League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Jul. 14th, 2003 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plutherusI saw this movie the other day and, despite almost universal condemnation from professional critics, I absolutely loved it.
I haven't yet read Moore's graphic novel, on which the movie is based, though I'm told by those who have that it's much superior.
The movie did have a few flaws, but it did many things particularly well. Some of the critics have complained about things like Venice not really looking like that, or the blatant anachronisms showing up. Yeah, the movie is definitely in the genre commonly known as "steampunk", a sort of Victorian-era view of the future, done first and best by Victorian-era novelist Jules Verne. Anachronisms, like the "automobile" are inevitable, and part of the fun, rather than a distraction. (Though I was a little disappointed not to see any smokestack on the car, which I assume would be steam-driven. Then again, as Matt pointed out, it might have been a Stirling Engine, a bit of pre-civil war technology that failed to compete with the internal combustion engine but is now making a comeback providing power for satellites and nuclear submarines)
The movie (as did the comic) brings together various 19th-century literary figures as H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain, a Jules Verne's Captain Nemo, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, Bram Stoker's Mina Harker, H. G. Wells' Invisible Man, and Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. Each of the characters is introduced, with not-too-subtle hints of their origin, obviously assuming the audience doesn't know who they are (which is good in some cases, as I found myself wondering "Dorian Grey? I know that name? Where is he from, dammit!", and didn't remember Mina Harker at all from Dracula (I read it at about age 12, but don't remember all the characters: she was one of his victims, I think presumed dead at the end of the novel). The Invisible Man is not the original, who H.G. Wells killed at the end, but Guy Skinner, a cockney thief who stole the original formula. Tom Sawyer is grown up, and working as a Secret Service agent for the US Government. One major literary figure of the time is notably left out, and I wondered where he was, until a certain character's true identity is revealed and an explanation for his absence is provided.)
Heavy-handed literary references abound, ("You made good time" "Not quite as good as Phileas Fogg. he went around the world in 80 days!") But overall good fun. I read the Allan Quatermain books when I was very young, and enjoyed them at the time, though I never really liked Quatermain himself. He's much better in the movie, though his legendary misogynism is still intact.
Damn, gotta run again, off to Fry's. I'll try to finish the review later sometime...
I haven't yet read Moore's graphic novel, on which the movie is based, though I'm told by those who have that it's much superior.
The movie did have a few flaws, but it did many things particularly well. Some of the critics have complained about things like Venice not really looking like that, or the blatant anachronisms showing up. Yeah, the movie is definitely in the genre commonly known as "steampunk", a sort of Victorian-era view of the future, done first and best by Victorian-era novelist Jules Verne. Anachronisms, like the "automobile" are inevitable, and part of the fun, rather than a distraction. (Though I was a little disappointed not to see any smokestack on the car, which I assume would be steam-driven. Then again, as Matt pointed out, it might have been a Stirling Engine, a bit of pre-civil war technology that failed to compete with the internal combustion engine but is now making a comeback providing power for satellites and nuclear submarines)
The movie (as did the comic) brings together various 19th-century literary figures as H. Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain, a Jules Verne's Captain Nemo, Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, Bram Stoker's Mina Harker, H. G. Wells' Invisible Man, and Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer. Each of the characters is introduced, with not-too-subtle hints of their origin, obviously assuming the audience doesn't know who they are (which is good in some cases, as I found myself wondering "Dorian Grey? I know that name? Where is he from, dammit!", and didn't remember Mina Harker at all from Dracula (I read it at about age 12, but don't remember all the characters: she was one of his victims, I think presumed dead at the end of the novel). The Invisible Man is not the original, who H.G. Wells killed at the end, but Guy Skinner, a cockney thief who stole the original formula. Tom Sawyer is grown up, and working as a Secret Service agent for the US Government. One major literary figure of the time is notably left out, and I wondered where he was, until a certain character's true identity is revealed and an explanation for his absence is provided.)
Heavy-handed literary references abound, ("You made good time" "Not quite as good as Phileas Fogg. he went around the world in 80 days!") But overall good fun. I read the Allan Quatermain books when I was very young, and enjoyed them at the time, though I never really liked Quatermain himself. He's much better in the movie, though his legendary misogynism is still intact.
Damn, gotta run again, off to Fry's. I'll try to finish the review later sometime...
