I felt like really shitting on a movie, so I picked this one.
Let’s discuss why The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the worst adaptation of all time.
Alan Moore, the writer of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, ended up so disenchanted with how his work was treated by Hollywood that he is no longer credited for his comics in adaptations of them. This movie is a key reason why.
For those of you unfamiliar, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic set in Victorian-era England, featuring famous characters from British literature. These characters include (but are not limited to): Allan Quartermain (of King Solomon’s Mine), Wilhelmina Murray (of Dracula), Captain Nemo (of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and The Invisible Man. Of course we are given Moore’s spin on these characters, which recasts Quartermain as an opium addict, The Invisible Man as a rapist, and Mina Murray as the group’s powerless but none-the-less fearless leader.
The characters are brought together by British Intelligence. They do a series of missions until it’s revealed that they are actually working for the mysterious M, who is revealed to be Professor Moriarty (of Sherlock Holmes). So pretty much it’s a conspiracy theory and the League has to team up to take down the same people that brought them together. It’s more complicated then that, but let’s just take a look at how the movie interpreted these characters and their story.
In the horrendous movie, we are basically joined by the same group of people. The difference lies in the way they are portrayed. Quartermain is played by Sean Connery, with his typical Bond-swagger. No longer an opium addict, Quartermain is at the peak of his game, and takes over from Mina Murray as the leader. Mina is instead reduced to a solider on the team who can “vamp out” and turn into vampire Mina Murray. I guess the idea of a woman without super powers leading around men with her intellect didn’t sit right with Fox, so there we have our two key characters ruined.
And there is an addition to the team, an American named Tom Sawyer (Fox’s idea).
I could end the review now and you would understand just how shitty they did this book.
But there’s more. So the League is brought together, but instead of doing battle with British Intelligence in a classic spy caper, we’re just fighting Moriarty, who is involved in the story much earlier than in the book. Basically, it’s him dressed in this stupid mask that makes him look like Iron Man and Kano from Mortal Kombat had an ugly old-man baby. I think he might also have an Inspector Gadget claw for a hand or something. Anyways, it doesn’t really convolute the story, it just kind of loses it from there.
So here we have a story stripped of all of its meaning and message, with neutered Hollywood versions of its characters, pointless action scenes, and an awful soundtrack. Is the camera work or the acting at least decent? No.
This is almost like an anti-appropriation. It takes the source text and attempts to pretty much remove any meaning or thought, instead replacing it with mind-numbing action. This movie makes Fantastic Four look decent.
But the absolute worst thing about this movie, and the reason I’m including this rant in my blog, is that it actually turned people off from the source material. Because the comic was lesser-known when the movie was released, and because Hollywood rallied behind this giant piece of crap, it’s actually what most people think of when you say “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.”
The only good thing this movie did was teach Alan Moore not to trust Hollywood, but that doesn’t really matter because they’re going to keep adapting his stuff anyway.
birthofthedrool 