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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Widescreen Edition)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: AWSOME
Review: i think the movie was great, although i thought it would have more action scences in it. but all together i think it is a movie you have to watch. the movie was totally different from all other movies i have seen and i really enjoyed it. i hope everyone goes out and watches this great movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: worth your time to watch
Review: Great plot, amazing action scenes, totally cool modes of transportation and decent acting! I enjoyed this movie experience and left the theatre wanting more. My only complaint is that it was too short. Some places in the movie needed more detail and to be played out more. Also, there are some scenes that are difficult to watch because they are so dark, but otherwise a pleasure to watch. Go check it out!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Extraordinarily Bland
Review: I was REALLY disappointed with this movie. I felt absolutely nothing while watching it because the characters were so flat that there was no way to get emotionally involved with what little bit of story was there. Captain Nemo had some cool stuff, but frankly, all of it looked so fake, there was just no getting into it. In terms of filming, MANY of the scenes were way too dark - I kept begging for one of the characters to turn on the lights so we could see what was happening - and the fight scenes were so harshly edited that half the time you can't figure out what is going on until it is all over. The ending was abrupt and frankly, didn't make much sense - battle scene in the artic, anti-climactic fate of Allen Quartermaine, and cut to Africa? I'm glad I caught this one at the matinee and didn't pay full price. What a waste of two hours. I wish I could have given it half a star.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Eye candy only.
Review: Not a bad picture; however it's not a great one either. Nothing but eye candy and some decent action sequences. Unfortuately, the plot has some blaring holes and the action is shot way to close to see what's going on. Naseeruddin Shah is great as Nemo, Peta Wilson is hot as Mina Harker and Jason Flemyng is touching as Dr. Jekyll. This movie is for visual lovers only.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classy...over(& under)the top...Adventure!
Review: If you don't ignore predictable carping of popular press and pseudo-cognoscenti,you'll miss one of the classiest,wildest forays into no-holds barred adventure to hit the screen for some time. "Hitting the screen running"is Director Norrington's rock-your-socks technique to explosively introduce THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. An APOCALYPSE NOW!World War...instigated by an Ernst Stavro Blofeld-like madman genius...gets the Thunderball rolling.

Sean Connery...archetypal explorer/adventurer Allan Quatermain, great grandaddy of Indiana Jones Inc...is summoned by "M",the mysterious Chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service,to organize a team of super hero-adepts to confront THE FANTOM and his League of Extraordinary Bad Guys. Connery recruits an impressive battle-array of not-quite-so-good or gentle Good Guys(and Vampire lady,Mina Harker/Murray of DRACULA notoriety)to ferret-out the ultimate Incarnation of NEFARIOUSNESS, and thwart his plan for world domination. If it sounds comic-bookish, it's because TLOEG is cinematic comic on a GRAND SCALE. It makes for grand,over(and under)the top adventure. Sean/Allan Quatermain and Co(LXG)are up-to the task Graphic Novelist Allan Moore has contrived for them. The plot--mildly convoluted; action-packed and warp-speed paced--is solidly developed and nuanced.The unique League--listed in other reviews--is formidable,unpredictable and dangerous.The bad dudes(& dudette) are ready for anything and that's what they're up against in terms of TREACHERY,TECHNOLOGY and unmittigated Ubermensch (Nietzschean/Napoleonic)Ego. My main man--great as Sean characteristically is--is CAPTAIN NEMO. Jules Verne's genius scientist(played with elan and very un-comic grace/dignity by Naseerruddin Shah)is revealed as Indian Prince DAKKAR. Once arch-enemy of the British Empire and its "Pax", his Super Sub NAUTILUS is converted, OHMSS,into Undersea Fortress (equivalent of near-future air craft carriers; and still-fantasy, far-future starships like ENTERPRISE);the most deadly weapon on earth. SFX of the film are excellent,and sequences aboard the SWORD of the SEA are often breath taking. War of Super technology; Secret Societies(our friends,The Illuminati/Masons are again source of plot to rule by Chaos);and man against himself,and his own knowledge[CLONING is revealed to be crucial weapon of ultimate conquest/terror]are comic book themes elevated to classic Crusade gainst EVIL.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN may not be the ultimate adventure movie. But it's Big League, and not 20,000 Leagues Under. The best of the spirit of Moore's best,in my estimate, work(not grim, PM grotesque WATCHMEN; KILLING JOKE or VENDETTA)is faithfully brought to the screen. What needs to be left out is OUT or changed.(Do we really need to see Sean Connery lolling in vomit as a recovering opium addict; or young women raped by The Invisible Man?) Genuine literary ironies are left intact. The good Bad Guys(LXG)biggest war is within themselves( Jekyll-Hyde character is mythically...not poltically...correct and well done). BADNESS and corruption of should-be Good Guys...reveling in glamour of evil... momentarily triumphs, but is not allowed to prevail. Director Norrington and Producer/Actor Connery aim at retelling MYTH. THE LEAGUE is big league entertainment.Don't let PM sophisticates fool you;this movie is classy adventure and EXTRAORDINARY FUN...(6 Stars)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: LXG Packs a Double Punch
Review: In a Summer full of surprises, THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is another welcome one. Overshadowed by PIRATES, TERMINATORs, and other expected blockbusters, this film never seemed to get the proper promotion. Which in this case, may have been a good thing! Without all the hype, I wasn't expecting much from a band of characters that I never cared for in their first incarnation. Allan Quatermain, Tom Sawyer, Captain Nemo, and the rest of the LEAGUE seemed like characters that I could do without revisiting. Besides, X2 did a good enough job this year bringing a circus of comic book manifestations to life just a few short months ago. Thus, once again, I was wrong with my prediction. Don't get me wrong. This film is far from perfect. Some of the computer effects obviously needed a few more weeks to render. But with that aside, LXG is one fast and fun time at the movies. With Sean Connery in the lead, and "extraordinary" performances from those in line behind him, the action rarely lets up, the story is coherent, and it feels just like an updated version of the action films from cinematic history. Catch the matinee!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Having actually seen the movie...
Review: I was quite pleased. The writers showed quite a bit of restraint, allowing the characters to unfold with little more explanation than needed. There's a few places where you get a dumbed down summary of who each player is, but this is rare and understandable when it happens. A few characters don't get explained at all. You wouldn't know that Agent Sawyer is in fact Tom Sawyer from the movie alone, for example.

The dialog is snappy. The action sequences are as crisp as Norrington's previous hit, Blade. If you go in looking for a fun action flik told out with re-interpretations of classical victorian characters, you will be amused.

I, for one, recommend it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Alan Moore's work is untransatble from comic to film....
Review: Well this movie was a bad comic to film project in a lot of ways. One being that the work of Alan Moore was created solely for the drawn pages. The way that the characters move and act just does not work in the film, no matter how well the cast is. It also looked too much like a comic. A sort of super/style world, similar to the Batman and Blade movies, all of which do not look very creditble. The visual effects were way over-kill in the CGI department. You can tell when the effect is computer/generated. The addition of Vampires and elements of the supernautral also look like window dressing. Norrinton's direction is abstract and unfocused. Comic book writers can not write screenplays, as seen by James Robinson's effort at writing this movie. At most, Mr. Robinson could do a story outline for a movie, but an experienced screenwriter was needed to make the story much better then what was done here. This was an over-hyped movie in the press that turned out to be a real bomb. Much like Daredevil was.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not for comic fans.. but for adventerous moviegoers
Review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is based in part on a Graphic Novel By Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Rated PG-13.

1) Actually, from reading the reviews posted previously, only some of the Characters and the name they take on are from the Graphic Novel. If you're a fan of the comic, you'll be just as disappointed as those that expected more from The Hulk movie. I haven't read the Graphic Novel, nor do I plan to.

2) The movie brings together literary characters from books that were published between 1870 and 1897, and the story is based in the year 1899. A mysterious villain known only as The Phantom is using relative high-tech gadgets to cause mayhem in the world in an attempt to cause a world war. One man who calls himself "M" who we later find out is Professor James Moriarty (reference The Final Problem [Sherlock Holmes] by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1893) recruits several people of extraordinary talent in an attempt to stop this "phantom" menace (no pun intended). He recruits Allan Quatermain (reference King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard 1885) whose name in the movie appears as Quartermain though is spelled correctly in the ending credits, Mina Harker (reference Mina Murray [Mrs. Jonathan Harker] from Dracula by Bram Stoker 1897), Captain Nemo (reference 20,000 Leagues Under The Seas by Jules Verne 1870), and an Invisible Man (reference The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells 1897) who is not the one from the book, but rather a thief who stole the invisibility potion. These characters must then go recruit 2 more members for their League (Moriarty does not include himself in the League). They visit Dorian Gray (reference The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 1890) who is an immortal/invulnerable type person, and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (reference The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 1886). Also brought into the mix for perhaps some flavor text is Tom Sawyer (reference The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 1876), as he certainly brings nothing that makes him extraordinary other than he's another literary character from this time period. The first step a viewer needs to do, is accept that however improbable or impossible it is that these characters could exist at the same time, let alone the same plain of existence, they do. There are even references to other literary characters made that are not in the movie, such as Phileas Fogg (reference Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne 1873). The next step is to sit back and enjoy the movie. I won't go into more as that might ruin the movie, but there is plenty of action and at least one plot twist that make this an enjoyable story. While it is not the biggest hit of the summer, it does provide plenty of entertainment.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A 'League' of Their Own!
Review: This beautifully choreographed film about a diverse group of singular individuals who converge in London to fight evil is full of action. Each, however, has ghosts of the past to deal with and overcome.

It's a complicated assortment who appear at a London Gentlemen's Club to select their leader, Alan Quartermain. He's told, "The Empire needs you." He counters with "Do I need the Empire?"

Numerous locations are depicted from Victorian London to Germany, Paris, Venice -- even the frozen vastland of Mongolia. As they are introduced, fierce fighting ensues. Rodney Skinner, with his cockney accent, is the comical invisible man in a long , black leather coat -- a far cry from the comic book character created by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. The Phantom looked like a giant ape. Captain Nemo described as an exotic pirate dressed like an Arabian prince. His turbans were something else.

A handsome Dorian Gray turned out to be the traitor and explains his missing portrait from the collection of pictures lining the staircase to his exquisite library. In the end, the portrait which ages as he appears younger wins out.

Tom Sawyer is the young and innocent American. Mr. Hyde was a cross between the Hulk and Brutus of the Popeye cartoons. His alter-ego, Dr. Jekyll, was a weak, perverse person.

The Game is On! The cobblestoned streets of London in 1899 were reminiscent of the marvelous illustrated time-travel novels of Jack Finney.

Quartermain had a fantastic auto which was a bit hyped up but the best I've ever seen anywhere. Captain Nemo pilots the Nautilus, sword of the ocean, comparable in style and class to the fancy limo. Both are adorned with plenty of flashy chrome ornamentation.

Action begins when the Bank of England is destroyed by a WWII tank, thus making this tale science fiction. "Leave one alive to spin the yarn" -- must be the American.

Fierce machine fighting ensues, guns presumably furnished by Belgium, as the Big Bang hits Germany. The Nautilus surfaces in Venice with our heroes to set the world right. There were splendid special effects as the whole of Venice collapses. The pyro-technics were a tad overdone, too strong, as much of our world is annihilated.

An old-fashioned phonograph was effective as Dorian Gray's plans are revealed. A form of morse code was used in 1899.

As the war against evil is played out, each of the 'League' meets his/her inner demons. There was mass destruction as we observe the future become history.

Many stuntmen were used in this violent undertaking. The indoor staging was elaborate and breathtakingly decorated. DaVinci's blueprints were used to try to bring order to the land.

Quartermain's encounter with the blue-eyed tiger reflected his inner turmoil. What's next? A funeral gathering in Africa gives some semblance of normality. The Shaman weaves his spell. A remarkable film with excellent acting.


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