Pencil and Popcorn

Movie: The League of Extraordinary gentlemen

Plot Type: Simple Plot

What is the Plot: The plot of the story is that terrorist attacks are happening all around Europe that is causing nations to fight over who is doing it and causing a treat of a world war. We join a man in Kenya who is sent to grab, our main character, Allan Quatermain so that he can help protect Britain and the world from this threat.  Quatermain at first refuses to help saying he did not want to serve the crown after the lost of his son during a mission for the crown. However at the club they were talking at the terrorist attacked. They escaped but it resulted in the club they were in the blow up, killing the people inside, and the only terrorist left committed suicide. Quatermain agreed to go the England in order to protected Africa.

When they arrived in England, Quatermain was introduced to his employer named “M” saying that he needed him to lead a team known as The League of Extraordinary. He then meets his team: A Pirate/Terrorist Captain Nemo, chemist Mina Harker, and the invisible thief Rodney Skinner. They sent to recruit some members before going to stop the Fantom latest terrorist attack in Venice that is suspected to happen in a couple of days. They go recruit the friend of Nina name Dorian Gray who is reviled to be an immortal. At first he is a bit reluctant but when they are attacked by the Fantom and then saved by American Secret agent Tom Sawyer, who agrees wishes to come along with them, he agrees to come along too. It is also reviled that Mina is a vampire after her meeting with Dracula.

They then take Captain Nemo’s ship, the Nautilus, to Paris where they capture Mr. Hyde. They agreed to give him amnesty for his past crimes if he helps them; he agrees and turns back in the harmless Dr.Jekyll. During the trip to Venice they notice evidence that a spy is on board and suspect Skinner but he has disappeared.

When they arrive in Venice the bombs located under the city go off causing the buildings to fall in a domino effect. They figure out that to stop the destruction they must destroy a building in order to interrupt the chair reaction of destruction with one of the ship’s missile. Quatermain, Sawyer, Mina and Dorian take Nemo’s automobile to outrun the chain reaction with Dorian and Mina leaping out to fight the Fantom’s men. Quatermain also leaps out and confronts the Fantom who is reveled to be M but then soon escapes before Quatermain can catch him. Meanwhile Sawyer brings the car to the spot they need to fire at and signals Nemo to fire the Missile save what is left of Venice.

A phonograph record made by M is found, M explaining his true goal was to gather physical elements of the team (Skinner's invisible skin, Jekyll's Hyde formula, Mina's vampire blood, and Nemo's technology, while he only needed Quatermain to capture Hyde) to make superhuman formulas to sell to the highest paying countries, with Dorian revealing bombs are hidden on the submarine. The bombs detonate, damaging the sub, but Hyde drains the flooding water from the Nautilus’ engine rooms. Skinner, who stowed away on Dorian’s pod, messages the group to follow his lead.

When they meet up with Skinner in Northern Mongolia they find out that they are producing replicas of the Nautilus, as well as making the scientist make invisible spies, an army of Hydes and Vampiric assassins. They the break into the lab and spilt up into groups; Nemo and Hyde free the scientist and their families, Skinner plants bombs around the factory to blow it up, Mina fights Dorian and kills him by showing him his portrait, while Quatermain and Sawyer go after M who is actuality is Professor James Moriarty. Quatermain has Moriarty on the ropes but then shows him that one of his invisible spies has capture Sawyer. Quatermain shoots the spies killing him but then Moriarty stabs him in the back and escapes with his weapons. Sawyer uses Quatermain’s shooting teaching to shoot Moriarty before he got away. Quatermain however, after talking to Sawyer, dies do to the stab wound.

They bury Quatermain beside his son in Africa. They recall the Quatermain always said the Africa would never let him die due to him saving a witch doctor’s village but it seems that it did not work. As they all leave to board the ship a witch doctor is performing a ritual. Lighting strikes the grav then fading out hinting that Quatermain is alive.

Characters:

Unfortunately we don’t learn much about the characters and how they worked together unlike the comic this is based off. So here are a quick summery of each main characters. I will do the mian character, Allan Quatermain, relationship with everyone then cover off any other important relationships that are show. If the relation ships are not talked about then they were either respected and trusted the other but where not really friends or it is the typical villain to hero relationship.

 (this was noted in other reviews of this movie)

Allan Quatermain:

He is very serious characters but can be calm and playful at certain moments. He is very closed off to his team in the beginning as shown when he calls Nemo and Pirate and straight out tell Mina he wants her gone after just meeting them. He is also very mournful and angry towards the Britain Empire and himself because during another Mission for the Empire he lost his son while he was leading the mission. He and Mina do no really talk through out the whole except the movie during the being and some other small parts in the moves that are not really relevant to them; how every it does hint and show that these two do respect each other as time goes on. He and Captain Nemo disliked each other from the very beginning but they soon saw that they were both skilled and respectable men and put their differences aside and became somewhat friends. They even apologized to each other and shared some scenes that highlighted their characters and their relationship to each other. Him and Skinner were on thin ice from the very beginning, he never trusted him at all and with the suspicion of a spy he was on of the first to suspect Skinner of being it but they soon learn to trust each other after reviling who the true Spy was and Skinner tracking down the villains.  With Mr.Hyde and Dr.Jekyll he was actually a bit more trust and even encourage Dr.Jekyll to trust and work with his alter ego. With Sawyer he had more of a father son relationship with him and even doing a couple of the thing that was hinted at he would have done with his son. With Dorian Gray he appears the trust and respect him right away but then later despises and hates after he had trusted him. With Mr.M he doesn’t seemed to trust him at all and when he is reviled to be the criminal master mind he then starts to despise and hate him.

Other notable relationships:

Dr.Jekyll seems to have a crush on Mina but it is only showed during when he hears the conversation with Mina and Dorian and when he watches Sawyer try to comfort her during when the fireworks go off. (but then it is never spoken of again. This also helps with the little rivalry that Him and Dorian kind of have)

Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde have an interesting relationship. At first Jekyll lives in fear at what Hyde is doing of people but is powerless to stop drinking the potion and is constantly tempted to it. While Hyde just wants to destroy and kill anyone or anything that gets in his way. However they soon come to peace with each other when the boat is sinking and stay somewhat friends after wards.

Mina seems to not really interact with any other character beside Dorian and Sawyer. She seems to like Sawyer though not in a romantically way? Maybe? They made her very mysterious and hard to tell what she was thinking. With Dorian it hinted at and shows that these two have know each other for along time and even had a romantically relationship with each other. She soon hates him after the betrayal (which has happened before between them) and takes it too the point where she seeks him out and kills him.

Mina does not seem to trust Captian Nemo because he prays to the god of Death Kali.

Skinner is not trusted by anyone in the group until after he proves he is not the spy and follows the villains.

Captain Nemo is very respected by his crew and will do things in order to protect his crew even if it means killing some of the crew to save the whole ship and the rest of the crew. He also does not trust Hyde or Jekyll till after he saves ship and the two become somewhat friends as show during the break in at the factory when they constantly save each other.

Sawyer seems to be in love with Mina but it never gets past a puppy dog love thing. He also seems to have great respect for Quatermain and possible revers him as a father figure; he was devastated by his death. He also seems to have distain for Dorian due to him loving Mina and for betraying them.

Here are the drawing I did for the S=scenes I liked and the scenes I wanted to change:

Good Scenes:

The first two good scenes I did actually come right after each other and actually shows not through dialogue but through light and position of the actors. In the first scenes with M in it we see a very dark and shade figure with a some what sinister stance while the hero looks at him with some light on him. This gives us the perfect picture of how evil and dark this man is. In the second picture we see a flip of the first we see our main character Quatermain showered in light while M's hand is completely dark. This show the noble and hero like qualities of our hero and show him in a dramatic pose making this hero seem pure and the our only way to survive in the dark time.

The next good scene was the scene when M stabs Quatermain in the back after Quatermain shoots the invisible spy.The lighting makes Quatermain look like a holy figure that has just been sturck down by evil. While M looks like the Evil of the world. I Also like the angle of the show as well as it clearly shows what is happening.

The next good scene show Quatermain is die from the stab wound he has just received from M. They hero is enveloped in light as he gives his final words making him look pure and at peace. It also gives us a good angle that help to show the love and kindness this man holds with in.

The final good scene shows the sorrow and pain the other character feels towards the death of his friend . He is cast in darkness to show his sorrow and pain as well as express to the audience how tragic this death is to him and everyone else.

Bad Scenes: 

Captain Nemo is a very serious and strong will person who is not afraid of anything but in this scene he looks scared and for some reason Jekyll is in the corner  of it which just bugs be so I zoomed in on him too look more serious and took out Jekyll. I also darken his shading to make him look more serious.

In the next scene we see the workers of Nemo unloading the ship so they can look for the bomb. For this scene I keep the nice light but I change the angle so their was not so much stuff in the way and we could actually see what was going on. it was also done so we can show off the suits in the backgournd more as well.

The next scene is of Quatermain listening and discussing what they should do about the bombs that had just gone off. This is suppose to be a dramatic scene and not a time to make him look angelic. so I closed in on his face to make him look more dramatic and I took off the extra light to make him look more serious and dramatic.

The next scene of is Mina as she looks down at the carnage below. I would have just token this scene out because really it's just a beauty shot which is what they did for a lot of her scenes but since I had to keep it in I just closed in on her face and darken her light so she looked more sinister and if I had drawn it better more demonic on the face.

The scene is of a worker of Nemo is who is noticing that the damage outside is threatening the safety of the boat a crew and he is looking worried. This picture suffer from another common thing in this move. Their is too much blurred stuff in the camera range that is making it too distracting for the audience to get the mood so I changed the view of it so it kept the dramatic look but made it more focus as well as kept the light for it as well, since it was kind of dramatic already.