The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - A Review July 14, 2003
Set in a different Victorian-age reality, a group of uniquely talented men and women band together to stop an evil villian bent on starting a world-wide war.
This comic book-based film is directed by Stephen Norrington (Blade, The Last Minute), written by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (both from the comic book genre - unfortunately it shows) and stars Sean Connery (Goldfinger, The Man Who Would Be King, Outland, etc. . .) along with an ensemble cast consisting of Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Shane West, Stuart Townsend, Jason Flemyng, et al.
Let me cut right to the chase. This movie disappointed me. This was a film with possibilities, but it lived up to none of them and the writing is essentially to blame. Can you say "plot holes"? It was a poorly written story - confusing and choppy at best, with muddy characterizations and little or no thought given to continuity or supporting story lines. Suspension of dis-belief is necessary in comic-book-hero films, but there were a couple of times in TLOEG where I couldn't do it. Piloting an enormous submarine into the twisted canals of Venice? Having the first automobile in existence and just anyone can drive it? Okay, I admit I may be picking nits, but that's the frame of mind this film put me in. None of the roles were fleshed out and that's one place this film could have distanced itself from the pack - the possibilities were tremendous. Sean Connery, as always brought a great deal of presence and charisma to the the screen, but even he wasn't enough to de-odorize this stinker. Each of the rest of the cast had moments where they rose above the level of this script, but quickly sank back down unable to escape the quagmire.
Visually, there were things both good and bad. CGI was generally up to par, with some moments of very good work and some moments of patently bad visuals. Many of the scenes were set in dark, poorly lit rooms or at night, so the color pallette was correspondingly subdued. The few well-lit scenes showed good color fidelity without any of the "mood filters" so commonly in use in Hollywood right now.
Aurally, the soundtrack was very active in all channels as befits an action-based film with good bass extension in several scenes. Dialog was generally clear throughout. Overall, the soundtrack didn't detract.
Well, I won't continue to beat this dead horse. Let me just say it's a dollar-movie viewer at best. Don't waste more of your hard-earned coin than that on it.
I give The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen a very un-extraordinary :15: out of :5:.
David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker
Set in a different Victorian-age reality, a group of uniquely talented men and women band together to stop an evil villian bent on starting a world-wide war.
This comic book-based film is directed by Stephen Norrington (Blade, The Last Minute), written by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (both from the comic book genre - unfortunately it shows) and stars Sean Connery (Goldfinger, The Man Who Would Be King, Outland, etc. . .) along with an ensemble cast consisting of Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Shane West, Stuart Townsend, Jason Flemyng, et al.
Let me cut right to the chase. This movie disappointed me. This was a film with possibilities, but it lived up to none of them and the writing is essentially to blame. Can you say "plot holes"? It was a poorly written story - confusing and choppy at best, with muddy characterizations and little or no thought given to continuity or supporting story lines. Suspension of dis-belief is necessary in comic-book-hero films, but there were a couple of times in TLOEG where I couldn't do it. Piloting an enormous submarine into the twisted canals of Venice? Having the first automobile in existence and just anyone can drive it? Okay, I admit I may be picking nits, but that's the frame of mind this film put me in. None of the roles were fleshed out and that's one place this film could have distanced itself from the pack - the possibilities were tremendous. Sean Connery, as always brought a great deal of presence and charisma to the the screen, but even he wasn't enough to de-odorize this stinker. Each of the rest of the cast had moments where they rose above the level of this script, but quickly sank back down unable to escape the quagmire.
Visually, there were things both good and bad. CGI was generally up to par, with some moments of very good work and some moments of patently bad visuals. Many of the scenes were set in dark, poorly lit rooms or at night, so the color pallette was correspondingly subdued. The few well-lit scenes showed good color fidelity without any of the "mood filters" so commonly in use in Hollywood right now.
Aurally, the soundtrack was very active in all channels as befits an action-based film with good bass extension in several scenes. Dialog was generally clear throughout. Overall, the soundtrack didn't detract.
Well, I won't continue to beat this dead horse. Let me just say it's a dollar-movie viewer at best. Don't waste more of your hard-earned coin than that on it.
I give The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen a very un-extraordinary :15: out of :5:.
David - HTGuide flunky
Our "Theater"
Our DVDs on DVD Tracker
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