Is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen an all too ordinary movie?

It seems that The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen opens today. When I first learned (some time ago) that Alan Moore's pulpy but literate adventure was being translated to the big screen, I entertained some hope that it would not be so badly mauled as the last of Mr. Moore's masterpieces to be adapted from the comic page to the silver screen - From Hell.

Moore's From Hell is a meticulously researched and deeply philosophical/metaphysical reading of the infamous Jack the Ripper murders and the history that rippled all around those grisly crimes (rendered in superbly gritty black and white by Eddie Campbell). The movie which bears the same name as Moore's graphic novel resembles the source material in name only, completely dumping Moore's deep insights into history, human nature and the occult in favor of a dumbed down mockery of his story. (The sole highlight for me of From Hell, the movie, is the scene in which we see Johnny Depp soaking in a bathtub while smoking opium. Yikes!)

I had hope for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen because, while chock full of obscure literary allusions, the story as penned by Moore is basically a straight forward one of adventure and action. It would seem a simple and natural enough endeavor to recreate LOEG as a film, though the thought of Kevin O' Neill's rich artwork being replaced by shiny moving pictures is a tragedy of some kind.

Well, as the television commercials for the LOEG film began to fill the airwaves, the hope I had for the film began to wither. By the 410th time this commercial had assaulted my senses I was beginning to become convinced that the movie would be just another all too typical bloated summer blockbuster. The review of the film in today's Chronicle confirms that fear.

. . .the story's heart -- or director Stephen Norrington's focus -- is the action, and these scenes are no better than the usual.

We get fights, sometimes several simultaneously, with frantic cuts to keep us apprised of their progress. And we get machine-gun sequences, in which the machine guns never hit anything because the targets jump out of the way and the bad guys never adjust their aim. That wouldn't be sporting. Such scenes constitute almost half of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and it's the half we could do without.

- 'Extraordinary Gentlemen' unite to save the world, and Sean Connery almost saves the movie", Mick Lasalle, The San Francisco Chronicle -

I read all reviews with a grain or two of salt and will, of course, withhold final judgment until I have actually seen the film. That judgment may be a while in coming as I will most likely wait 'till the film is available for grabbing from the shelf of my local video rental shop - where it will only cost approximately three dollars for Sarah and myself to be disappointed, not $16.00.

Bonus Link - Notes on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen #1 (Jess Nevins' painstaking annotations of the first series)