Hey folks, Harry here... Right after I was looking at the new trailer for LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, I began getting a few reviews from a screening that apparently took place a couple of days ago now. Here ya go...
Harry, this is Gangster # 9 here just back from Sherman Oaks where Stephen Norrington blew my mind.
I was told I was going to a test screening of a new Russell Crowe movie and instead ended up at a final showing of THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN . I am still shaking. The movie sets new levels of excellence in superhero films, with some glaring problems.
For all of you who were worrying about the additions to the team, fear thee not. Dorian Gray works beautifully. Screenwriter James Robinson uses the character like he used the Shade in his STARMAN series of comics. He has been there and seen it all and yet joins the League out of a sense of adventure. Stuart Townsend who I hated in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED is wonderful as the decadent Dorian who apparently had an affair with Mina Harker sometimes in the past. He looks like the young Johnny Depp and is invincible. No one can beat him.
Shane West is an interesting counterweight. The character of Agent (Tom) Sawyer works well. He is young and brash and becomes Quatermain’s surrogate for his dead son, who he feels responsible for. He teaches Sawyer how to shoot. He teaches Sawyer about women. Sawyer saves the League twice. The character is strong. My problem is that Shane West has this odd teenybopper thing going on. He feels like the cover of Teen People.
Peta Wilson out NIKITAs herself here. I know some fans resent her being a Vampire but it works. It makes her fit in with the powers of the League. There is one scene where she attacks some gunmen and uses a swarm of bats to take them out that is wicked cool.
Norrington makes Connery look like a rock star. If I am 72 and cleaning the floor up with thugs like he does when we first meet him I will be a lucky man. He has a power and resonance on screen as Quatermain begins his last adventure and Connery begins perhaps his last film that is phenomenal.
I was pleased to see Nemo played by an Indian, the MONSOON WEDDING guy. For the first time we get the real Nemo, proud and angry, a genius among men. And, like Neo, he does kung fu. Why he is helping the League is never clearly addressed, but he might be my favorite character in the film. I want a film with just him.
But the real star for the fans is Jason Fleming as Jekyll and Hyde. He comes into the pic relatively late, but what an entrance. Running over the roofs of Paris, outside the Rue Morgue like in the comics, Hyde is a massive triumph for Norrington and the film. Unlike HULK with the bubblegum CGI this Hyde is all makeup – and could win the Oscar. The actor is from LOCK STOCK and FROM HELL. As Jekyll he is proper and puny. As Hyde he is a creature of the ID. Rampant. Strong. Mad. He works so much better than HULK because you feel the character much more.
Comic fans should look for – paintings of the earlier Leagues, a handbill that mentions flares on Mars, poster announcing a performance of Moore and O’Neill and other cool easter eggs including a surprise appearance by Moriarty at the end.
The film was unfinished with some effects slugged in. The score may have been temp but it really worked.
Norrington has made another comic book classic. I don’t know what hell he went through, but the film rocks and rocks hard.
Here's a look from someone that never read the comic...
I am new to this so here goes. Call me STUNNED1899
Just saw the best film of the summer- by accident! I went to a screening in the Valley tonight and they switched movies- and I saw the LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN. I almost left- I hated the trailer that they played with DAREDEVIL. Am I ever glad that I stayed!!!
The film feels like a modern day Indiana Jones movie. It has a really great submarine and a proto-car both of which look like they were designed in India. It has a strong cast of actors I mostly have never heard of. But the tagline should be YOU WILL BELIEVE A 72 YEAR OLD LEGEND CAN STILL KICK ASS. Sean Connery is uncovered in Africa after a sleight of hand trick involving the late David Hemmings that is wonderful. He is needed to save the world. He is bored. Somebody always needs to save the world. Assassins arrive. Assassins are dispatched. He's in.
The film does take a little long to get going. This is typical of origin films. Sean has to gather the League. He has to capture Hyde. He has to save Venice. He has to uncover a traitor. Once it kicks into gear, it never stops. This film looks like it cost $300,000,000. Nothing but chases, fights and edge of my seat gnawing. I was in awe.
I know that fans of the comic have been questioning the results. I never read it. The FILM is something I cannot wait to see again.
Here's an alleged Talkbacker - who didn't sign his review...
Just a quick note to say that I think I might have been the first audience member and Talkbacker to see THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN this evening.
I was excited as the film began and the pan from the Fox logo reminded me of the opening of FROM HELL. Then the Trevor Jones score which was also FROM HELL like. Then a London street ?like FROM HELL.
And then- some strange TANK rams through the wall- and it is off to the races. The film is NOTHING like FROM HELL.
It is like the XMEN set in 1899.
Connery is fabulous. He kicks and fights and shoots like he did 40 years ago. More amazingly, he has all the best lines. He is funny (after smashing a bottle of whiskey over a bad guy he mutters "wicked waste") and touching (when Sawyer makes a move on Harker he tells him "She's out of your League, boy.") He is such a movie star I almost wanted to go homo in the theatre. Almost.
The story starts out as another bad guy wants to dominate the world yawn. Three twists later we find out what the Fantom really wants- and to be honest I have never seen such a clever reveal in any adventure film before.
Film drags a couple of times aboard the Nautilus, but only for a moment or two. Special effects on the Nautilus and elsewhere are wonderful.
When you meet Nemo and his crew I was blown away. Someone at Fox has balls- they are all Indian and all in turbans. No PC shit for this film.
I don't think kids will get everything, but they'll love Hyde, he's a better HULK, more real and human since he is an actor.
Just thought I'd write and tell you about how good this ended up being.
Ok, so what do all these wildly positive reviews mean? Does it mean that LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN is about to collectively kick all of our asses in such a way that we're left with frozen drool stuck to our faces shivvering in the polar regions? Could be. I know some folks that have been behind the scenes on this film and despite all the nightmarish weird tales about Norrington and Connery and the Studio and yabba yabba yabba... Despite all of that, they are quite happy with the film. I've been hearing that the movie is very good, better than expected... and lastly that it isn't as classic as it could have been, but it's really quite good. Now, I trust those people that I've spoken to, so I expect the movie to be entertaining at the very least.
