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League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
7/11/03 - PG-13 - 112m
Sean
Connery - Allan Quatermain
Naseeruddin Shah - Captain Nemo
Peta Wilson - Mina Harker
Director: Stephen Norrington
Written by: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Official
Website
JEF
Wow, this move is a tough one for me, because I can’t determine
weather to give it a yellow light or red. I finally went with a yellow
light, due to its genre; Summer blockbuster action adventure movie. I
might be too kind in giving it a yellow light.
Storyline: Set at the turn of the century of 1899, the
movie focuses on a storyline of gathering a group of literary characters
from that time. Imagine a group of hero’s like Allan Quartermain
(Sean Connery), Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), Mina Harker (Peta Wilson),
The Invisible Man (Tony Curran), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), and Dr.
Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng), and lastly, Tom Sawyer (Shane West).
A mysterious man known as “M” decides to bring these characters
together to help England save the world from a possible threat of a World
War, started by a madman.
This movie opens with a credit to Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill,
as based on their “graphic novel” – I guess that’s
a fancy Hollywood way to say “Comic book”. I never actually
read this comic book, but I am familiar with Alan Moore’s work.
I will say this - the movie has a lot of positive things going for it.
It’s got a lot of action, some really nice special effects, and
some talented actors and actresses. Also the storyline is very original.
The idea of bringing all these characters together into one storyline
is a nice twist.
The visuals were very well done. There was one “effect” that
I did not like, which dealt with Captain Nemo’s ship/submarine.
It was hard to get a feel for the size of the ship. At one point it’s
seen rising from the scene next to a dock… Most docks are in shallow
water, yet the ship raised to a massive height!? Then, the ship is shown
navigating through the small canals of Venice, under bridges, and all.
I just found that one a little hard to accept.
In every movie there’s usually a sense of an acceptable believability
or a “suspension of disbelief”. But this movie was pushing
the limits for me. Ok, it’s an interesting concept to include these
various characters, but it was almost too much to take. It was almost
too fantastical. I’m sure that was the whole point though, was to
have this totally new world of make-believe. I just had a hard time with
it.
I was especially taken by Peta Wilson’s portrayal of “Mina
Harker” the wife of “Jonathan Harker” from the fabled
Dracula. The style of this character, and Wilson’s talent, really
made her something special.
Sean Connery played the lead character for this movie as “Allan
Quartermain”. He also did a very good job. I realize he’s
getting up there in years too (73), but he did a nice job, of playing
yet another action adventure hero.
I also liked how the filming and effects were done for the changing of
Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde. But… I found Mr. Hyde, just too over-the-top
for my liking. But I did like Jason Flemying’s acting of the Dr.
Jekyll character.
Finally one other thing that bothered me was some of the ways in which
the action sequences were filmed. The use of the camera with the jerky-shaky
camera was not to my liking. I think when a director chooses to use this
style of filming it often times is meant to hide flaws in the action,
or the limitations of the actor. For example, Sean Connery I’m sure
can throw a good punch, but to be able to lift a table with one hand,
and smash it over a guy, in a split second timing, is more of a cover-up,
but by speeding it up, and jiggling the camera we the audience are supposed
to not see that it’s highly unlikely that Connery could really do
this.
Ok, I know, this is sounding really negative. But even with all these
small details and not so small believability issues I still came out of
the theatre feeling like I had been on a fun amusement ride at a carnival.
I was entertained, and although the movie felt a little long, it moved
along nicely. The darkness in the movie was nice. And the storyline like
I mentioned above was a nice original twist, that I must give credit for.
Like most summer action adventure movies, you can’t go in expecting
too much. Just go along for the ride, don’t think too hard about
the logistics of the storyline. Enjoy the action, the fight scenes, and
the special effects, and you might just walk out of the movie with a feeling
like you got you’re $8 or $9 dollars worth for 112 minutes.
Jef
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
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