When I watched Rising Sun the other day it
seemed pretty obvious that time had not been kind to it. I think the opposite
may be true of this film if looked through today's cinematic eyes. When it
came out in 2003 it did reasonably well at the box-office but was met with
stony silence by the critics and outright hostility by the fans of the graphic
novel that this is based on. I have not read the graphic novel but I did
read what it was about after watching the film and I can understand why it
created an uproar among fans who are loyal not just to the novel but to the
characters within the novel. The film took a lot of liberties in dropping
some characters and adding new ones and to a large degree doing away with
the plot.
In a few of the reviews I read they rightfully went after the film for the
lack of character development, an over the top absurd plot, not a lot of
logic, too much reliance on special effects and a narrative that just rushes
by you from Africa to London to Paris to Venice to the Artic like there was
a train to catch. But I think the past seventeen years and an onslaught of
super hero films that share many of these characteristics have made us more
accepting of this type of razzmatazz filmmaking.
Certainly for me. To some degree I have grown numb to super hero films in
general after all the Marvel adaptations - but while noting its weaknesses
- I enjoyed this one just for the audacity of the super heroes they
chose for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and woman) and the enchanting
steampunk designs set in Victorian times. Part of my enjoyment I expect is
also because of my warm feelings towards Sean Connery right now. Clearly,
I enjoyed watching it more than Connery did making it. He and the director
Stephen Norrington (Blade and not much else) were constantly fighting and
the experience was so bad for Connery that he never made another film. He
was 73 at the time.
The characters in the League come from some of my favorite novels or films
- Connery plays Allan Quatermain from the great HR Haggard novels, the fine
Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah is Captain Nemo from Jules Verne, Stuart Townsend
is Dorian Gray from the novel by Oscar Wilde, Tony Curran is a variation
of HG Welles the Invisible Man (they could not get the rights), Shane West
is a grown up Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain, Jason Flemyng is Dr. Jekyl/Mr.
Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson in which they basically turn Hyde into the
Hulk and finally the one woman is Mina Harker wife of the man who battled
Dracula and is now a vampire herself - played by Peta Wilson of the TV show
La Femme Nikita. They are rounded up by M (Richard Roxburgh) to save the
British Empire and stop a World War in 1899. You might note that none of
these actors besides Connery are exactly A listers - that is because after
paying Connery $15 million there wasn't a lot of money left in the kitty.
Quite simply these characters are gathered from around the world by M (both
a play on Bond's boss but something else as well that we realize later in
the film) after a series of terrorist attacks in England and Germany that
are bringing the two countries to the brink of war. These terrorist attacks
are being perpetrated by a man in a mask with a seemingly mutilated face
using high tech machinery. Quatermain comes out of retirement from his favorite
watering hole drinking establishment in Africa, Hyde is captured and tamed
in Paris, Captain Nemo arrives in a super deluxe steampunk submarine that
runs on solar power and so on. There are loads of action scenes, the actors
all do fine jobs and the set designs in this alternative Victorian universe
were quite cool. Getting back to Connery - his portrayal of Quatermain just
made me wish he had played that character in his own film - either then or
previously - he is perfect for the character. And I had never realized this
- not that the people who ended up in these roles were not great - "previously
declined the roles of the Architect in The Matrix trilogy and Gandalf in
The Lord of the Rings trilogy". Just wow.
