It is no wonder that the esteemed Mr Moore wanted no more to do with Hollywood after this.
I will preface this by saying that I saw the movie before reading the comic book so I had no reason to be comparing it. I watched it expecting very little and still with low expectations I was disappointed. The story was rubbish the effects middling the action forgettable. Surely the idea with a movie like this is that it is an ensemble piece with all the different characters having a part. Yet the only one to really feature was Connery's character, who was basically not Allan Quatermain but as always is simply Sean Connery. The end fight is possibly the weakest end/death sequence I ve ever seen and was neither exciting nore adrenaline pumping. Bad guy runs away, Tom Sawyer aims shoots, kills him. Rubbish. There are many other terrible things about the movie only thrown into sharper relief when I actually read the comic book. Having read it I saw no reason why this film could nt have been made closer to the comic - there is plenty of action in it. More than say Watchmen, which was much harder being a lot longer and more complex. I expect it was the desire to make it as commercial as possible that made them alter the characters to make them bland and clichéd- one of the points of the comic was the chance to re envisage classic characters in a new way. This is interesting and would have made for a great and still exciting movie. However I realise that at the time the comic book movie genre was still primarily a family audience pre sin city and Watchmen, so naturally the Hollywood cretins skimmed through the book, took the idea and completely messed it up to make more money. If made today there is every chance that it would have been more faithful but as this movie was such a disaster it will never happen now I m sure. In an interview Stephen Norrington said that he did nt want to make a faithful adaptation, he wanted to make a blockbuster, but even in this he failed for the movie boasted not a single stand out action sequence. It says a lot about a movie when the best bit was an unintentionally hilarious line from Dorian Grey - "I m complicated." Pity the film itself was nt.
It s also one thing to note that this is the film that sent Sean Connery into retirement and Stephen Norrington into obscurity. While I feel sorry for the loss of Sean( not even a cameo as Indy s Dad could lure him away from the golf course) I have to say Stephen Norrington deserved to loose whatever reputation he had after ballsing this film up so spectacularly.
I will preface this by saying that I saw the movie before reading the comic book so I had no reason to be comparing it. I watched it expecting very little and still with low expectations I was disappointed. The story was rubbish the effects middling the action forgettable. Surely the idea with a movie like this is that it is an ensemble piece with all the different characters having a part. Yet the only one to really feature was Connery's character, who was basically not Allan Quatermain but as always is simply Sean Connery. The end fight is possibly the weakest end/death sequence I ve ever seen and was neither exciting nore adrenaline pumping. Bad guy runs away, Tom Sawyer aims shoots, kills him. Rubbish. There are many other terrible things about the movie only thrown into sharper relief when I actually read the comic book. Having read it I saw no reason why this film could nt have been made closer to the comic - there is plenty of action in it. More than say Watchmen, which was much harder being a lot longer and more complex. I expect it was the desire to make it as commercial as possible that made them alter the characters to make them bland and clichéd- one of the points of the comic was the chance to re envisage classic characters in a new way. This is interesting and would have made for a great and still exciting movie. However I realise that at the time the comic book movie genre was still primarily a family audience pre sin city and Watchmen, so naturally the Hollywood cretins skimmed through the book, took the idea and completely messed it up to make more money. If made today there is every chance that it would have been more faithful but as this movie was such a disaster it will never happen now I m sure. In an interview Stephen Norrington said that he did nt want to make a faithful adaptation, he wanted to make a blockbuster, but even in this he failed for the movie boasted not a single stand out action sequence. It says a lot about a movie when the best bit was an unintentionally hilarious line from Dorian Grey - "I m complicated." Pity the film itself was nt.
It s also one thing to note that this is the film that sent Sean Connery into retirement and Stephen Norrington into obscurity. While I feel sorry for the loss of Sean( not even a cameo as Indy s Dad could lure him away from the golf course) I have to say Stephen Norrington deserved to loose whatever reputation he had after ballsing this film up so spectacularly.