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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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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good Fun, but a bit muddled - 3.5 Stars
Review: For me this was an eagerly awaited movie outing, although I have to confess as to NOT having previously read the comics. The story is fairly straightforward - Sean Connery plays latter day Indiana Jones, Alan Quartermain (Kings Solomon's Mines)who reluctantly comes to the call of the British Empire to save the World from the "Phantom" and his army of technologically advanced goons, by leading a band of "Extraordinary Gentlemen" (including one woman), in a classic Good vs Evil scenario. His band of heroes include, Dr Jekyll (& Mr Hyde), Dorian Gray, Mina Harker, an Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, and Agent Sawyer, all with their own "special" talents to contribute to the crime busting organisation. Connery is excellent (as usual) as the lead, and the acting performances are great allround, the movie is overladen with spectacular SfX, and the story builds nicely throughout. I felt the main problem with the movie - is that it is a sad reflection on the general ignorance of literary characters of old by people today, that each member in the film in turn, has to play out a little cameo, explaining who and what they are, and share their emotional baggage with the viewer. What results is a multitude of mini subplots inside a main story, itself trying to be inventive and twisted, and ultimately coming across as a bit of a mess.It is very difficult to convey deep character development inside an essentially "tongue in cheek" romp around computer generated 1899. And although the movie never sets out to be taken seriously (consider the subject matter for a moment), it seems to try and do so, at every given opportunity. It is a little slow to get going, and then fills the viewer with anticipation, which it never really delivers on fully. Don't get me wrong, it is an entertaining movie, and OK at around 1hr 50 mins, but it could have, and should have been better. Sure to be a winner at the box office, and later on DVD and Video, just don't get your hopes up too high.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Didn't read comics, don't think it should matter
Review: I expected this movie to be much better than it was. In fact, I expected it to be average to slightly above average. It was below average (in my opinion, of course). You don't know what's going on half the time, but you don't really care, since the characters are flat and boring. I was really really trying to like this movie, but not even Sean Connery and Stuart Townsend (who was very pretty, by the way) could save it. Don't know, the entire movie just seemed disinteresting and off.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: never trust in a Newspaper critic.
Review: If you read the professional reviews you certainly went into this review with lowered excpectations. Its not the best movie of the year, but its a good summer flix. Connery is great and Peta Wilson should be doing a lot more movies, she can hold up next to Sean. The movie needed a better score and should have tried to do less with CGI. CGI for Hyde and the Invsibible Man may be necessary, but not for old cars and submarines.
I'm giving it an extra half star for the depressing effect of all the negative reviews.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: LoEG - Extraordinarily entertaining!
Review: Suffice it to say that I'd only caught a glance or two at a trailer and had heard that the critics were tearing this movie up. With that in mind, I headed right into the theater with a bit of reticence and an open mind. Not surprisingly though, this film well overcomes critical disdain and is an excellent film! I'd also never heard of any past references to a "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" comic series or anything else so I went into this completely unaware and came out genuinely and pleasantly surprised at what an original concept this phenomenon is. Not to mention the fact that one of the film industry's best actors was starring in it, Sean Connery!

The premise:

It is the year 1899 and someone appears to be making all attempts to instigate world war by committing 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 this terrorist and neutralize him.

What follows is nothing short of a brilliant, superhero type film with many surprising heroes. From beginning to end this film is filled with exceptional action sequences and a plot that well capable of "suspending disbelief," and entertaining the moviegoer. I highly recommend this film for its merits in every category are well established! {ssintrepid}

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A League Not So Extraordinary
Review: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" has an absolutely winning premise, there's no denying that. "Think fantasy baseball for the bookish set," says Premeire magazine, as the film (like the comic on which it's based) combines a handful of heroes and anti-heroes from turn-of-the-century literature and makes an "X-Men"-esque crime-fighting force out of them. Unfortunately, the movie is bad. It suffers primarily from a lack of character development (there are just too many characters, and not enough time), a bad screenplay (which is responsible for some truly awful one-liners), and absolutely no story whatsoever. Sure, there's a Bond-like villain in a ridiculous costume trying to stir up the first World War, but his motives are unknown, and (when his true identity is unmasked) he's about as threatening as a purple humming bird. Most of the League members are equally lifeless, and some of them are just plain annoying (see Tom Sawyer and Captain Nemo, for instance). The special effects call too much attention to themselves as well - 80% of the film seems like it was shot in front of a blue screen. Some of these visuals are remarkably good (see Mr. Hyde and his mutated foe, for example), and others are mind-numbingly bad (see Captain Nemo's ship or the villain's fire-spurting lair). To make things worse, the ending is a damp squib that sizzles instead of popping. Sure, it can be entertaining some of the time, and it is therefore not a complete and utter loss, but given the premise and source material, it's a shame that this film is the final product. Like most films with a troubled shoot (this one was plagued with costly disasters), it just feels like the director lost interest in the project long before it wrapped. He and Sean Connery did not get on well either, and as a result Connery seems to phone in his performance. A disappointment.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: "That was naughty"
Review: In approximately 21 years of moviegoing I have seen only 60 movies on the big screen, an average of about three films a year. Nonetheless it may be of interest that "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is probably the worst movie I have ever seen in a theater. That doesn't mean that it's at all bad, of course, since I see so few movies; but although I have not actually seen any of the great comic book movies of the past, from their reputations it seems clear to me that "LXG" is far from being one of them.

Where did this elaborate production, blessed with interesting source material and some rather wonderful onscreen talent, go wrong? Before seeing the movie I read the graphic novel containing the comic book's first story arc as written by Alan Moore, a comics writer almost as legendary as the literary characters in the League. I enjoyed the graphic novel but did not find it entirely to my taste, despite a long-time fascination with "crossovers" and the interaction of fictional worlds. For me the comic is a little too violent (blood flying through the air, etc.) and stridently political in its depiction of the oh-so-racist-and-sexist Victorian Age. A PG-13 rated movie would inevitably tone down these aspects, so I thought that I might prefer the film to the comic.

But I don't, because although the film features reasonably impressive design work and special effects and some very good acting (especially from the reliable Sean Connery), the screenplay would have benefited from a total rewrite, or perhaps two or three rewrites. The plot is too thin, and the major sequences and events that constitute the plot are spaced too far apart on a thread of atmospheric and character-development scenes. The viewer may be enthralled during the movie, having little idea of where it's going, but once it's over he realizes that it didn't go anywhere special after all. Seldom does one wish that an action movie contained fewer scenes of character development; yet given that "LXG"'s interpersonal relationships are largely cliched and fail to build to truly satisfying payoffs the film might have been better off sacrificing some of those scenes to make room for a more complicated plot. The graphic novel features many fewer cliches (no surrogate father-son relationship, for instance) and has a more substantive, surprising and rewarding storyline. It also has a much better cliffhanger ending; that of the film, while genuinely exciting and surprising, is also rather stupid.

And yet there is nothing really seriously horrible about "LXG"; it is as far from being one of the world's worst films as it is from being one of the best. I was actually pleased to learn that it was the #2 film at the box office last weekend, since that means a lot of people had quite a bit of fun, even if the experience wasn't highly improving. "LXG" is a highly professional piece of escapist fluff. So, even though I've given the film only two stars to express my opinion of its artistic worth, I recommend that you go see it and deaden your brain for a couple of hours to the cares of the real world. (It was accompanied by some good trailers at the theater where I saw it.)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Too much backstory, suspension of disbelief
Review: I recently had an opportunity to see this movie at my local theatre and was quite surprised to see how difficult it was to watch the whole way through.

It starts off introducing characters for about 40 minutes, each of them with more issues than a newsstand. And while I was intrigued with the inclusion of Dorian Grey, Hyde's/Jeykl's appearance quickly soured the note. It's not that Hyde's transformation didn't look real; it's that it didn't look good at all. Also, the fast-motion action sequences in the movie were very much overused. Moving quickly between action sequences is supposed to increase the tension, but if used for every shot for 10 minutes, it just gets annoying.

To watch and enjoy this movie requires the suspension of belief greater than watching Charlie's Angel's two. There are so many inventions on the Nautilus and elsewhere that we not around at the end of the 20th century that it's nearly laughable.

After reading the comic and watching the movie, I'm going to have to side with the book.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome, creative, entertaining movie!
Review: I loved it. How refreshing. There is definitely opportunity here for more movies with this wonderful cast. I feel that we have only just scratched the surface of the intriguing characters Mina Harker, Sawyer, Jekyl, Nemo etc. Pita Wilson was wonderful in her underdeveloped role (I'm a huge Nikita fan). Sean Connery looks incredible, dashing and sexy as ever. I want a sequel! This movie made me want to run out and reread all the classics including: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, King Solomon's Mines, Tom Sawyer, Dracula, H.G.Wells, Oscar Wilde, etc.

I cannot comment on comparison to the graphic novel because I am one of those people who can't read graphic novels. They lose me. I enjoy my books without having to follow the pictures. I appreciate the incredible artwork of the graphic novel; they're just not for everyone.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: LXG=EDM; Extraordinarily Dumb Movie.
Review: I love action movies, particularly fantasy/Sci-fi action. Given this, I certainly have no problem setting aside reality for a while and getting lost in a good bit of fantasy. I had sean some not-so-positive reviews of this film, so I lowered my expectations and hope for some fun excitement. Oh, there was plenty of excitement. However, there were so many dumb "flaws" in this film that it sort of sucked the fun out of it. Let's review;

THE GOOD

-Special FX were very entertaining. Hyde transformation was intense.
-Mr. Hyde was, by far, the most entertaining character in the film.
-The basic story was ok. Adequate for an action film.
-Acting is passible. No glaring weeknesses here.
-CHaracter development was as good as could be expected for such a large ensamble.
-Music was really not a factor. Didn't add or detract.

THE BAD

-A 400 foot long, 80 ft tall submarine would not fit in the canals of Venice let alone be able to make any turns.
-The entire city of Venice is not built on stilts. Venice is a series of marshy islands. The buildings are mostly 3 stories tall and anchored into the ground. Placing bombs under the city as shown is not possible. To sink such a large part of Venice would require the removal of the Islands. Yea, right!!
-England and Germanys respective militaries did not have steel helmets in 1899. These were developed during WWI (1918 ish).
-Nemos car is too 1930s. As an industrial designer, I can tell you that the probability of someone developing a car of that style in 1899 just wouldn't happpen, not even a forward thinking guy like Nemo. Car styling is evolutionary not revolutionary (dispite what the car makers tell you).
-GPS (global positioning system) in 1899? COME ON!!!
-Invisible man survives siberian wilderness in winter and running out of a room after being flame-throwered... WHILE NUDE!?!?!
-When the HQ of the LXG is first shown, Paintings of past "leagues" hang on the wall. Later, the head of LXG tells the heros it was all a lie. Were the paintings really necessary? If this was the real HQ, who was running the show?

-Plot has 9 bizillion holes in it. Too difficult to trace them all.

I'm sure I'm missing a few things. Some of this may seam nit-picky to some of you. Just keep in mind that the film maker's responsibility is to make me believe that this fantasy is real (even if in a different world). But you just can't ignore history or technological probability. So much reality was suspended to make the story work that it falls into the realm of the rediculous! It seams to me that the writers never researched anything!!! They just did what ever would "look cool". A good sci-fi or fantasy takes responsibility for making the viewer buy into the events that are happening on the screen. LXG failed in it's responsibility to depict the year 1899, known architecture, and the laws of physics accurately. Because of this, The longer I viewed the movie, the less I believed anything that was going on. B.T.W. I've never read the comic. Perhaps it too is as rediculous as this movie, in which case they were trying to be honorable to the books. Still makes for a rediculous film. Curb your curiosity, wait and rent. Save some money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Start Writing
Review: I had been waiting for this movie for sometime. The original comic book was great, and i was glad to see it adapted into a movie. Unfortunately, this movie has some problems. First, let me proclaim some level of unbias, as i really wanted to enjoy this movie, despite whatever changes, new characters or plot adjustments they had made. In the end, all my problems with this movie were simply poor movie making.
First though, a synopsis: This is the justice league of america for the 19th century. Characters from classic literature brought together to fight a common evil. Alan Quartermain, 'Mina Murray (from Dracula), Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo (from 10,000 leagues under the Sea) and two characters that weren't in the original story, Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray. Together, they are thrust into an array of adventures as they try to foil the sinister plot of one uber criminal, The Fantom.
So here is just one of my many problems with this movie, Tom Sawyer. His adventures with Huck Finn and the slave Jim, obviously took place pre-cival war, where Sawyer was in his early teens. This movie takes place in 1899, which means Tom Sawyer should be in his 40's or even 50's, but no, he's 20-ish.
In the end, this movie has an ego problem. It thought it was going to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but falls short. The characters are two dimensional, its dialogue gets sophomoric at times, the villain when finally revealed and his evil plans are just too ridiculous. It is a shame that Hollywood could take an idea so grandiose and turn it into utter rubbish. Although, there is something inspirational about a movie like this, if Hollywood will make a movie this bad, anyone can write a successful script.


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