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Sunday, Jul. 20, 2003 - 2:49 a.m.
LXG

I liked The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

I have heard awful reviews of the movie, what with people talking about CGI all the time. First of all, if CGI isn't your thing, don't watch the movie, especially not with me. Just what the hell were they supposed to do, exactly? Makeup? If you want makeup, go to the theatre. Besides, what's wrong with the CGI in the Hulk, or LXG, or any of the other movies that feature it this summer? I just don't see the big deal.

Actually, that was the only thing I heard about the movie. CGI. CGI=bad, if you are a purist snob super movie critic, which everyone seems to be these days. LXG is based on a graphic novel, and the story is this: Someone is trying to set up a world war by getting his henchmen to appear to be one country attacking another (Germany attacking Britain, then vice-versa). A man, in the service of the Queen, assembles the League to stop a mass assassination attempt of Europe's leaders at a conference in Venice. Well, at least that's what you are supposed to believe, in the beginning. You'll see what is really going on.

I love the concept of having the greatest nineteenth-century story characters in one film. and the villain...I almost called this one. I should have nailed it right on the head.

But the ending...not the VERY ending (which shamelessly demands a sequel), but towards the end, two things happen that freaked me out to the point I felt funny for a good 45 minutes after the end of the film. It was just...creepy. I haven't felt so odd after a movie in years. It just gives me the shivers, especially the one incident (it was with Dorian Gray).

To summarize, it was a good flick. I recommend it, even if you have read all the books the charcters are based on. That's another great thing: thousands of people who would otherwise not read some of these books will now read them. I have read some of them, and they are actually good books. Here is a list of the league members, and the book(s) they came from:

• Allan Quatermain: King Solomon's Mines and Allan Quatermain, by H. Rider Haggard, 1885 and 1887.
• Henry Jekyll: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886.
• Mina Harker: Dracula, by Bram Stoker, 1897. Interesting factoid: It is the biggest selling novel in the world, is second only to the Bible in terms of a book selling copies, and has never been out of print.
• Rodney Skinner: The Invisible Man, by H. G. Wells, 1897.
• Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, 1869
• Dorian Gray: The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, 1891
• Agent Sawyer: Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, 1876.
  0 scrawls at the end of this hall
  
  The look: weird, a little out of sorts
  The feel:
  The taste:
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