Beleaguered.
In a moment of sheer heracy, I recently took up reading western comics along with my usual diet of glorious ultimate-Japanu. Having always meant to try reading some Alan Moore, I thought I’d probably start on Watchmen, so naturally I went out and bought the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead.
It took me a while to warm to the art style, but once I got into it, I really rather enjoyed it. In retrospect, the first volume probably sat a little better for me than the second one – I usually seem to enjoy having more short, self-contained stories than a few larger arcs – but both were very witty and well written.
As I’m still waiting for my copy of the Black Dossier to be delivered though, I thought I might try having a look at the film in the meantime as well. Possibly not the best move as it was a bit pants really.
Certainly the League was never going to be the easiest film adaptation, but the 2004 attempt pretty much lets you know what you’re in for from the moment you see the title abbreviated to “LXG”. Obviously fancied as a new 12-A superhero franchise, LXG retains most of the same setup, but strips the comic of everything that made it memorable.
It’s difficult to comment on how well the cast fit the bill, given that any hint of a good performance is drowned out by the overwhelmingly bad writing. Most obviously, Connery is sadly too old for Quatermain (note his lack of a love interest), although Tony Curran gives an amusing turn as Skinner the invisible cockney thief and Naseeruddin Shah is quite capable, if overly benign as Captain Nemo.
What anyone familiar with the comics will probably pick up on straight away, however, is just how far the story has been toned down from the original. The League of the comics were an angry, disperate bunch who barely functioned as a fighting force, but there’s hardly any hint of that here as all the characters seem to leap into action with the minimum of persuasion. Worst affected by this is probably Quatermain as the replacement of his opium addiction with quiet retirement robs the character of any real depth.
The film still maintains a certain sense of spectacle, even if many of the steampunk technological designs seem a bit uninspired, but in the end, it’s sadly just another one of those films in which you can’t help wondering what might have been if only they’d been willing to take a bigger risk on it.
