I can't wait for this movie to come out. I've only read the second volume of the comics, (as far as that second volumne has gone) But i truly fell in love with them. I hope that this movie is able to live up to the comic.

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't read a single issue of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And I like Alan Moore's writing. The last thing I've read of his were some issues of From Hell. (I still need to finish up that series.)

I suppose I should look to see if there are any TPBs of LXG available.

I was given a TPB of LXG for Xmas last year, so no doubt they exist. Happy hunting!

I've tried all of Alan Moore's ABC Comics except for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Loved Top Ten, I like Tom Strong a lot, and didn't care for Promethea. I want to try to read LXG before the movie comes out.

I saw the trailer for this; and granted I've never read the comic so I don't know much about the source material; but doesn't it strike anyone else that this has the potential to become "The Avengers part 2." Think about it Sean Connery in a film based on a cult fav from some other medium that may well have no appeal to anyone who doesn't know the source material. Even the pacing of the trailer remindes me of the Avenders trailer.

I bought the book collecting the entire first miniseries today. I plan to read it before I see the movie.

I love the book, but the movie doesn't look like the book (of course, the book is tough to follow if you're not a fan of classic British literature).

Comic Adaptation - Why the big-screen version of ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ is a failure

The changes aren't surprising. Had they made a much more direct adaptation of the series it would likely have been an R movie. But that of course brings up the question of why go for a "dark" property like that one when you're going to have to screw with it to get it onscreen.

Frankly, I never read the book, but this movie sucked.
HG Wells, Jules Verne, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, Samuel Elemens, Robert Louis Stevenson (and the other great authors) are all turning in their graves.
This one was reminiscent of Connery's debacle in the Avengers.

Definitely not the best of the summer. The action was chaotic and hard to follow in many places, though some of the surprises were nice (especially about the villain). I liked the fight between Quartermain and the assassins in Africa. It did have some of the cheesiest lines of the summer though. And quite a strange try at a romantic story. Though, always a fan of comic relief, I have to say that I really liked Skinner aka the Invisible Man. Fun guy. However, his presence did not hide the many cases of serious overacting.
Grade: C+

The Quartermain and Nemo characters were interesting, the Sawyer-is-a-U.S.-agent thing made little sense to me, but the whole thing fell apart when they reached Venice. First, the Nautilus is navigating the canals? Just how thin is it? And for that matter, isn't it pretty tall too? I don't see the canals being deep enough to fit that thing in it.

Then it gets worse.
They have a car chase in Venice.

Hel-LO!!?? It's VENICE! There AREN'T any streets there! It's surrounded by WATER! How far can you drive a car before hitting water? The end of the block, maybe? Trust, me, I've been there.

Then it gets even dumber. They show a GRAVEYARD in Venice. As in, a place where the dead are buried underground. Sigh. Apparently, it doesn't occur to the geniuses who wrote this thing that you can't bury the dead "underground" in Venice. It's surrounded by WATER! The Venetians bury their dead in MAUSOLEUMS, just at residents of New Orleans, another town with a ground water problem.

Sheesh.

Anyway, I prefer the look of the Nautilus to the one in the book, I'm glad they didn't mention that Quartermain was a opium addict, or that the Invisible Man was a rapist, but why is he called Rodney Skinner instead of Hawley Griffin? I'm also glad that Mina isn't some stuck-up ice princess damsel in distress as in the book, but I'm wondering why she changed her name back to Murray in the book, but kept the name Harker in the story. The Jekyll/Hyde material was okay, but Hyde seemed a bit too cooperative toward the end, and his sticking out his hand so they could all do the "all-for-one-one-for-all" schtick was too corny for words. I also thought the Phantom character was ridiculous, as was who he turned out to be in Venice, but the revelation of his true identity at the end saved it.

Good characters, good villain, questionable plot that suffered alot in the middle. It was okay.

Easy there St. Steve. Some of us LIKED The Avengers.

Then it gets even dumber. They show a GRAVEYARD in Venice. As in, a place where the dead are buried underground. - Luigi

I don't understand why being surrounded by water would affect the existence of graves (except perhaps the matter of the water level)... Venice, while surrounded by water, is still built on land. If the ground were high enough, why couldn't you dig graves?

Now, I have not seen the film, nor do I want to. But do we actually see bodies in the ground? If not, maybe the gravestones are just markers/memorials.

In any case, there is a cemetery, complete with gravestones, in the Jewish "ghetto" of Venice.

am i one of the few that liked this movie. It was cheesy...sure but i thought it was alot of fun even though i know you can't drive in venice.

The reason he's called Rodney Skinner is that they couldn't get the rights to the name Hawley Griffin.

LUIGI NOVI: "Hel-LO!!?? It's VENICE! There AREN'T any streets there! It's surrounded by WATER! How far can you drive a car before hitting water? The end of the block, maybe? Trust, me, I've been there.

Then it gets even dumber. They show a GRAVEYARD in Venice. As in, a place where the dead are buried underground. Sigh. Apparently, it doesn't occur to the geniuses who wrote this thing that you can't bury the dead "underground" in Venice. It's surrounded by WATER! The Venetians bury their dead in MAUSOLEUMS, just at residents of New Orleans, another town with a ground water problem."

HAHA! Well said Luigi. I've not seen the movie yet, but I would have been like "Wait...there aren't any streets in Venice! and the Canals aren't that wide....and....a GRAVEYARD!? What the HEll?". Like you, I've been there....recently. I'm betting the movie makers hoped a lot of the audience wouldn't have caught this.

Well, Darth pointed out above that there is a cemetary in the Jewish ghetto in Venice, but alas, I've never been to that part of it, so perhaps it was just my ignorance.

There are reports a League 2 is under consideration, altho' apparently only Peta Wilson will be back to reprise her role.

They've never seen nor heard of a "auto-mo-bile" yet later on they all take to calling it a "car"

O_o

There were definitely problems with the size of the Nautilus. It seemed to change size depending on the needs of the scene ie it seems a lot smaller in the canals of Venice than earlier in the film. Its also interesting that Nemo mentions solar collectors when the Nautilus is running on the surface, implying the sub is partly or totally solar powered. Most people interpret Verne's original text as implying the sub is nuclear powered.

The bad guys automatic rifles were rather amusing. Their design seems more intended to hide the fact that they were actually familiar weapons than anything else. Its pretty obvious when you take a good look they're things like Thompson and MP5 submachine guns enclosed in those bulky shells. The chrome plated STEN looking weapons used by Nemo's crew were far more convincing looking. The earliest looking semiautomatic and automatic rifles, such as the Mexican designed Mondragon that appeared just before 1900, looked nothing like those monstrosities used by the baddies.

There seemed to be a few places where things stayed in the script that had no real relevence to actual plot, such as the revelation of Nemo's Kali worship. If they were somehow trying to make the viewer suspect that Nemo might actually be a traitor they failed.

Skinner gets badly burned, yet he sure seems to have recovered well by the time Quartermain is buried.

I found the scene where Hyde saves the Nautilus from sinking confusing. How did opening those vents stop the sub from flooding?

We're presumably supposed to think that Agent Sawyer is a grown up Tom Sawyer. Unfortunately the character is too young, as the book Tom Sawyer is set before the Civil War, and probably sometime between the mid 1840s and early 1850s. So Tom Sawyer would be middle aged in 1899.

I found Nemo's car made me think of Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius. It looks like the kind of thing I could imagine Cornelius driving around the warped and disintergrating Europe of the Cornelius stories.

And of course there's the question of how Tom Sawyer survived the missile strike (let's not even get into how implausible it is for the Nautilus to have a targeted missile in 1899). There definitely didn't seem to be time for him to jump out of the car and run back outside. Apparently, in addition to looking 20 when the character should be 50, Tom Sawyer is apparently immune to missiles.

Sawyer thanks the badly burned Skinner for saving him from flamethrower-man, then Moriarty's invisible henchman grabs Sawyer from behind and puts a knife to his throat. A few scenes later, Sawyer turns up to help Quatermain shoot Moriarty, but there's no indication of how he managed to free himself. I assume there was a scene shot for this, but it didn't end up on the DVD. And why didn't the henchman just stab him?

At the end, when the witch doctor is chanting over Quatermain's grave, did anyone else expect Quatermain's hand to thrust up out of the ground and grab the rifle?

I wonder if Dorian Gray is like Duncan MacLeod (Highlander), where you can kill him by decapitation.

When Hyde opens the valves in the Nautilus's engine room, he growls, but no bubbles come out of his mouth.

Where did Hyde get his giant hat? Did he casually walk into a menswear shop and order one? (It would have to be a custom job.) Of course, what clerk would want to be the one to say "no" to this guy?

Moriarty makes what looks like a ten-story leap out the window, but somehow manages to land softly on the ground. He may be an evil genius, but I don't think he has superpowers. (Then again, he did survive going over the Reichenbach Falls.)

Moriarty's castle is located in the middle of absolutely nowhere in Siberia, yet he's turning out dozens of tanks and at least eight submarines. Where does he get the raw materials? He'd need hundreds of tons of iron ore and coal for the furnaces, but there's no way to transport them in (roads, railroads) even if he did have access to them.

Sawyer thanks the badly burned Skinner for saving him from flamethrower-man, then Moriarty's invisible henchman grabs Sawyer from behind and puts a knife to his throat. A few scenes later, Sawyer turns up to help Quatermain shoot Moriarty, but there's no indication of how he managed to free himself. I assume there was a scene shot for this, but it didn't end up on the DVD. And why didn't the henchman just stab him?
In the original theatrical release, Sawyer and the henchman show up with the knife still to Sawyer's throat. Quartermain ends up shooting the invisible baddie.

Re:Bela Okmyx's comment
No, Bela you have to Either
1) Destroy the Original portrait (The Original Story)
OR
2) Show the Original portrait to Dorian Grey (LXG Version)
As a result he will then age to death (The portrait acts as a sort of "Septic Tank", in that all the signs of corruption/aging are stored on the painting, rather than on Mr.Grey).
Naturally Mr Grey, has had several "Decoy" portraits painted, to confuse enemies...
(Basically, he's following the "Shell Game" Strategy...)

Which means that if you decapitated him he could just grab his head and put it on again or grow a new one ala jeebs in MIB. I am guessing. And I recall the invisible guy being shot by Quatermain when I saw it in the theator too. I just goit the DVD but havent had a chance to watch it. As for Moriarty he is just that good and read the Evil Overlord rule book. Unfortunately he didnt pay too much attention to it.

I've never read the Alan Moore comic on which this movie is based. But I have skimmed briefly through another series created by Moore called "Tom Strong". From what I gather this character seems to be a combination of and tribute to Tarzan and Doc Savage. Very cool.

I just visited Venice April 22-23, and I'd like to offer another two cents on the "cars and cemetaries in Venice" matter.

Cars would probably not be able to get far through the walkways of Venice, but not because each block ends with water. It's not as if every single block is isolated. In fact, Venice is composed of many large islands, and you could spend all day, or even several, just exploring one island, like the one where St. Mark's Bascilica is, or Murano, where the glass blowers and their furances and shops are. The real problem is that while there are plenty of walkways, they're are too narrow to accomodate cars. Even though there are some wide enough for cars, there's no way you could turn the car when you get to a corner or intersection.

As for the cemetary thing, it was total bunk. In addition to the Jewish one in the Ghetto that I visited, where up to 500 Jews still live (I didn't get to see the cemetary, but got a postcard of it), there's at least ANOTHER one, perhaps a central one for Venice, and my godfather told me that the idea of Venetians burying their dead in the water, which I repeated from Roger Ebert's review of the movie, is BUNK. Venice, after all, IS artificial, and indeed, one of the islands we passed by in the waterbus was the Giardino stop, or Garden stop. Although we didn't get to explore that portion, you can see from the waterbus that it is FILLED with tall trees and other aspects of garden grounds. If there's enough dirt for all that flora, there would be nothing to prevent a cemetary.

I liked how there was not ONE scene from the comic books (some came close).

Just one thing I would like to note on the Agent Swayer character, maybe the Swayer in this film is a son or relatation to the famous Tom Swayer. Since no first name is given, this could easily be the case.

Horrible film though. The comic is much better. I think The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (I refuse to call it LXG) is one of those comic series that would better work as a animated HBO mini-series, ala Spawn (even though the comic isn't very good)

I never finished the comic. I found it too boring, and the illustrations were utterly awful. The movie has a bit too many liberties with logic, and the history of certain technologies, but I didn't mind watching it for two hours at all.

Give the comic a try again sometime, Luigi. It does take a heck of a long time to get going, but it's very rewarding--although one needs probably a quirky sense of humor and an extensive knowledge of British lit to really enjoy it.

I watched this movie saturday night. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, considering the poor reviews it recieved when it came out. I wasn't aware it was based on a book (which I've not read), so I came to it without any expectations.

The retro approach was interesting but it also made many of the events too implausible (for the state of technolgy in 1899). The movie started out in a promising manner. The tank seemed as if it could be a turn of the century bit of technology. The Londoners seem to be astonished by this bit of 'future' weaponry. Later, a white automobile shows up. It looks like an exaggerated version of a 1940s luxury automobile (rather too much of a stretch for 1899). I find it even more unbelievable that none of the passersby take any notice of it!

None of the cityscapes of 1899 London, Berlin, Paris, or Venice looked very convincing. London looked like some models(CGI?) in front of a very flat background painting (containing some fanciful buildings which never were a part of the London skyline). Berlin was represented by what looked like a painting of Prague. Venice looked a bit gloomy and underpopulated (except for in front of St. Marks Cathedral. The underground pilings seemed unlikely and should have been in total darkness.

The centerpiece bit of gadgetry in the movie, the Nautilus, seemed way too far-fetched for 1899. Not even the wealthiest and most technologically advanced patron/nation could build such a thing. Heck, that Nautilus even outperforms the subs of 2004! I would also expect an early sub to be fairly small. Even if such a size were buildable, how could a titanic-size sub manuever underwater in the Thames, let alone the narrow canals of Venice?

That said, it was nice to see Sean Connery back in an action movie. It was obvious that tons of money were spent on this lavish film. In that respect, it has a similar feel to "Wild, Wild, West" (another retro-action flick). Luckily, none of the characters in this one are as out of place as Will Smith (with his hip hop attitude)was in that one. One of the characters was particularly unappealing. The Hyde character seemed to be not only repulsive but poorly designed. He looked like a poor man's version of the Hulk (or should I say an albino version). Hyde's overdeveloped arms looked ridiculous. He was also about as repulsive as "Fat Bastard" in the Austin Powers movies.

The one part I really enjoyed in this movie was the middle part which took place in Venice. The pacing and action were terrific. The car ride through the collapsing streets of Venice was great. I loved the line where Quartermain shouted he didn't know how to drive the bloody car (then again, who in 1899 would know how to drive a car?). That car seemed to be impervious to damage; none of the chunks of buildings leave any marks on it.

The film disappointed me by following the pattern set by the "Mummy" films; nonstop CGI effects and action but little in the way of characters and plot. The retro-action flicks made decades ago were better; for example, the Indiana Jones movies. Even low-tech retro movies such as Disney's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (with its more plausible Nautilus), and Harryhausen's "First Men on the Moon" (also set in 1899), had far more charm than this modern blockbuster. High tech effects are still no substitue for a good script and characters.

Well the design and the world of LXG is set in what mught be called "steampunk". This is a fantasy/fiction environemtn where some parts of tech are more advanced than reality and all. I probably cant explain it too well. AS for the look of Hyde I didnt think it was that bad. I wish they would make a second movie as this one was really cool and great and exciting.

The Nautilus was far too futuristic for a nineteenth century vessel. It looked like an ultra modern design with some scrollwork ornament added (at the front and around the viewport) as an afterthought to make it look "Victorian". It was too big inside. Almost as if it was a modern luxury cruise ship (or a palace even). I did like that Nemo seemed to be non-European, though the movie never followed up on it.

Well considering how the unvierse LXG is in isnt meant to be a direct crossover from reality considering how the Invisible Man and all the other literary beings are real in that universe why would it be so out of place for the NAutilus to be the way it is. And it didnt seem all that majorly out of place given the constraints of invisibility potions, magic paintings, vampires, etc... in the universe.

>>>>Moriarty makes what looks like a ten-story leap out the window, but somehow manages to land softly on the ground. He may be an evil genius, but I don't think he has superpowers. (Then again, he did survive going over the Reichenbach Falls.)
>>>>>>

He is wearing a cape that apparently functions as some sort of parachute. You can see it flap as he falls, and he leaves it behind on the ground as he starts to run across the tundra.

The second volume of the comic features the league against the Martians from "War of the Worlds," with the usual Moore in-jokes of British literature, including a rather twisted cameo by one Dr. Moreau.

This one is definitely grimmer than the first and if it would become a film, might even push beyond a R rating, thanks to lots of profanity, some morbid death scenes, and not one but two rapes (one of which is a gay rape).

Skinner gets badly burned, yet he sure seems to have recovered well by the time Quartermain is buried.

I think invisible people are just naturally immune to fire (see "Hollow Man").

As for the Nautilus... I admit, my suspension of disbelief ran out towards the end of the Venice thing when we watched Nemo fire up what was essentially a pulp-era GPS system to track the exploration pod.

How could Mr.Hyde know which levers to pull on the Nautilus in order to save the sinking submarine? And given the enormous size of the boat,how did know exactly where to go to perform the task? There was no scene depicting Captain Nemo or his men giving Hyde explicit instructions for any of this & time was critical.They could have sent a crew member with Hyde who knew what to do,but that wasn't the case in the movie either.Also,how did Gray or M know how to operate the Nautiloid in their escape? Fun film from a visual standpoint,but logic had no part in any of this movie at all.