redfiona99

The new icon is just the greatest bored pic ever. Oh and Elrond's back. Mystique will return, I'm just gearing up for ROTK.

Went to see League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Getting there was an adventure in and of itself, what with meeting up with Ben who is not Matt and two Cypriot law students whose discussion ranged from Karate Kid to Shakespeare. Reasons I like uni no. 1 - everyone's just as nutty and odd as I am.

Anyway there were trailers, the end result of which were
1) I must see Master and Commander, because even if there weren't boats and Russell Crowe, James D'Arcy is in it. Only Stasia will know who I'm on about but no matter, he's playing the young officer who's only where he is because of family connections and the men won't respect him until he's earned it. This is only going off the trailer but I will bet virtual cookies on it.

But yes, boats and Russell Crowe, I didn't need more reasons nice though that one is.

2) Timeline looks to be cod-Medieval codswallop. I must see it also. Plus, is that David Thewlis trying manfully to do an American accent?

3) Must see ROTK

Because heck I was nearly crying after it. It was a mixture of the whole 'give Aragorn the sword' bit, and Elrond going, 'You've given up your immortality I can't do anything for you,' then him hugging Arwen, added to someone, probably Eomer, rallying the troops, then Gandalf's little smile of hope and then Eomer crying (howling being a better adjective). If you follow that with Theoden hugging Eowyn, and then Eowyn in soldier gear and telling the hobbits to stick close to her. Plus Pippin telling Merry that they would see the Shire again. I'm repressing the spider bit, see Red repress. Then there was Gollum looking at the ring and going 'come to Smeagol'. Sam freaking and then Frodo saying that he wouldn't leave Gollum. So Gollum walks off with him and the look he gives Sam. I have goosebumps. Not helped by the last scene being Sam shouting "Frodo, noooooooooo" or something similar.

All of these things were not helped by the bit about no victory without sacrifice, and no glory without death. Please don't let anyone die. Please. (Okay, I know several characters I am unspeakably fond of are going to end up dead, I am choosing to repress that as well)

Like I said, I must see it.

Now onto the main event, 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'

Because it's just a little too odd and obscure to be a huge blockbuster event. But it'll suit the nerds and wierdos.

The set designers/painters/etc must be praised because it looked fantastic. Nothing like Venice mind but still fantastic. Although it's a bad sign when I recognised that London was in fact being shot in Prague because of the style of the steps.

People who don't get praise are the people who did the subtitling for the German right at the start. It was right but not right if you get what I mean.

Sean Connery was just fantastic, don't know how he was as Alan Quartermain (still haven't read King Solomon's Mines), but he was fantastic. Admittedly, I could have done with slightly less sombre cello every time he got a speech, but I'll bash the music people over the head later.

Captain Nemo was fantastic. Really. He was like the book too, all enigmatic but noble. I have an ideological crush on Nemo in this film. He rocked. What was really good was how they had him and Quartermain sparking off each other since they were the two oldest guys. Actually discussing that, it was very good that they actually dealt with the whole aging thing and didn't just use it as a passing gag. Very well done too IMO.

Plus you got why his men were fanatically loyal. There was something about him.

Richard Roxbourgh was M. Okay so I came to see the film partly for him and partly for Tony Curran (more about him later). And he was definitely worth it.

Loved the Invisible Man, Rodney Skinner. Loved him, loved him, loved him. Not as much as Nemo but enough. Plus he was played by Tony Curran, who is a British You Know, That Guy! who is to be found in such varied delights (hah) as Extreme Force with Ross Kemp, Taggart playing Jardine's brother and This Life, playing Lenny.

And as a random rec, if you liked the British Queer As Folk, you'll probably like This Life. This Life is Queer As Folk's elder, stressed out sister. With one of the best last episodes you will ever see. And yes, I'm including the Babylon 5 one in that.

After I got over the shock of seeing Peta Wilson with red-brown hair and that fact that Mina bore no resemblance to Mina Harker in Dracula, I quite liked the character. And I loved it when she went all vamp. She does a very good ice cool bitch. Must have learnt it from Madeline (yes random La Famme Nikita thing, that's another programme I liked).

Stuart Townsend was magnificent as Dorian Grey. For all the reasons he would have made a lousy Aragorn. Because he is so good at callow youth. And he pinched all the best lines. The 'woof' in particular should go down in history.

Tom Sawyer needed to get shot. And die. Painfully. Obviously he was put there because the US audience would never accept a bunch of mainly English wierdoes as heroes and so needed one unequivocal good guy in the bunch. I'd like to thank goodness that they never went through with the whole Tom/Mina thing, because I would have thrown up. They could easily have got rid of Tom without causing me any sadness whatsoever. Couldn't the Phantom have killed him off for me.

And yes I did read Tom Sawyer which is why I'm f'd off, that boy didn't grow up into that insufferable man.

Plus getting rid of him would have meant more time for Jekyll and Hyde. Hyde actually bore an unnerving resemblance to Kane unmasked. Jekyll meanwhile was the most adorable shy little thing ever. And then when Hyde came to the rescue and he said well done, it was all 'aww sweet'.

Other things I loved about the characters, none of them were unequivocally good guys (except Tom Sawyer). They were all wierd, dark and flawed in some way. Which made the film a really odd thing to watch. Good, but odd.

Skinner really needs to stop with the gratuitous dick references. Well actually he shouldn't because half the fun was watching everyone else deal with them and him. One silly scene has him snooping about in Quartermain's room and Quartermain catches him, throws him out of the door and utters the immortal line 'You will be clothed at all times on this boat'.

Or later on when Skinner says, 'I'm naked in the snow and I can't feel any of my extremeties. And I mean any.' He's such a love.

Which was why I immediately didn't think he was the traitor. Admittedly, I didn't think it was Dorian, although the flash with him finding his picture missing ought to have been clue enough. But yes, main reason Skinner couldn't have been it, he was too much of a bluff 'cor blimey, guv' Cockney to be a bad guy. I thought it was Hyde because I had been decieved by promo pics.

On the note of accents, please tell whoever was responsible that Moriarty was not a Cockney, mainly because he was from money.

Okay so I knew the big plot twist, that M was the bad guy so I guessed that M didn't stand for M as in James Bond, or even as in Mycroft, but was Moriarty. Which didn't bother me in the slightest because it means that Richard Roxbourgh has now done the double as Holmes and Moriarty. And along with being one of the great Holmeses, he's now the only Moriarty. Note to a lot of casting directors, the thing this film got right and you all get wrong is casting Moriarty as a 30+ year old not a 60+ year old. From what I got, he was pretty much supposed to be Holmes's nigh on exact opposite (something that Conan Doyle did magnificently, creating a bad guy that was just as strong as his hero so you were just scared enough to believe he could actually have killed Holmes).

On the Roxborough front, I think I'll leave POTC2 to the screaming fangirls and quietly shriek myself to death in Van Helsing. Hugh Jackman and Richard Roxborough, that's a good mix.

Skinner also managed a cool salutation - 'to all my freaky friends'. And yes, I'm certain freaky is an anachronism, but so was the hands in a pile thing.

They did mostly manage to avoid total anachronisms - which was especially fun when Jekyll sounded exactly like something out of a Victorian melodrama. And so many literature references. I mean I'm supposing Ishmael was indeed out of Moby Dick, and that they were treating Phineas Fogg as real. Plus inaccesible mountain kingdoms is a Rider Haggard standard (in 'She' I think).

Talking about set designs, the Nautilus was superb. I'd love a ride on it. Plus Dorian's library was also very cool.

So yes, it's a much better film than the critics would have you believe. It won't change your life but it's a good old fashioned action pic with some thought behind it. And I must get the comic.

The only disappointing thing was the ending which was blatent sequel bait.

And then I watched Newsnight from Omagh, which mainly involved Martin McGuiness winding everyone up, David Trimble trying to be nice and getting in the occasional hit, the SDLP guy wavering between nice and would you all shut up. Plus the DUP guy being utterly obnoxious and frankly hateful, but what's new.