Review of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) by Windy A — 09 Dec 2009

Let's look at the trail of Alan Moore in film. From Hell? Brilliant, but off-source slightly. Constantine? Fluff that could not be more different from it's origin. Watchmen? Ultra-faithful to the point of stagnation. Swamp-Thing? A misstep, but given the technological limitations of the time that can be forgiven. V For Vendetta? Great film, so long as you don't mind that the politics have been distorted to an anti-terrorist message by American filmmakers (I don't, so ha).

So now I come to this, the last film based on an Alan Moore work that I haven't seen. Given the reaction of most people, I went in expecting not much, and I wasn't disappointed (or maybe I was, but this isn't the place for a semantics argument). Most of the problems with the movie can be traced to studio interference, who put too much pressure on Norrington and made some calls that forced him to stray from the source material, such as altering the story behind Moriarty and dropping Dr. Fu Manchu from the script (one conceit -- I really did enjoy the presence of Tom Sawyer, and thought he was introduced with a history and in a way that Alan Moore would have used had he thought to put him in the novel).

Sadly, rushed direction cannot be the only fault in this movie. The hole-filled script heavily alters the leagues most important players -- Nemo, Quatermain, and Mina Murray (who is NOT known by Harker and whose husband is NOT dead, thank you very much) -- making them almost unrecognizable from the comic. Also, some of the effects, while spectacular, border on improbable (a 300+ foot submarine cruising through venetian canals with ease? really?), and the ending is cliche in the extreme. I will say that, in addition to good effects, the set design and costuming were great, but the lighting was at times too dark to see anything and the music was only standard at best. In the end, despite Alan Moore's efforts, another bad film based on one of his greatest works got made and wasted a few more reels of celluloid.