No offense to Shane West, who played the part just fine. But the presence of Tom Sawyer in this movie exemplifies pretty much everything that is wrong with it. Alan Moore's story has been modified, the studio freely admits, to appeal to a broad (and American) audience. Not only are these changes annoying, but the idea that they would make the story more appealing to me is downright insulting.
It's 1899 - bear that in mind. The heroes of this story include a legendary hunter blessed by witch doctors, a vampire, a man made immortal by a magic painting, an invisible man, an engineering genius with futuristic technology and his own army, and a scientist who turns into a beast. And Tom Sawyer. Yes, they made him a secret agent. But come on, even Paul Bunyan would have made more sense.
Bunyan wouldn't have been able to create the same "youthful American" image however. That image is described by Connery's Quartermain as "fire enough bullets and maybe you'll hit something". But of course this style is redeemed, in a scene that begins with Sawyer saying "wanna go for a spin" and peeling out in a convertible. All right, it's Nemo's car. But still. I take it that was added for my benefit too.
The other problem, which also arises from adapting the movie to a blockbuster 110 min screenplay, is trying to make the audience know and care about all these characters. In that, the movie fails miserably, somehow managing to give both too much and too little information. During a voyage by submarine that plays about as excitingly as someone reading aloud footnotes from my old history textbook, we learn a little about the background of each character. This is of course necessary, and it's probably best that Norrington didn't spend a whole movie introducing them (a la X-Men: The First Movie). Still, there must be a better way to do it. Perhaps he should have excluded irrelevant little bits that couldn't really be follow through - like that Quartermain lost his son, or that Harker and Gray were lovers.
As a whole, however, the plot line is interesting enough and the special effects are excellent. The acting was also commendable - I particularly enjoyed Flemyng's portrayal of Dr. Jekyll. I also liked being introduced to Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo since I don't watch Indian movies and haven't seen his handful of English work. I only wish they'd been given better dialogue to work with.
Overall I would say wait for this movie to come out on video or possibly on TV. It's the kind of thing you can watch while multitasking on a weekday night. If you don't pay too much attention to the details, you'll come away thinking it's an entertaining story with great characters in a twisty little plot.
Rating: 5/10
It's 1899 - bear that in mind. The heroes of this story include a legendary hunter blessed by witch doctors, a vampire, a man made immortal by a magic painting, an invisible man, an engineering genius with futuristic technology and his own army, and a scientist who turns into a beast. And Tom Sawyer. Yes, they made him a secret agent. But come on, even Paul Bunyan would have made more sense.
Bunyan wouldn't have been able to create the same "youthful American" image however. That image is described by Connery's Quartermain as "fire enough bullets and maybe you'll hit something". But of course this style is redeemed, in a scene that begins with Sawyer saying "wanna go for a spin" and peeling out in a convertible. All right, it's Nemo's car. But still. I take it that was added for my benefit too.
The other problem, which also arises from adapting the movie to a blockbuster 110 min screenplay, is trying to make the audience know and care about all these characters. In that, the movie fails miserably, somehow managing to give both too much and too little information. During a voyage by submarine that plays about as excitingly as someone reading aloud footnotes from my old history textbook, we learn a little about the background of each character. This is of course necessary, and it's probably best that Norrington didn't spend a whole movie introducing them (a la X-Men: The First Movie). Still, there must be a better way to do it. Perhaps he should have excluded irrelevant little bits that couldn't really be follow through - like that Quartermain lost his son, or that Harker and Gray were lovers.
As a whole, however, the plot line is interesting enough and the special effects are excellent. The acting was also commendable - I particularly enjoyed Flemyng's portrayal of Dr. Jekyll. I also liked being introduced to Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo since I don't watch Indian movies and haven't seen his handful of English work. I only wish they'd been given better dialogue to work with.
Overall I would say wait for this movie to come out on video or possibly on TV. It's the kind of thing you can watch while multitasking on a weekday night. If you don't pay too much attention to the details, you'll come away thinking it's an entertaining story with great characters in a twisty little plot.
Rating: 5/10
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