Customer Reviews

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Movie Novelization)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The tacking reviews of the original graphic novel to the movie tie-in novelization. It can easily mislead unwary buyers into thinking Kevin J. Anderson's potboiler writing in any way compares to Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's work, or even -- god forbid -- deserves to ride piggyback on the same ratings and reviews.

My suggestion: skip the movie and the tie-in altogether, and save your cash for the graphic novels.

I was under the impression that this was a novel based off the original graphic novel's storyline, but it is simply a version of the screenplay from the movie. Caveat Empor, I guess.

League of not-so-great gentlemen:
A review of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Okay, where do I begin?

I know this is not the famous graphic novel. They misleadingly market this novelization of the film to appear to be a novel based off the graphic novel. It is not. It's a novel based off the film script. Well, okay. I figured I could like it for what it was...

In regard to the film, when the making of footage shows the director of film (which was based off a graphic novel with the intention of getting young people interested in reading the classics again) goes out of his way tell you 'The characters in this movie are from these huge, archaic books I never read so I found a writer that at least read some of them.' That's the first warning sign that a film is in trouble.

I think my biggest pet peeve, and ironically also my favourite part, was Dorian Gray in the film and novelization. It was not Dorian Gray of the novel, not authentically anyway. This version of Dorian dies when he looks at the painting. This bothers me because so many people who have never read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde now think that looking at the painting would kill Dorian. I've heard of people arguing with those who have read the book to insist that they, the reader, got it wrong, that stabbing the painting doesn't kill him, it's looking at it! WRONG! Dorian looked at the painting a lot in the book, that was sort of the point.

A big issue with this Dorian is M stole the painting from Dorian's Foyer. Quartermain notices the spot where it had been. If looking at it would kill him why did Dorian have it hanging in his foyer? Did he cover his eyes every time he walked into his home?

Now for the serious flaws of the time-line.

Tom Sawyer's story takes place with him, at age twelve, before the civil war. That means it has be before 1865. Tom Sawyear cannot be a teenager in 1899.

Mina Harker: Mina Harker's story (Dracula) takes place in 1897. So In two years she was made a vampire, widowed, dated Dorian, and became a Chemist?

Dorian Gray: Dorian Gray becomes immortal in 1891 (The Picture of Dorian Gray). So In those eight years he lectured at a university where Quartermain was a boy as according to this... Less than eight years after college and Quartermain looks like that? The boy didn't age well!

Another thing about the film that didn't sit right for me is Dorian's life was in danger. M had something that could kill him at any time, and Mina pretty much executed Dorian for that. But because Dorian once broke up with her and that's okay? M might as well have had a gun to him the whole time but Mina was right to kill him? Sure Dorian acted cold but would it really have been better if he was sniveling and pleading? That didn't make Dorian look that evil to me or Mina look that good.

Also Nemo 'inventing' the automobile? Are they not aware that horseless carriages AKA automobiles were already being marketed by 1899 but Quartermain asks 'What's that monstrosity?' Has he been under a rock? And we're supposed to believe Nemo built a 1940s style lemo in 1899 anyway and has a sailor as his chaufer?

Under tight scrutiny League of Extraordinary Gentlemen would require a TARDIS for those characters to all meet at those points in their lives. Just because they're all from the nineteenth century does not mean that their stories can mesh with a plausible storyline. My grandfather was born in the 1920s. That doesn't mean he and I could be teenagers together because I was born in 1981.

This film can be fun as brain candy but under tight observation it makes little sense and it's blatantly obvious the director didn't read or respect the original novels the characters came from, which is a shame because the original purpose of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's graphic novel was to try to get young people interested in reading the classics.

I had hoped the novelization would clear up some of these inconsistencies but it did not. it thinly glossed over them. I noticed the author of the book even tried to avoid mentioning Dorian's hair because they seemed to know he's actually blonde in the original novel and did not want to draw attention to that.

There is more detail in the novelization, of course. That's a lot more than what I can say about the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's chest novelization but it certainly did not help to fix the continuity errors of the film and in fact, despite the author's efforts to avoid them, seeing them written in text just made them more apparent.

Most of the negative reviews about this novel complain that it's not the comic book. It's not the comic, but I don't think that's a bad thing. The novel is well written and characters, like Quatermain, are closer to their literary selves than Moore's reworked versions. Fans of the original characters and the LXG movie will enjoy this the most. I did.

I wanted to read the novelization to get more insight into the
characters' thoughts. Most novelizations reveal much more that the
movie. The book follows the movie closely and you get some extra descriptions and dialogue in key moments. I did enjoy the book because I loved the movie. If you want to relive it in the written page than this is for you. Also, read the book if you want a better ending to the story. It's worth it.

I saw the film a few years ago and thought it was O.K., with the exception of Sean Connery, who does a spectacular job in all his roles. The novel, which of course includes parts cut from the film and surprisingly cut the ending from the film out. Overall, Anderson does a good job converting the screenplay into a novel. He follows the path until he cut that ending.

This is a good novel for some one looking for a quick read.

PARTY ON, DUDES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This product was received on time in great condition. It is a great addition to our library collection. Thank you.

If you want to read Alan Moore's work, do not get this! The screenplay has a storyline that is very different than Moore's original graphic novel. Reasons to get this version

1) You want to relive the movie

2) You are a big fan of Dorian Gray (who is not in Moore's original)

3) You like Siberia depicted in comic books.

4) You are not interested in edgy mature graphic novels like Moore's.

Personally, I found the storyline of Moore's original much more interesting and have no plans to want to relive the movie.

This movie novelization works a bit better than the movie it is based on. This is in part because the author is more familiar with the subject than the makers of the movie. For instance, instead of allowing Nemo to say, "I call it an automobile." The author points out that at that time Benz was already cranking out cars and Ford had devised the Model T. Thus it is added how Nemo improved on existing designs. There are other moments like this where minor problems are corrected.

Unfortunately the novelization has to hold true to the film so most of the real problems with the film adaptation are still present. Alan Moore's League is greatly changed from their original comic appearance and their literary appearances. Here the league is up against a madman bent of plunging the entire world into war in hopes of ruling it all. The league chases the villain around the world while suffering many setbacks until all is played out.

Well written with nice additions. It is too bad it had to follow the movie script as the author could have done more with the story. Still, if you can handle the story, the novelization is very well written.

There is a theory that *any* time spent reading is time well spent. If this is the reading matter, I disagree -- separating one's belly-button lint into individual strands would be time better spent. The quality of writing would be barely acceptable from a middle school student. The "plot," such as it is, would be barely acceptable from a grade schooler. The two big moments of the book are the destruction of Venice by a method so incredibly illogical and moronic that it would be an unacceptable plot device coming from anyone older than seven, and a raid by The League on a castle in (pick one: Mongolia, Manchuria, Russia, Siberia -- the author clearly has no idea, so your guess is as good as any).

The big final battle is BORING. Every significant match-up is telegraphed so far in advance that it contains NO surprises -- except for the illogical dei ex machinae. One such example of space-filling is the introduction (out of nowhere) of armored fighting suits -- which can fire exploding shells which won't penetrate a door and which can be be cut down by an assailant with a knife.

The whole reason for calling The League into existence, when revealed, is so STOOPID as to almost defy belief. We learn, ultimately, that the destruction of Venice is little more than a ploy to take some photographs and goose a few people! As if it would have been so hard for the traitor in The League to have just walked up to any of the other members and done in a moment what it takes more than a hundred pages of text for him to accomplish!

Copies of this are available for one cent. Don't waste your money! I felt that I had been cheated of all the time I wasted on this book. If you can get a copy of the COMIC book, by all means read it -- it's a ripping good yarn; this novelization is just cheap hackwork.