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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Full Screen Edition)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Full Screen Edition)

List Price: $27.98
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not so Extraordinary
Review: I thought,"What a neat idea." when I heard the storyline to The Leage of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It truely is a neat idea to take a few of the most well known literary characters and put them together to fight a common evil in this flick. But the idea and the special effects are as far as this movie went.

The storyline is simple, toss in some famous characters, such as Nemo, from 10,000 Leages Under the Sea, Mr. Hyde, The Invisable Man, and a few vampires as well as Sean Connery's character Allen Quartermain, and there is your Leage. They are brought together to fight a criminal mastermind named The Phantom who is attempting to start a world war.

It sounds interesting, but the storyline is pretty flimsy. I will give The Leage it's credit though, the special effects were amazing, and it is worth the watch just for the quality of the surround sound.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: SPECTACULAR LOOKING BUT FLAWED PLOT
Review: The year is 1899 and the world is on the brink of war. A mysterious madman called the Phantom is producing weapons of far advanced technology: tanks, automatic weapons, etc.

The British govt. calls on adventurer Allan Quartermain to lead a team of mythical heroes to stop him. Included is Dr. Jekyll, Dorian Gray, Captain Nemo, the Invisible Man, Mina Harker (a vampire) and Tom Sawyer, who is now an American Secret Agent.

The Cast is led by Sean Connery as Quartermain. So long as the camera is within range of Connery's steady gaze and faintly sardonic smile, all is on course. Things go astray, ultimately, when Connery becomes just another fellow in a fight scene -- a man in a white toupee trading punches as the camera shakes and the soundtrack absolutely insists that we're getting excited now.

Each member has their own special powers that they bring to the team. Perhaps the most spectacular being that of Dr. Jekylls transformation into Mr. Hyde, who becomes a behomoth, similar to that of the Hulk, without nearly the quality of CGI to make it look as good.

The laborious opening gives way to a plot big on spectacle and short on explanation or even clarity. We're told that a villainous general (Richard Roxburgh) wants to trigger a world war, and to do this he decides, for some reason, to dynamite Venice. Why? It's not exactly an important seat of political power.

In old, B-movie formula, the villian, once revealed from his mask, goes onto reveal his entire plot to the league once he thinks he has them defeated. Of course, you know that once a villian reveals his plot, he's in big trouble.

Like many movies lacking in plot, LXG tries to make up for it with special effects, explosions, and fights galore. Is it possible for a movie to be monotonously action-packed? "LXG" may well achieve it. The picture's violence is a snore and its massacres are soporific. Instead of that overused cliché "cut to the chase," the motto of director Stephen Norrington ("Blade") and writer James Dale Robinson seems to be "cut to the bomb," or "when in doubt, blow it all up!" "LXG" pulls off one explosion after another, often with so little motivation, preparation or apparent consequences that it becomes stupefying.

Watching this outrageously vapid and overdone movie is a sad experience, because Connery, at 73, hasn't really lost his stuff. He brings to this misbegotten project the same rugged savoir faire and virile wit he brings to his good movies. He can still believably slug it out with bad guys. And he seems to have been at loggerheads with Norrington's over-the-top storytelling strategies. (Asked the whereabouts of director Norrington, a no-show at the film's recent Las Vegas premiere, Connery reportedly replied, "Have you checked the local asylum?") But how can Connery survive a movie that can't resist the impulse to blow up everything in sight? As the bad guys would say: "Bomb voyage, suckers."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not a faithful adaptation of the comic, but still great fun
Review: After reading so many poor reviews, I wasn't looking forward to seeing this film. I'm also a fan of the comic series and knew that it wasn't a faithful adaptation so that made me even more wary.

Well, I gotta say that I enjoyed the film thoroughly. It's an entertaining action-adventure romp with very cool characters and a great cast to play them. The special effects are excellent, particularly this films version of Mr Hyde who looks very much like the character in the comics. I especially like the set design and CGI backgrounds which retain the flavour of comic artist Kevin O'Neill's work (there's a small visual gag that tips the hat to O'Neill and writer Alan Moore...see if you can spot it).

Don't avoid the film simply based on bad reviews you have read. This is fun film that's well worth a look.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Sound and fury, signifying nothing
Review: One day film historians will look back on this era as the time when special effects truly achieved legendary heights. After all, this is the era of the "Matrix" and "Lord Of the Rings" trilogies, the era where the technology of filmmaking has made it possible to show anything the mind can conceive, and do so believably.

In that future day when yet-unborn historians wax philosophic about this watershed period in time, "LXG" will be mentioned frequently as a prime example of how the technology also made it possible for films to be spectacularly stupid while looking and sounding as brilliant as the best of them. FX appears to be the only reason this film was made, and the only part of the entire production that received much attention.

Sean Connery and a cast of mostly unknowns or little-knowns barrel their way through an anorexic script with plot holes large enough for its own monstrously super-sized Nautilus submarine to plow through. The Venice plot line, for example, including the exposition, action scenes, and execution, couldn't have made less sense if the dialogue were in Swahili with no subtitles.

The film's version of Mr. Hyde looks like nothing more than a Macy's parade balloon on steroids, so they couldn't even get all the FX right. In one scene we're also expected to believe the beast can breathe underwater....oh yeah, that's right after Dr. Jekyll magically locates his potion approximately two seconds after he's dived into a sinking Nautilus scene that otherwise seems to have been transposed directly out of a print of "Titanic."

The legend of Allan Quartermain hasn't suffered this badly since Richard Chamberlain starred in a 1985 remake of "King Solomon's Mines," rush-produced in the wake of "Raiders Of the Lost Ark." What's it take for an Africa-based Brit to get a break in the movie biz these days?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Lighten up, people!
Review: I really can't understand why so many people hate this movie. Never mind what went on under the production of League. What you see on the screen is an exciting adventure, which combines the feeling you got from the old Biggles and TinTin stories with out of this world gadgets. And on top of that you get Connery in a role who reminds us very much of who's the real James Bond! What is there not to like? I'll buy it, that's for sure!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: What a dud ths one turned out to be, I was disappointed!
Review: I haven't read the comic book series this movie is based on but I sure hope it is better than this movie was.
If you remember the TV ads for it you've seen the best bits and that isn't much of an exaggeration. Sean Connery was good but most of the others were just sort of there to take up space.
The idea of taking characters from several works of 19th century fiction never really works very well and could often have been better developed. Tom Sawyer, U.S. Secret Service, how'd that happen?, we don't get a clue. Mina Harker, Vampire, widow of one of the men who fought Dracula, never a clue as to how she isn't evil or can survive in sunlight, doesn't seem to need to feed very often either.
The best sets were the club/hotel(?)in Africa where Quatermain is recruited to the League and a couple of libraries in London, all either blown or shot up. Nemo's submarine looked as big as an aircraft carrier in some ways but also like it was razor thin, certainly bigger on the inside than the outside.
I kind of liked the tank raid evil whatever his name was did on the Bank of England, a bit ahead of it's time but mostly looked OK. Nemo's 1930's style car was really pushing things for 1899, too much for me as what cars there were looked like (and were)horseless carriages. One of the most ridiculous bits was the League's journey from London to Venice. First you have this huge razor thin submarine rising up in the Thames (which is probably too shallow for anything so big) and then they make it to Venice in only three days! Around southern England then France aand Spain and through the Straits of Gibraltar alone would take more time than that even today even without travelling halfway across the Mediterranean Sea.
Sean Connery did well but I certainly won't be buying it, the rest of the movie is a mess.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Stuipid Plot, Stuipid Movie
Review: When I first heard of the idea of this movie I was intrigued and thought that any director who would try and tackle such a complex plot would know what he was doing. Apparently, I was worng. It seems as if the characters are thrown together in some chaos that is a confusing as it is irritating. Looking at the idea of the movie though I am not sure that anyone could have done much better. The idea is still original so I recommend a that you watch it, but don't waste your money on buying it. It isn't a movie that you will want to watch again.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not quite the book
Review: The Empire is in trouble, so the government brings in some of the great heroes to help avert disaster. In this twist on history, literary characters are real, and each of the characters in blended into one great story. After reading the graphic novel, I was very excited about the movie, but I found myself disappointed with the retelling and rewriting. What was wrong with the original?

The extras on the DVD discuss how Sean Connery was approached, and perhaps as a way to get him involved, the script was rewritten to take Mina Harker from her leadership role and replace her with Alan Quartermain. Also, Quartermain, in this telling, is merely a retired adventurer rather than an opium fiend found in a back alley.

Because I had such high expectations, I was only mildly pleased with the movie. Seeing each character fight his or her inner demons was interesting, but I couldn't stop comparing it to the book. My wife, on the other hand, had not read the book and found it very exciting. Although I would recommend seeing this, I would recommend reading the graphic novel more.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Supremely disappointing
Review: With X-Men and Daredevil already under their belt, it looks like Fox tried to find a new comic based film franchise with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Based on the graphic novel by reknowned comic scribe Alan Moore (who also wrote From Hell which was also made into a film by Fox), LXG focuses on adventurer Alan Quatermain (Sean Connery) who is united with Tom Sawyer (Shane West), Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), Captain Nemo (Naseerruddin Shah), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), Dr. Jekyll (Jason Flemyng), and an Invisible Man (Tony Curran) to combat a force known only as The Phantom who attempts to take over the world. The juvenile plot is a far cry from Moore's book, and the direction from Stephen Norrington (Blade) is the only thing besides the acting from Connery and Shah that seems to have any inspiration at all. I like the idea of using actual special effects as opposed to overbloated CGI, but the film as a whole just tanks thanks to some unexplained elements, plot holes galore, and twists and turns we see coming a mile away. Rumor has it that Norrington and Connery practicly came to blows during filming; that probably would have been more entertaining than this turkey. The DVD itself is another nicely assembled disc by Fox featuring commentaries, deleted scenes, and an almost hour long documentary, but none of it is worth sitting through LXG for. Fans of Moore's comic avoid, you'll save some brain cells.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: TLoEG - This film is actually pretty interesting!
Review: Bearing in mind that prior to watching this film at a theater back when it was first released that I'd never heard of any comics or any other series named "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, I went and watched this fairly good film with an open mind and enjoyed it and was looking forward to its eventual release on DVD. Having now watched this film twice; I would definitely have to say that this film is entertaining and quite intriguing in its plot. I imagine I can say that as I know little of the comics so I don't have the first clue what the director and screen writers did or didn't do to the originality of the series. Having said that, I would temper it with the fact that just as in the case of "The Lord of the Rings" and many other examples, they "can't always put it on the screen as it was in the book or in this case comic book(s)."

Among the better aspects of this film were the dark undertones that seem to be quite prevalent in newer films these days. While many may lament over the script or characters or what have you, I also found the pacing of this Sci-Fi/action film to be quite good!

Performance wise, all of the actors did a very good job with this film. One thing you can always count on in a film with Sean Connery's named attached to it is an outstanding performance by him and he definitely does that with this film.

This is the first film I've watched a film that Stephen Norrington has directed and I would definitely have to say, based on this film that it would be interesting to go back and see some of his earlier films and to keep an eye out for his future films.

The Premise:

It is the year 1899 and someone appears to be making all attempts to instigate world war by committing terrorist acts against the governments of several key nations, all the while disguised as the opposing nation. In comes the call to Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery) by the Crown, to help organize the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and seek out whoever is organizing these acts and neutralize them.

What follows from there is a fairly good Science Fiction/action film in which several "heroes" and not so heroic personalities form the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and go on an adventure to stop this terrorist.

I would definitely recommend this film to any and all who are interested in well written, well paced Science Fiction/action flicks that involve some very familiar names. {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

-Full Length Audio Commentary (Producers/Actors)
-Full Length Audio Commentary (Costume/Makeup/Visual Effects Team)
-"Behind-The Scenes" Documentary
-12 Deleted Scenes


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