It emerged last night that Fox are going to have another attempt at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The comic books rank as some of my all time favorites but 2003 movie was a soulless mess.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is like a Victorian era Avengers. Set in a steampunk world of Victorian literary references, there was so much crammed into each volume that at times you could spend 20 minutes just trying to figure out who all the characters in one background panel where. Both Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill pored everything they had into each issue and you can tell that the time and effort was spent. They care about producing a quality book that’s faithful to it’s literary sources. The LXG movie did not care for it’s literary source and feels like something written by committee. Stan Lee may be happy to parade himself though all of Marvel’s movies with pride but Alan Moore refuses money from film versions of his work and asks that his name is removed from the credits. This is only partly because he’s a bearded weirdo. It also has to do with the quality of the books compared to the quality of the films.
The comic book stars Mina Murray at the head of a secret MI5 group who initially come together to fight Moriarty (of Sherlock Holmes fame). It’s told from the point of view of a woman in a mans world. A Victorian man’s world actually so even worse. She recruits Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde), the invisible man, Captain Nemo and Alan Quartermain who is now an opium addicted old man. A shadow of his former adventuring self. When the film was put together, they needed a star. In stepped Sean Connery in the Alan Quartermain role. No longer the pathetic complex character from the books he was now just the heroic leader. And Scottish for some reason. This shifted Mina Murray to the back seat as she became a bloodthirsty vampiress. That looks better on posters anyway. This was no longer her story. Big Sean is here.
Apparently American audiences lose interest unless there’s a yank on screen too. Tom Sawyer was added to the mix. Did Fox put out surveys before writing the script to find this out or is this a rule of thumb? It’s a wonder how Harry Potter did so well. It was as if someone written the concept on a napkin and then passed it to Fox to film their interpretation of it. Pulling apart everything that made it unique. I’m not one to be pessimistic about reboots and remakes. I welcome anything to come along and wash the bad taste out of our mouths. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen deserves better than what it got in 2003. I just hope that they learn from their mistakes. If you’re going to make a film based on a comic at least try and make it in the same spirit.
Watchmen for all it’s flaws stayed pretty close to the source and it was a hit. Take what was good about the source and translate it to the screen. Don’t just go to the costume and FX departments and dress your standard action flick up as a beloved comic book masterpiece. It didn’t fool us the first time and it wont fool us for a second.
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