The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen....

[fajrdrako]

Last night I went to see The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

It was fun, but I never really got caught up in the action or the characters, though I enjoyed every one of them. I liked the quirkiness, but it also seemed shallow - by which I mean, it never made me feel much. The father-son-substitute relationship between Quartermain and Sawyer was almost interesting enough to pull me in, but it wasn't developed enough to really be more than a token thing.

Verdict: it's style over substance. Brilliant style. The best thing about the movie was the visuals. I love Victorian-futuristic and this movie had it in spades. A friend of mine, an artist named Larry Stewart, loves to draw in that style: brass with wood implements, anything from Jules Verne or H.G. Wells. Riven had things in that style, too.

Best moments:
(1) Sawyer on the deck of the Nautilus, looking out to sea.
(2) Quartermain facing a tiger in the snow, and not shooting it

So the Natilus was terrific.

I liked Sean Connery as always, and he had the strongest personality as Alan Quartermain. But he ought to have been sexy, and wasn't. Too heavy now, perhaps.

Second best character was Petra Wilson as Mina Harker - very striking as the Lady Vampire. I wasn't sure I understood the character or her vampirism, though. Perhaps we weren't supposed to 'understand' her. To what extent was she a creature of the night?

I liked Shane West as Tom Sawyer, both conceptually and in terms of his charm - but don't much like his looks. Didn't like Jason Flemyng at all, and I'm trying to remember where I've seen him.

Stuart Townsend was attactively dark, but again, I never really got a sense of his personality or what drove him.

David Hemmings is one of my favourite actors ever and I didn't recognize him. (the shame!) The whiskers might be the proboem, but I should at least have recognized the voice.

I liked Richard Roxburgh as M, and I notice that IMDB has a huge spoiler regarding his identity - which I guessed almost right off, after deciding he couldn't be the M from James Bond.

I figured the Phantom was the Red Skull. I'm still not sure he isn't. They just couldn't call him that because Marvel would sue. (g)

I was interested to note that the screenwriter was James Robinson, the same guy who wrote the X-Men comic I was reading the other day. Cool. I have the feeling that I'd like Alan Moore comic book version of this story more than I did the movie.

Comments

Jason Flemyng

[star-maple.livejournal.com]

He's been in a ton of stuff, but the thing I most remember him for is as Brad Pitt's friend in Snatch. (Apparently he wasn't even cast, he just showed up on set to visit some people and just kinda ended up in the film.)

Re: Jason Flemyng

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen "snatch" so that can't be it. The thing I am not quite remembering, I think, is something we watched at a local slash gathering where he was someone's gay lover. But darned if I can remember what the movie was or who played his lover, and it's always possible I'm trying to remember the wrong movie anyway!

Re: Jason Flemyng

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Indian Summer was one name of the film, but it also has another name I can't think of at the moment. He was a dancer, and his lover was Antony Sher. Brilliant film, and I liked it a lot.

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I'm going to feel like this, too, since adventure/comics films aren't really my 'thing'. I will mainly be going for the delectable Richard Roxburgh, for Sean Connery, and I also have liked Jason Flemyng in the past - he certainly seems to do a wide variety of roles! I too would appreciate the Victorian-futuristic, Verne-ish aspects, I think. As for the actual "story" g), I don't expect to be thrilled.

How large is Richard's part...er...role (eg)? Worth going to see the film mostly for him? Does he appear all the way through, or only in the beginning?

I may now just postpone my viewing until the end of my vacation.