WOW...who knew My wall would last 4 Long Years..... sad to see a few old friends gone, good to see ...
WOW...who knew My wall would last 4 Long Years..... sad to see a few old friends gone, good to see some still around...
Member since:29.06.2000
Reviews:16
Members who trust:15
What misery and sadness I hold for this dead carcass of a film, I had such high expectation for.
From the moment I heard that they were making a live action film of this highly regarded comic series, I had great hopes that with such fathoms of character material from some of the best of English Literature, and some excellent translation and interpretation of said material in the comics, the silver screen version of some of our most beloved would surely have been flawless?
Bollox.
Yours truly was brought crashing down from the heady heights of hope, to fall painfully flat on my face in the empty plains of Hollywood Trash. From the very release of the teaser they had me, playing my expectation like a puppet on a string. and instead of delivering a sumptuous feast of Fantasy Titans, they delivered a piss warm, open arena assassination of gods, wrapped up in a fetid post production dripping with arrogance, ego and sheer incompetence.
The Sandman IS angry.
Now, for those of you who are in the dark about the project, I shall start this Autopsy with a brief history of the 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (God rest their souls).
The Farce is based upon a graphic novel/comic book series of the same name, in which the British Empire is under attack from a depraved madman hell bent on fire bombing the East End of London, and lord knows what else. To combat this menace the The Empire assembles a team of 'Heroes' comprised of some of Literatures greatest Adventurers and dark characters.
This is where the farce leaves the graphic novel, and having plundered the great ideas they went about their task of making a 'movie'.
Quintessentially the Movie plot follows the same basis, in this case the 'madman' called the Phantom, is attempting to start a war between
the great powers of 1898 by attacking each country in the guise of another. His purposes? to Sell new military technology to the highest bidder. The British Secret Service under the guidance of 'M', has turned to recruiting a team of 'Superhumans' in order to stop the Phantom in his tracks. Thus is born 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'.
First they hunt down the leader of the pack, Allan Quatermain - legendary explorer and hunter (based on the Character written by H. Rider Haggard and played by Sean Connery). Quatermain is found in Africa having disavowed the Empire and given up his Adventurer days, He is hiding from the prying eyes of the world. But after the Phantom's men track him there and kill some of his old chums, he has no option but to join.
He travels back to London, where he is met by 'M' (played by Richard Roxburgh). The first departure from the comics, which have Campion Bond as the Leagues point of contact. M informs him of the dire situation and he is then introduced to:
Capt. Nemo (Based on the Pirate and Sikh of the Sea as envisaged by Jules Verne and played by Naseeruddin Shah). Nemo and Quatermain initially don’t get along but their friendly banter is interrupted by the arrival of:
Rodney Skinner, the Invisible Man ( based in part on the Invisible man by H.G.Wells and played by Tony Curran) ‘Hawley Griffin is dead, but Skinner stole his formula, and now provides a cheaper and easier way of circumventing the H.G.Wells estate.
The Next protagonist, though not male was in fact the original leader of the League in the graphic novels, Mina Murray (Based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula and played by Peta Wilson), however due to billing and egomania, Hollywood decided that Connery’s character should get the lead role. Murray’s (formerly Harker) Powers come from the dark Dracula himself so you can imagine what they consist of.
With the four of them on board they head off to recruit the next character – Dorian Grey Based in Oscar Wilde’s character and played by Stuart Townsend). Here we have the second major departure from the graphic novel principally because Wilde’s vain immortal was never in the comics he was bought in purely for the film. At Gray’s Mansion, they are ambushed by the Phantom and the next character makes his appearance,:-
Agent Tom Sawyer of the American Government (based v. loosely on Mark Twains Character now all grown up and played by Shane West). Sawyer helps the gang escape with their lives and sparks an oh so special relationship with Quatermain. Sawyer was again a fabrication for the movie and was put in there to appease the American Market. With the majority of the team in place they’re off to hunt the last member.
Dr Henry Jekyll/ Mr Edward Hyde ( based on Robert Louis Stevenson's character and played by Jason Flemyng) is eventually caught and subdued, Jekyll agreeing to help the league in any way possible but warning them that is alter Ego is unstable and truly does have a mind of his own.
So with the League in place they head off to their destination of Venice to avert world war.
It’s actually easier and will take less of my time to tell you what I DID like about the film, as opposed to what I didn’t, but hell hath no fury like a fanboy scorned and I haven’t ranted this much since Episode one so here goes!
First of all the plot is all over the place, it tries to push you into thinking one thing although it is glaringly obvious that it’s the other! They try and shock you with twists and turns but again do not spend enough time setting up any form of coherent story to spin on it’s head, the characters themselves are awkwardly written, with little or no attention to development. The superficial relationships and interactions in the group really do not give you any thing to get involved with, the dialogue sounds like some one ate equal portions of the new English dictionary and Cheese and then caught the results on some toilet paper, because quite frankly my dog could do better, and I DON’T OWN ONE!! The villain two dimensional, to the point of insulting the Character (you’ll know what I mean if you watch this.) it portrays. While the motive behind the villainy is almost as bad as Jonathon Pryce’s in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’.
The pacing is terrible and I believe that Connery put his foot down in the Editing Suite, well if he did, I hope he wiped it off his shoe before he stepped out side because it stinks. In fact, I’m sorry but it seems that someone seriously over stepped their mark with this movie .
The Effects varied from moments that I quite liked (Most of Hyde’s transformation) to scenes that looked like they belonged in a home movie. I mean don’t get me wrong, the production values were great and the designed looked lovely, but to what point? The Nautilus might have well been normal boat for all the impact it had, that car seemed to have been put in the movie to do the Venice scene, while the Venice scene seems to have been written to give the car more screen time!
Singles performances do stand out, particularly Townsend’s and Wilson’s, but again given that practically the entire film should have been call the ‘The Adventures of Bloatty McQuatermain and his pseudo adopted manchild’, they did the best with what they had.
Ultimately it is a sad waste of a great franchise and the worst comic book adaptation since Batman and Robin. And I leave you with a Quote from the Scottish one himself
According to producer Don Murphy, Connery advised him that he "got offered The Lord of the Rings, and I turned it down because I didn't understand it. I was offered The Matrix – twice – and I turned it down because I didn't understand it. I don't understand this movie, but I'll be damned if I'm going to turn it down."
Well the first thing to understand Sean is that both of those franchises work so well because everyone puts their ego in check to work for the better good of the project. Everyone understands what their role is. Once again now Sean … There is no ‘I’ in League.
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The heroes of 1899 are brought to life with the help of some expensive special effects ... more
inThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From the pages of Victorian literature come Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll (and his alter ego Mr Hyde), Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, th...
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The heroes of 1899 are brought to life with the help of some expensive special effects ... more
inThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From the pages of Victorian literature come Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll (and his alter ego Mr Hyde), Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, th...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
The heroes of 1899 are brought to life with the help of some expensive special effects ... more
inThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From the pages of Victorian literature come Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll (and his alter ego Mr Hyde), Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, th...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
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Aug 2nd, 2003
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