#League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
So what kind of weirdos go to the cinema for an 11.01 showing? Parents with a newborn whose other child is at school, that's who. And kids bunking off. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is an outrageously anachronistic pseudo-Victorian high adventure story that throws together the rag-bag of Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll, Tom Sawyer, Dorian Gray, Mina Harker and an (not the) Invisible Man. It fails to capture the spirit of a Rider Haggard novel, or a Jules Verne, Bram Stoker, or indeed any of the original source material. It bears such a passing resemblance to the dense and intriguing comics on which it's supposedly based that I wonder why they bothered. On the other hand, if you don't worry about any of that, it's an enjoyable and untaxing action film, that we'll all be watching with the kids on winter Saturday afternoons in a couple of years. Sean Connery's relaxed performance as Allan Quartermain was really quite good, I thought, and Naseeruddin Shah is a jolly good Captain Nemo, given that he doesn't have much screen time to do it in. More or less harmless fun.
[Add a comment]