine in the distant future who discovers a Morlocklike race of immortals who preserve humanity’s past. An enormous head (apparently modeled on Mr. Boorman’s own) pukes rifles. This is a pompous anti-war polemic drenched in awkward philosophy, blatant symbolism, and terrible special effects. It’s wonderful.

Like “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” “Zardoz” believes in itself with a college freshman’s self-esteem. The “Planet of the Apes”-style ending is laughable, a paunchy Mr. Connery phones in a confused performance, and the attempts at social statements could have made the movie unbearable. But earnestness is a commodity in an industry of carnival barkers, and “Zardoz” deserves special attention as a Hollywood museum piece.