|   League of Not so extraordinary gentlemen. | Kam
Jul 17, 2003 12:35 AM | | Ok, so i was stupid and saw this instead of Whale Rider, (going to see WR tomorrow or friday worfster! will post review)
Group of friends saw it and we were evenly split, 2 for, 2 against. Personally, i didn't like it at all.
The premise is interesting enough, i never read the comic book and never knew there was one, but hearing it was Alan Moore (from The Watchmen fame for those of u who know comic books), i figured it couldn't be THAT bad. Well, it was. The idea is awesome, a group of great literary hero's get together to fight the evil badguy. Everyone from Tom Sawyer to Captain Nemo (who is indian apparently, i never knew that). They all are brought together by the mysterious "M" to save her majesty's butt. Now in all movies there is a suspension of belief, and as some of you may know, my #1 pet peeve in all sci-fi/fantasy/anything movie is once we are given the rules of the game, i am all for believing them through the movie, JUST DON'T CHANGE THEM. (prime eg for changing the rules is Godzilla). So here we have Mina Harker of Bram Stoker fame, who is a vampire, YET, can walk in daylight. Unexplained.
They meet in London, and are supposed to get to Venice in 4 days which Alan Quartermain says is impossible. Uh, really? So a half day boat ride to cross the channel and about 2 days on train would still give them a day and half to spare, but, pesky details i know get in the way of a good hollywood action blur. Along the same lines is Captain Nemo, who has invented a twin turbo bentley stretch and the massive Nautilus that could fit a cruise ship on its pinky. Ok... fine... but it's still in the real world, and last i checked, you can't take the Carnival Cruise line ship through the canals of Venice, so how the hell did they fit that thing in there? ANd then the premise, here comes this bad guy who kidnaps all these scientists to make these cool WMD to sell to every nation to start a world war. Well, they pretty much just need Nemo, he seems to be several hundred years ahead of the rest of the world, yet no one seems to notice his advancement over the bad guys' advancements.
Ok.. enough of particulars, back to wasted characters. Tom Sawyer! there is nothing twain wrote about tom sawyer in the character they made other then the typical yahoo american among the "foreigners". wasted.
Mr. Hyde - he looked pretty damn cool, i haven't seen the hulk, but i heard of the techniques they used to make hyde, and he looked damn good. And then there's a bunch of secret revelations along the way that come about as shocking as the ending itself. VERY dissapointing tripe. And to top it off, Connery is just going through the motions spouting catch phrases made for trailers. His performance was just so... blah. Fitting i guess for the movie though.
So... final thoughts - don't go see it. Wait till rental when there's nothing else to do or rent if at all. On the flip side, two of my friends did thoroughly enjoy it liking all the characters. I thought it was trite and had SO much potential with these great characters of so many types and genres of literature. All for nought.
peace
k2 |
| Thanks for saving me Kam... | Worf101
Jul 17, 2003 7:10 AM | | I was sooo looking forward to TLOEG, sigh... Hollywood flubs it again. Figures... just can't get it right. I've read all the Jules Verne stories involving Nemo, 20,000 Leagues, Mysterious Island and never heard a race mentioned in connection with the man. If he's Indian, cool. Speaking of Indian cinema, did you catch any of TCM's tribute to "Bollywood" last month? What did you think of their selections etc???
I admit I'm not as familiar with Indian cinema as I should be but I catch them when I can.
Da Worfster |
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