Rating: Summary: extraordinary Review: What a fun movie! When Tom Sawyer was driving Nemo's car I couldn't help thinking of Tom in Mark Twain's TOM SAWYER ABROAD and how he was said to have mastered the controls of the amazing flying machine so perfectly and quickly. I'm proud to report that Tom hasn't lost his touch with technology over the years. LXG is a fun romp!
Rating: Summary: fine escapist fare that deserves more credit Review: League of Extraordinary Gentleman is a decent movie that has an unfairly bad rep. Connery is quite good as is the rest of the cast. The idea of bringing together different literary heroes is a good one, but that also is the source of the problem that many critics have with this film. Leauge takes place in a alternate world from our own where fictional characters are real and the rules of their various spheres are also reality. The quirks and colorful aspects of their fictional universes have been weaved together into one big canvas of dreams where the impossible isn't. The rules of our world don't all apply and it takes quite a bit of imagination, and more than a little reading, to fully appreciate it. In this day and age there are many who have no idea who these characters are in the first place and have never visited the literary worlds that they dwell in between the pages of great classic books. One reviewer stated on this site that in a world where X Box has replaced good books and Justin Timberlake passes as music it's not wonder this film isn't appreciated. That's very true. Sad, but true.
Rating: Summary: an old fashioned adventure Review: This movie has many of my favorite characters by many of my favorite authors. It's too bad people put it down because this is "the 21st century". Im a big fan of Universal's Invisible Man movies, Captain Nemo And The Underwater City and the 1961 movie Mysterious Island. Those movies were made before I was born, but they introduced me to Jules Verne and H.G. Wells and I think they are classics. You might like League if you like those. The acting is very good and Sean Connery, Stuart Townsend, Naseeruddin Shah, and Richard Roxborough are my favorites. Roxborough played Sherlock Holmes so his role here is pretty funny. This might also be the only time they got Captain Nemo right in a movie too. Shah is terrific.
Rating: Summary: WONDERFUL CLASSIC ESCAPISM Review: The previous reviewer misses the point. LXG isn't simply based on 20,000 Leagues, but Haggard, Doyle, Wells, Wilde, Stoker, Twain, Stevenson, and films that their characters were featured in. All of these have less than logical moments that are compounded when you combine them, but those same less than logical moments are part of the charm. You just can't compare LXG to only one of it's sources. Doyle is one of the influences and Watson's name wasn't just spelled wrong in Doyle's work, but it was given as a completely different name. We are to believe that Watson wrote those accounts, but wouldn't he know his own name? And that's not all: We also have to factor in other moments that lack logic like the concept that a man can get the climbing powers of a monkey from injections of monkey fluid!! AND that the worlds greatest detective has no idea that the earth goes around the sun!! AND that a snake can obey a whistle even if it's impossible for it to hear it! There are even more less than strictly logical moments, but those are some examples and LXG combines the world created by Doyle with that of other authors. Jules Verne put characters in a bullet and sent them to the moon (even in the 19th century it's doubtful that Verne thought that was a realistic way of travel) and Nemo was old and died in Mysterious Island set BEFORE he shows up in 20,000 Leagues alive and well etc. and combine all that with Stoker's work (Do vampires make logical sense, etc?) and take all of that and factor in the works of Mark Twain (like Tom Sawyer Boy Detective) and the works of Haggard, Stevenson, et al. Let's not forget the influence of pulps and classic escapist films too. All of these are what make the world of LXG.
This combination of literary worlds is exactly what Phillip Jose Farmer did decades ago. He combined all of these characters and literary worlds and after him other authors, including Alan Moore, did the same. Farmer was influenced by the works of Kenneth Robeson. Robeson's tales were imaginative pulp adventures and LXG has a great deal in common with that type of fantastic fiction. All of these influences are the basis of the world of LXG and are greatly enjoyed by people who do far more than just watch pro wrestiling as some claim. The world of LXG may not be strictly logical according to the rules of our world, but it isn't supposed to be our world. It is an imaginary world of literary and cinematic elements. Many people who know and love these elements, and those who will read and watch the source materials after seeing the film, will get LXG "flaws" and all. Others will claim it requires too much disbelief and imagination and remain in their strictly "logical" world with their Scooby Doo cartoons.
Rating: Summary: Not the thinking person's action movie Review: This movie is flat-out wretched. Why? - ridiculous plot and subplots - made little sense. - lousy acting, by and large The irony of this movie is that it takes a moderate intellect to keep all of the inane plot twists straight, but if the viewer has the capacity to do that, he or she will likely find the storyline too absurd and asinine even to be entertaining. The reviewer defending this movie by comparing its story to the stories in some of the books upon which it was based misses the point. The logical inconsistencies and other problems with this movie were many orders of magnitude beyond mere inconsistencies with the spelling of Sherlock Holmes' sidekick's name. The original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was much more believable science fiction than this movie, especially from Jules Verne's 19th century viewpoint. The problem is that this movie was made in the 21st century, so there is no excuse for it to be so absolutely ridiculous. Hey, I can suspend my disbelief for the sake of entertaining fiction (my favorite cartoon is still Scooby Doo and I like movies with vampires, ghosts and aliens) but this movie requires the viewer to suspend his or her intellect altogether. On occasion I'll watch a mindless-but-entertaining Schwarzeneger movie, but League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is just mindless. If you think WWF "professional" wrestling is "really awsum + kewl, dude!" then this movie might appeal to you. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
Rating: Summary: Brilliant! Review: this movie was excellent, especially if you in-the-know as far as the novel of which the characters can from. Alan Moore who wrote the movie,and the comics is an absolute genius! he has hidden so many little tidbits that only a fan of the victorian novels would understand and appreciate. Stephen Norrington really did an excellent job directing this comic/film . If you like Indiana Jones or Wild,wild,west you will just love this film.
Rating: Summary: Very Literary Review: Maybe only 2 1/2 stars actually. This movie did not live up to the excitement that the previews generated for me. It was very entertaining and action packed and I liked what it was trying to do, but overall it was a bit flat. Great casting, great special effects. The film is based on a comic book which tries to combine all the major fantastical fictional literary figures of the books in the late 1800s. It includes characters from Dracula, Dr. Jeykll & Mr. Hyde, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Picture of Dorian Gray, etc. The other characters were Captain Nemo, and a British big-game hunter living in Africa who is supposedly invincible, played by Sean Connery. I hadn't read all of these books and so throughout the whole movie I always felt like I was missing something. They don't quite tie things in together very well and you keep waiting for a more full explaination. Thanks to the great literary giants of the past we were able to enjoy a facinating array of characters - Although I felt they were very untrue to Bram Stoker's portrayal of Mina Harker. Notheless an enjoyable flick worth seeing once or twice, I'd rent it not buy.
Rating: Summary: THREE AND A HALF STARS Review: LXG is a good popcorn movie. Most modern audience members who don't remember, or care for, the imaginative cinema and literature of the past may be clueless of it's charms, but it's a quaint throwback to the days of Irwin Allen and George Pal with modern visuals. Pretty enjoyable.
Rating: Summary: life is too short for crappy reviews Review: Zzzzzzz. I've never been so bored. No I don't mean the movie, but the long negative reviews on here. LXG is far more entertaining than some extremely long negative reviews and if you are going to read a book why not read the one's this movie is based on instead? At least they are fun. So is this movie.
Rating: Summary: pulp and serial fans will love it Review: This is not the type of movie you rip to little pieces to show how "smart" you are. That would be missing the point. Are you the type of person to loathe Verne for putting people in a bullet and shooting them to the moon, or despised Doyle because Watson's war wound kept moving and his first name was subject to change? If you are then skip LXG. Don't read the musty old books of Verne or Doyle or Haggard or the pulp classics of Lester Dent either. They would disturb you and wouldn't measure up to your "standards". Leave those type of foolish adventures to the rest of us. However, if you enjoy Verne, Doyle, Haggard, and love a ripping yarn then give LXG a look. I did and love it. To bad Verne isn't here to see it. Do you love old classic books of adventure, golden age comic books, Harryhausen style movies, thrilling pulps, saturday matinee cliff-hanger serials? Yes? Then you'll love LXG. With it's over the top saturday matinee panache and charm it's good old fashioned fun. Doc Savage would love it.
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