The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 Action/Drama movie written by Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill, and James Robinson and directed by Stephen Norrington. The movie is set in 1899 London England where seven characters from classic literature are tasked to stop an impending war created by a mysterious protagonist by the name of "The Phantom."
Link to IMDb synopsis:
Http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0311429/
*SPOILERS!*
Before I begin my review of this movie, let me preface it with why I chose to watch it. I grew up watching this movie as a kid. When I was younger, I thought it was a wonderfully crafted piece of cinema, full of literary characters and a unique plot. I recently have been reading some classical books (Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) and this movie from my youth continued to pop into my head-- especially after reading the Invisible Man. I went into re-watching this movie full of childhood nostalgia and excited to see how the characters matched up to my new-found literary knowledge.
Needless to say, I finally understand why this movie tanked.
Firstly, let's discuss the plot: Allan Quartermain (from King Solomon's Mines) is recruited from his "retirement" in Africa by the British Empire to help stop a war about to happen. He travels back to England and is introduced to a man by the name of M (later in the movie revealed to be Professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes novels). M explains that he has been tasked to create the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which has been used in the past to prevent similar situations.
The next character thrown into the mix is Captain Nemo (from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). Quartermain makes it clear that the two have met before, but their intertwined backstory isn't addressed after this. We are then introduced to the Invisible Man which Quartermain questions, as in the book, the Invisible Man is killed. Rodney Skinner (the Invisible Man) explains that while that man died, his science did not. Next, we are introduced to Mina Harker (from Dracula). Quartermain questions her value to the team and claims that she will be an inevitable distraction to the team.  It is clear that at this point, he and the others are unaware that she is a vampire.
After these initial introductions are made, the League is sent out to "recruit" a man by the name of Dorian Gray (from the Picture of Dorian Gray). At his house, the group is ambushed by the Phantom's men. One of these men has been replaced by a man named Special Agent Tom Sawyer (yes, the one from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer). During an intense action scene, it is revealed that Gray is invincible and immortal and that Harker is a vampire. Both Gray and Sawyer join the League and the group set out to capture Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (from the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde).
This is the point in the movie where I got a little annoyed. Having just read the book, I was excited to see how the movie character held up. Quite frankly, he didn't. As the story here is set in 1899, I was curious as to how they were going to resurrect Jekyll/Hyde from the dead, as they had managed to explain with the Invisible Man. Simply, they ignored the fact that Jekyll/Hyde had died and continued on with the story.
Okay, a little frustrating, but I can overlook it.
What I can't overlook is the complete butchering of the characters themselves. In the book, Jekyll turns into Hyde by drinking a potion. But Hyde isn't a Hulk wanna-be. Hyde is, quite simply, Jekyll's dark side; the side that has no conscious and indulges his own desires. The movie turns this character into a lamer version of the Hulk who just wants to help; completely inaccurate.
The movie continues on with its plot, revealing Gray to be a spy for the Phantom, who in all actuality is M. Jekyll/Hyde save the crew from sinking after M tries to blow them up. Skinner saves Sawyer and blows up M's factory. Harker kills Gray for his betrayal and breaking her heart. Sawyer learns to shoot as well as Quartermain and kills M, just as he's about to escape. Quartermain dies and the world is safe from an all-out war.
And, then randomly at Quartermain's funeral in Africa, a witch doctor begins a ritual at his grave, a storm starts, his gravesite begins to shake, and the movie ends. Were the writers attempting to imply that Quartermain is resurrected by an African witch doctor? We may never know with any real certainty.
While the plot itself was unique, the execution of it is stereotypical to Action/Drama movies; romance, betrayal, and explosions and the good guys always win. When I was a kid, I thought it was so amazing that someone was brilliant enough to throw all of these classic literary characters together in an Avengers-esk way. Now, I'm appalled that anyone thought it would be a good idea.
Sometimes, it's best not to go back and watch your favorite movies for your childhood; you may be shockingly disappointed.
Until next time
MJ

M (1931)

M is a German film written by Thea von Harbou and Fritz Lang and directed by Fritz Lang starring Peter Lorre. The story follows the manhunt of a man who has murdered 9 children in a city in Germany. The film was released on August 31, 1931 as a drama.

Link to IMBd synopsis:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0022100/

*SPOILERS*

As the movie begins, a little girl is heard singing a nursery rhyme, much like eenie meenie miney mo. The camera pans to show a group of children standing in a circle around the singing girl. While it may be visually innocent enough, the song is about a man dressed in black with a cleaver who will come and "get you" if you aren't careful. A woman comes outside and tells the child to stop singing " that awful song. " The camera then follows the woman who drops off laundry to another woman who says that they should be grateful to hear them singing, because at least it means they're safe. The woman is then shown making lunch and waiting for her daughter to come home from school; the daughter never shows up.

What the viewer witnesses, but no one else does, is the daughter leaving school. She pauses and bounces a ball off of a pole. Posted on the pole is a reward for any information/the capture of a man who had murdered eight children. An ominous silhouette of a man is cast over the poster. The man (Peter Lorre), who's face you don't see until later in the film, is shown walking away with the girl and buying her a balloon. Soon after, the ball is shown abandoned in a field with the balloon floating away.

The next few scenes show the pandemonium of accusations of who murdered the girl, along with the eight other children. it is revealed that the police have no leads, nor any accurate accounts. They simply continue raiding criminal hang-outs and following anonymous tips.

Shortly after showing one of the previously mentioned raids, the camera cuts to reveal four men meeting in secret to discuss the effects the murders are having on their criminal organization. Simultaneously, a meeting among the police department is shown. Both groups are discussing ways to catch the murderer. The police decide to locate records and addresses of people released from mental hospitals deemed no longer a danger to society, while the criminals decide to use all of the beggars in the city to keep constant surveillance on anyone who might be the murderer.

It is important to mention that in any scene where the murderer is hunting or doing anything involving his crimes, he begins to whistle "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg; this is the murderer's inevitable downfall. Because the blind beggar who the murderer bought the little girl's balloon from hears the same whistle and sends another beggar after the man.

Just as it seems another victim might be claimed, the tail writes a large "M" on his hand in chalk and smacks the murderer on the back, marking him so that the other beggars cannot lose sight of him.

Eventually, the murderer is taken by the criminals and is tried in a kangaroo court setting. The man admits to his crimes, but admits that he simply cannot stop. He begs, saying that he is followed by a shadow of himself and of the mothers and children he's harmed; that the only time the memories cease is when he kills. The "court" sentences him to death, but just as they begin to charge him, the police arrive, taking the murderer into custody.

While this sounds like a typical episode of any crime drama TV show, the thing that makes it stand apart is the era it was released. M is a blueprint for every "who dun it?" murder mystery since it's release. I highly recommend watching this movie, due to it's hauntingly disturbing nature and lack of blood and gore. It's a timeless and classic murder mystery.

Until next time!

- MJ McCammon

Crimson Peak (2015)

Crimson Peak is a film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, and Charlie Hunnam. It was released on October 16th last year as a gothic horror/love story. It follows the story of Edith Cushing after she meets a handsome and mysterious baronet and his sister, Sir Thomas Sharpe and Lady Lucille Sharpe. After her father mysteriously dies, Edith marries Thomas and moves to Allerdale Hall in England with her new husband and his sister. Edith begins to see ghosts and realizes there may be more than love as a motive for Thomas marrying her; a much darker motive.

Link to IMBd synopsis/movie info:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt2554274/

*SPOILERS!*

As the film starts out, you see Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) panting and bloodied with tear-filled eyes with her narrating about ghosts. The character recalls her first encounter with a ghost; that of her mother. Edith's mother appears to her when she is a child and an adult, both times to warn her about "Crimson Peak." If you pay attention to what Edith is doing when she is visited by the ghost a second time, you'll notice that she is reading about Allerdale Hall and the Sharpe family. The ghost, of course, shocks her to the point that she never again looks at the book. It is likely that if she had, she would have learned that the nickname of Allerdale Hall was, in fact, Crimson Peak.

Stepping away from the ghosts for a moment, we focus on Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston). When we are first introduced to him, Edith is busy typing her manuscript for a book she wrote about ghosts. Thomas sees it, of course, and asks her about it and its author. She admits that it's hers and that the ghost isn't really a ghost, but a metaphor for the past. The story then unfolds for Edith in a similar way: she is thrown into a story where the ghosts are real, but instead are a window into the past.

It is important to note that every time Thomas is on screen, save for one time, he is dressed in all-black.

The costume design in this movie is brilliant, but only noticeable after a particular scene focusing on Edith and Lady Lucille Sharpe (Chastain). In the scene, Lucille is seen cutting a cocoon off of a tree limb. Edith approaches her and asks if it's a butterfly. Lucille explains that it isn't yet, but it will be. The camera then pans to see a cluster of monarch butterflies at the two women's feet. Lucille then begins to talk about the fragility of the butterflies and how they only have black moths back home (Allerdale Hall) and how they only eat butterflies. From this point on, the costume design reflects this assertion. The importance of Edith and Lucille's clothing is to subtly show that Edith herself is a fragile butterfly on which Lucille attempts to prey.

Save for the Waltz scene and the scenes where Edith is in a nightgown of some sorts, she is always seen wearing either yellow or gold dresses, usually embroidered with some sort of butterfly-esk design. Lucille, on the other hand, is always seen wearing black, usually with a kind of cocoon-looking embroidery on her dresses. That is, except for the scene where you are first introduced to her.

The Waltz scene is one of the most pivotal sequences in the movie. After Edith's second encounter with her mother's ghost, she is swept off to a party with Thomas (probably what her mother tried to warn her against). At the party and in the opening scenes, Dr. Alan McMichael's (Hunnam) mother and sister, Eunice, talk about the interest Thomas and his have taken in Eunice. Mrs. McMichael and Lucille suggest that Thomas show them a proper waltz. However, Thomas chooses to dance with Edith and not Eunice, which upsets Lucille for a presently-unknown reason.

The Waltz scene is also important, because it is the only occasion in which Lucille is wearing something other than black; instead, she's wearing a blood-red dress and a blood-red ring. A ring which is later given to Thomas to "buy" Edith.

There are two reasons that Lucille wearing blood-red is important: one is because that is the color of clay that the Sharpe family mines and sells (or rather used to) and it is also the color of the majority of the ghosts in the movie. There are only three ghosts in the movie, excluding the faint apparitions that appear in the background every so often, that aren't red.

Two of the ghosts are black: the ghosts of Edith's mother and the ghost of Lucille, who Edith had to kill to keep herself and Alan alive. Initally, I suspected that they were black because they were two deaths that weren't caused by murder, but the pervious statement disqualifies that thought. Now, I believe that the reason these two ghosts are black is because they are the first and last ghosts you see. The ghost of Edith's mother begins the story and the ghost of Lucille ends it, so they are most likely black for symmetry. 

The rest of the ghosts are red, distinctively matching the crimson clay that is seen throughout a majority of the film. These are the ghosts of those that Lucille murdered in cold-blood. It's a slight possibility that the bodies of these souls were buried in the clay pits in the basement of the house, but there is no way to confirm one way or another.

The final and most unique ghost of the film is that of Thomas Sharpe. Toward the end of the film, it is revealed that Thomas and his sister had been engaged in a romantic relationship since the time he was 12. When their mother was murdered and their fortune squandered, Thomas and Lucille began to pick women with no relatives and large bank accounts for Thomas to marry and bring to Allerdale Hall. Then, they would slowly poison the women until they signed over their assets to Thomas, at which point Lucille would murder them. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I believe that this is why Thomas and Lucille were initially interested in Eunice, Alan's sister. While she had relatives, her mother would probably never have bat an eye if she wound up dead. But Thomas unexpectedly had a connection with Edith instead, something he didn't understand because of his dysfunctional relationship with his sister. The first hint at his true feelings for Edith is shown when Thomas comes back for her after breaking her heart. Thomas says "I seem to think of you at the most inopportune times," or something to the affect. After learning about his relationship with Lucille, it is presumable that those "inopportune times" were when he was sleeping with Lucille.

The reason that Thomas' ghost is white, I believe, is because of the love he genuinely felt for Edith. He unexpectedly fell in love with a woman who didn't need to kill to keep the relationship alive. Throughout the movie, you can see Thomas develop more from a closed-off stranger, to an open-hearted and enthusiastic soul. Of course, when he tells his sister that he loves Edith and not her, Lucille murders him. The reason he is the only white ghost in the movie, and why the character otherwise only wore black, is due to the transformation his love for Edith put him through. He turned from a dark and tortured soul to a pure heart in love.

Personally, I didn't find this movie scary, but it can definitely be described as disturbing. There are a few nit-picky things that bothered me and a couple other neat things I'll let you discover on your own, if you so choose. Be warned that there is slight male nudity, but nothing overly graphic. All-in-all, I think that Guillermo del Toro created a subtly brilliant film in which the actors played their parts flawlessly.

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts! I'll catch you next time!

-MJ McCammon