Film of Extraordinary Badness! (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (DVD))

Name: SWSt

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (DVD)
Date:	01/11/06 (95 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Erm... It eventually ends?

Disadvantages: Poor casting, acting, script, special effects... need I go on?

(film only review)

The Plot
-----------
Attacks on Britain and Germany by “The Phantom” leave the world on the brink of war. It’s up to a group of small group of men and women with special skills – the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – to prevent the Phantom’s evil plans.

The Cast
-----------
Boy, did they ever get the casting of this film wrong! Sean Connery is cast as English adventurer and supreme hunter Allan Quatermain. Of course, this being Sean Connery, his “English” adventurer speaks with a Scottish accent! Then there’s Naseeruddin Shah’s Captain Nemo with the most ridiculous false beard you ever saw - he looks like he’s raided the dressing up department. Jason Flemyng is left very little to do as nervous Dr Jekyll or badly animated Mr Hyde, whilst Peta Wilson, as token female Mina Harker is also left with little to do except occasionally remind people she’s a vampire by licking a bit of blood. Shane West is just annoying as token Yank, Tom Sawyer. In fact, Tony Curran has the best idea – as the Invisible Man, he spends most of the film (obviously!) invisible. As such, his reputation can’t be damaged to much by being seen in this mess! The actors themselves appear to have little interest in the film and walk through it as if half asleep (the audience will share this feeling!)

Mind you, it’s a bit unfair to blame the actors for poor performances as little of interest is done with the characters, either to drive the story forward or to give them any kind of character arc. Attempts to give them back story (Quatermain grieving for his dead son) are just dull and predictable and fail to arouse any sympathy. Similarly, there’s no real chemistry or interplay between any of the characters and attempts to introduce it (Quatermain and Sawyer’s “father-son relationship”) are clumsy and poorly handled, underdeveloped and only brought up when the plot remembers!. You don’t like them and don’t care about them. Given that the film has (unrealized) emotional aspirations and tries to tug at your heart strings, this is a real shortcoming.

The only cast member to come out of this film with any kind of dignity intact is Stuart Townsend as Dorian Gray. Played as both arrogant and charming, Townsend adds at least some interest to his character. Sadly, he doesn’t have enough scenes to alter the overall film sufficiently.

The Film
-----------
OK, so you’ve probably already gathered by now that I don’t think much of this film! In fairness, I had heard it was pretty awful and had avoided it up until now. However, since it was on TV the other night, I decided to give it a go. After all, how bad can it be? Answer: VERY.

Oh boy! Where to start with this one. Well, how about the plot? It’s completely non-sensical and fragmented. Things happen on screen and possibly they have some connection with something that has already happened and possibly they don’t. The whole thing is, frankly, a mess – it’s as though a dozen monkeys were given word processors and then whatever they typed was filmed. It really is that bad.

It also tries to be too clever. Obviously, the key characters are taken from a variety of fictional works and to show off how clever they are, the monkey-writers try to cram in as many fictional character/literary references as they can. Clearly, they think it is big and clever and shows how educated they are. It’s not. It’s just pointless and very annoying and strains the “plot” well beyond breaking point.

Worse still, the plot is incredibly predictable and contains no surprises whatsoever. In fact, plot points are so clearly signed that you could watch the first ten minutes and know exactly what will happen (in fact, I’d advise you to do this for the sake of your own sanity!). The fate of one character, in particular, is hammered home repeatedly with such clumsy and unsubtle dialogue that it becomes embarrassing.

Still, who cares about plot, this in an action film, right? Surely as long as there’s plenty of exciting set pieces, you can’t go wrong. Then again, maybe you can. True, the monkey-writers managed to randomly generate action scenes, but they are curiously devoid of any excitement or sense of danger. Oooh look, there’s Sean Connery standing in front a bad CG explosion. Gosh, doesn’t he look scared? Hey, what about that “exciting” car chase sequence to stop a series of explosions from destroying Venice? Look at how the “gentlemen” combine their talents to prevent disaster. Yes, very exciting, I’m sure. Wake me up when it’s over…

And that leads us on to another problem. Part of the reason why the action sequences are so dull is because they special effects are so incredibly poor. Most of the sequences are so clearly filmed in front of a green screen that you can almost see where the bits have been joined together. King Kong (1933) had more convincing special effects, for goodness sake! When the Nautilus, supposedly the fastest ship/submarine ever built is “sailing” through the water, at times it’s an incredibly poorly realized CGI effect, at times it’s an equally poorly filmed model in a bath tub! By the time you get to the “climactic” battle sequence where Mr Hyde takes on an even more evil version of himself, you’ll either be laughing hysterically, unable to believe that this trash ever got released or sobbing uncontrollably, as you realize you’ve just wasted nearly two hours of your life watching it.

Still, it’s directed by Stephen Norrington, who did Blade, so there must be some redeeming qualities there, right? Then again… The direction is as much of a confusing mess as the rest of the film. The fight scenes – so good in Blade – are rubbish, as curiously lacking in excitement as the rest of the film and equally bland. The stylish sense of violence from Blade has also gone, replaced by the same blandness, which suggests it was deliberately played down in order to appeal to a wider audience.

Conclusion
---------------
I wasn’t expecting much from this film and it managed to fail to meet even those limited expectations! After all, I thought, it’s got a number of interesting characters in it – there must be at least some redeeming parts to the film. Sadly not! Badly plotted, poorly realized special effects and badly directed with lazy actors and characters, it is a mess from start to finish.

See this (if you must) if you liked…
------------------------------------------- -
Van Helsing
The Avengers
(and it even makes these two cinematic travesties look good!)

Basic Information
----------------------
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
2003
Cert 12
Directed by Stephen Norrington
Running Time: 110 minutes

Summary: One of the worst comic book adaptations ever