Plain Ordinary (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (DVD))

Member Name: Dringostarr

Product:	The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (DVD)
Date:	14/01/05 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: One good line

Disadvantages: Script, Direction, Acting

When you hear of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen you get the impression of cross dressing freaks talking of local shops for local people. But in fact this movie is based on the unique comic strip that tells the tale of several Victorian heroes, each with their own unique attribute. Ah so a 19th century X-men then.

Throw Connery into the mix and you have a right to get excited, a Vampire, an invisible man, the two faced Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plus a swashbuckling machine owning religious genius, all being led by patriotic American and British sharpshooters. All of this reeks of a fantastic super hero story that could not only be funny but thrilling at the same time. Such a shame it isn’t.

In fact I could go as far to say that the league of extraordinary gentlemen could well be the worst movie of the year. The special effects are nice yes, the submarine looks very snazzy and that car is very reminiscent of Batman. But this won’t appeal to anyone, even fans of literature will despise this, I mean why is Hyde a giant mutant thing when in fact he is really just a small man who looks a bit odd? Perhaps picking the film apart for its literal inaccuracies is a bit harsh so instead I will concentrate on the bad script, the evil acting, the poor sense of direction and the general film itself.

There was one, single moment when the film looked to have generated a killer line, Dorian Gray stabs an ex-lover with a sword to say “I knew I’d nail her again”, brilliant but then the following line shows where it all goes wrong: “I didn’t thing it would be literally”. Yes I got that, the local cinema cat got that, and there was absolutely no need to spoil what could have been a moment of hilarity. The rest of the script is blunt, shabby, cringe worthy and moves far to quickly. The pace of the film disallows any opportunity to really relate to the characters despite the director’s best attempts. Do you feel for Dr. Jekyll and his plight? No because the scripting is so crap, can you relate to the character of Tom Sawyer? No. And what the writers and the director intended of the vampire lady appear to be totally different from each other.

None of this is helped by the frankly appalling acting, even Sean, a legend in his own right, is putting on the worst performance of his life. The invincible Dorian Gray is a pretty cool character and the actor creates this, yet his performance is still mediocre at best. Maybe I’m being a bit hasty, there were clashes with the director and the script was so awful… but none of the crew did anything remotely useful to save the film. I may of well have cast a group of retarded 8-year old monkeys to play their roles, it may have been more of a success!

It had a moment of potential but it is all shattered by one of the worst films this year.

Summary: