The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

[levcore]

I originally had the Fox blu ray of this but when Fabulous Film put out a reissue with the DVD extras included,I got rid of the Fox release and picked up the reissue. I recall the Fox release having very mediocre PQ. I've only just gotten around to watching the Fabulous Film release and I'm actually really surprised by the PQ, it appears to be a big leap over the old blu. Am I completely misremembering how the old blu looked or is the newer release indeed a new transfer or encode? The PQ is really nice and sharp, whereas the original Fox blu was quite soft looking.

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by levcore

I originally had the Fox blu ray of this but when Fabulous Film put out a reissue with the DVD extras included,I got rid of the Fox release and picked up the reissue. I recall the Fox release having very mediocre PQ. I've only just gotten around to watching the Fabulous Film release and I'm actually really surprised by the PQ, it appears to be a big leap over the old blu. Am I completely misremembering how the old blu looked or is the newer release indeed a new transfer or encode? The PQ is really nice and sharp, whereas the original Fox blu was quite soft looking.

Fabulous did indeed use a new 4K remaster for Vanishing Point vs. the previous release, so it’s possible. I think their Universal releases tend to be direct ports of existing releases (with a few exceptions for releases new to the market), but for other licensors they do produce new discs. Not that I own many Fabulous releases so can comment much.

[levcore]

Thanks for the information. I'd love to know for sure with LXG, although it seems surprising that they'd make the effort but not mention it anywhere on the packaging. For fans of the movie though the reissue definitely looks like a big upgrade over the previous blu.

[Indiana Jonezzz...]

Originally Posted by levcore

Thanks for the information. I'd love to know for sure with LXG, although it seems surprising that they'd make the effort but not mention it anywhere on the packaging. For fans of the movie though the reissue definitely looks like a big upgrade over the previous blu.

Huh, interesting. I might go for this, as the old Blu I have is definitely soft looking. Hopefully you’re right, and it’s a new master

[chip75]

I think there's a single-layer and a double-layer Blu-ray that FOX put out. Our UK release was the former.

[Sky_Captain]

Fox did this with a few titles, Fantastic 4 and Speed being the ones I can remember. Wasn't sure about LXG, though.

**EDIT** Apparently so:

[Show spoiler]

I actually have the Czech AVC/BD-50 release of F4 and it's such an improvement over Fox's old MPEG-2 disc.

Funnily enough, I'd been thinking about picking up Fabulous' release of LXG, because it has the DVD extras.

Cheers, lev.

[gap]

Is the film as bad as the reviews make out? I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels (well, the first two) but have never seen it. Is it Street Fighter bad, ie great fun, or actual bad?

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by gap

Is the film as bad as the reviews make out? I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels (well, the first two) but have never seen it. Is it Street Fighter bad, ie great fun, or actual bad?

I think From Hell is probably a higher regarded Moore adaptation that deviates wildly from the source material.

It has to be worth something for ending the careers of Norrington and Connery, right? (Sir Billi is animation and a vocal performance, so a little different.)

Although, I would say feeling like Connery’s career was lost then is a bit of an exaggeration: he spent the late 90s starring in both very good and rather awful films, was in his 70s, after working for decades in film since the 50s. Despite a wealth of great octogenarian and nonagenarian actors out there, any man is allowed to retire at that point without shame.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by gap

Is the film as bad as the reviews make out? I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels (well, the first two) but have never seen it. Is it Street Fighter bad, ie great fun, or actual bad?

I've always seen it as a fun, albeit flawed adventure romp, that suffered from obvious star, (Connery), and studio interference, (Fox), as well as a rushed effects schedule.

It feels more like something that would have been released in the '90s ala The Phantom.

[Krynoid-Man]

It's been ages since I've seen it, but I remember really liking it when I was younger (probably because I hadn't read the comic yet). I need to get around to buying the Blu-ray and re-watching it one of these days.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by gap

Is the film as bad as the reviews make out? I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels (well, the first two) but have never seen it. Is it Street Fighter bad, ie great fun, or actual bad?

I can never decide. It's one of those films which makes me worry that I've become a bit of a snob. And I um and ah over whether to own a copy. I will say that I can always recall Sam Raimi once stating, that a film-makers worst crime was to make a boring picture. And this film certainly isn't boring.

[Geoff D]

Always liked this flick, never got around to picking it up on Blu so I'll grab this re-issue, thanks for the heads-up.

[revoloution]

I'm a big fan of Director Stephen Norrington style especially when it comes to the Action sequences, his debut 'Death Machine' is a low budget masterpiece and one hell of a an action flick. His Hollywood debut 'Blade' is arguably the film that birthed the whole Marvel resurgence with X-Men and Spiderman films following a year or 2 after.

Had high hopes that LXG would deliver and imho it does, yes it's nothing like the comic books but as a watered down PG-13 fantasy action flick it works perfectly fine with some stunning action and a good bit of banter between the various team members.

Oh and i loved the design for Mr Hyde in this film, much more practical and less CGI unlike that god awful computer game like one in Van Helsing.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Originally Posted by gap

Is the film as bad as the reviews make out? I'm a huge fan of the graphic novels (well, the first two) but have never seen it. Is it Street Fighter bad, ie great fun, or actual bad?

I'm also a huge fan of the first two volumes, especially the second one, and this film is almost nothing like the comics, but I've always enjoyed it. It's dumb fun, I think you'll be entertained. I should grab a copy as well.

[anephric]

Both this and From Hell were abominations if you have anything more than a passing regard for their sources. This manages to carefully remove anything of interest and of any sort of risque nature from the comics and is a great big anodyne turd.

Some of the creative decisions are beyond me. Why did they make the Invisible Man a completely different (and exceedingly boring) character?

[CelestialAgent]

Originally Posted by anephric

Both this and From Hell were abominations if you have anything more than a passing regard for their sources. This manages to carefully remove anything of interest and of any sort of risque nature from the comics and is a great big anodyne turd.

Some of the creative decisions are beyond me. Why did they make the Invisible Man a completely different (and exceedingly boring) character?

They didn’t have the rights to Invisible Man, like with Marvel/Disney and Civil War, or The Deadly Affair

[levcore]

The production design from Carol Spier is amazing, as are the costumes. I think the fx hold up nicely for the most part too. The movie was visually very ambitious for 2003. I'm a huge fan of steampunk and the movie is a really fun bit of adventure and escapism with a great cast. The Hyde make up is excellent too, along with the various different character designs. There are also a lot of incredible miniatures in this movie.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by anephric

Both this and From Hell were abominations if you have anything more than a passing regard for their sources. This manages to carefully remove anything of interest and of any sort of risque nature from the comics and is a great big anodyne turd.

Some of the creative decisions are beyond me. Why did they make the Invisible Man a completely different (and exceedingly boring) character?

When does Hollyweird not massacre Alan Moore's source material? As far as great big anodyne turds go I enjoy LXG a lot.

[Rutger Lundgren]

Eh, I don't know, I remember thinking that some effects looked rather cheap even at the time of its release, but I did like some of its visual aspects (for instance, how they redesigned the Nautilus). The characters much less so, with the possible exceptions of Quatermain and Nemo. Again, I would hardly call it a good film - definitely not a good adaptation of the source material - and I think that something like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow does the whole throwback pulpy adventure thing vastly better, but LXG is not entirely without charm, and I have a soft spot for it.

[anephric]

Originally Posted by CelestialAgent

They didn’t have the rights to Invisible Man, like with Marvel/Disney and Civil War, or The Deadly Affair

How did Moore use it then? I thought all the LXG characters were in the public domain?