jchrisobrien | IMO... The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I was looking forward to seeing the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I didn't expect it to be anything like the comic book (written by Alan Moore) especially after seeing the changes to Mina Harker and the addition of Tom Sawyer and Dorian Grey. I figured it would be pretty good on it's own right. And I was right. It's pretty good. Not great. Not even quite good, but pretty good.

The movie starts out very typically, assembling the team of turn of the century superheroes and introducing a very lame villain. The actions scenes are rather choppy and chaotic. I liked the idea of a fight in a library, but the editing didn't thrill me. Once the team sets out on their mission, things calm down, and we get more character interaction between the teammates. The movie starts to pick up here, and some nice dynamics form. About half way through the movie there are some nice surprises, the CGI improves, as does the story. If you can make it halfway through, the rest of the film will be a decent payoff. They almost screwed up the ending though.

The movie was fairly dark, perhaps to help hide the effects. The CGI is okay, better than the commercials, but not the best it could be. I hope they get it better for Underworld later this year. The sound was also very low in the theater, making some key lines of dialogue hard to hear.

The good parts? The characters for the most part. Allan Quartermaine was decent, Nemo was underused but juiced up a little from the comic. Dr. Jekyll was very good, as was the relationship between Mina and Dorian. Dorian Grey was one of my favorite characters in this film, he was a very useful addition. Tom Sawyer was a bit annoying, but what do you expect from a young American among such legendary Europeans? He played his part well. I also liked how "futuristic" technology was used by Nemo and the Phantom, using automatic weapons and tanks as the weapons of the future, and it highlighted how the whole face of the world was changing.

Where should you see it: matinee showing, mid sized theater