The Avengers Movie Trailer. Now that I’ve seen the new movie version of “The Avengers,” which Warner Bros. declined to screen for critics in advance, I understand why they hid it in the first place. What I don’t understand is why they released it in the second place.
This “Avengers” film is so horrendously, painfully and thoroughly awful, it gives other cinematic clunkers like “Ishtar” and “Howard the Duck” a good name. Even worse, and what I can’t believe as a life-long fan of the original ’60s British series, is how anyone could conspire to make a movie version without either knowing or caring what made the original TV show so special.
Compared with the small-screen “Avengers,” the movie gets so much so wrong, including: The chemistry between secret agents John Steed and Mrs. Emma Peel. On TV, Diana Rigg was so feisty yet flirty, and Patrick Macnee so reserved yet playful, that their characters of Emma and Steed had chemistry to spare, even though they maintained a professional distance. In the movie, starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, their characters kiss, yet throw off fewer sparks than an underwater match. The theme song.
On the show, it was a crucial ingredient, and the constant bouncy British music during the action sequences was another trademark. In the movie, the main theme never is played in full, and the rest of the music is as unimaginative as the plot. The villains. On the TV series, the fun came from watching Steed and Mrs. Peel narrow down the suspects and face their eccentric adversaries.
In the movie, the masterstroke of casting Sean Connery as the bad guy is wasted by giving him so little to do and say when one of the avengers is around. Instead, scriptwriter Don Macpherson and director Jeremiah Chechik fill the bulk of “The Avengers” with idiotic action sequences, encouraging adversaries to trade blows instead of quips.
Connery’s mad scientist generates an evil clone of Mrs. Peel, but doesn’t let her speak, never uses her to replace the real Mrs. Peel and never takes advantage of her sexually. In the TV series, when a mad scientist replaced both Steed and Mrs. Peel with look-alikes, the fun came from seeing our heroes carry on in ways definitely unbecoming their normal selves (Emma, for example, chewed gum, danced the frug and kissed Steed amorously.)
The special effects. Where did those stupid flying robot bugs come from in the movie? And why the high-tech, slugfest climax? The TV show’s special effects were modest the key was in the dialogue, not the action, and in the imagination, not the budget. And having Macnee show up as an invisible cameo, heard but not quite seen, is yet another insult.
In short, the movie is a big disappointment. Visually, there are a few touches that would have been right at home on the old series: the life-sized pastel teddy-bear disguises, the in-transit tea break, the optical-illusion room without an exit. Any episode of the classic series, though, contains much more wit than that. Collected episodes of the Macnee-Rigg TV “Avengers” episodes from 1967-68 have just been rereleased, and watching them is a delight. The TV series was, and remains, Emma Peel-ing. In contrast, the movie is Emma-palling.
The Avengers (1998)
Directed by: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Sean Connery, Patrick Macnee, Jim Broadbent, Fiona Shaw, Eddie Izzard, Eileen Atkins, Carmen Ejogo, John Wood, Keeley Hawes
Screenplay by: Don Macpherson
Production Design by: Stuart Craig
Cinematography by: Roger Pratt
Film Editing by: Mick Audsley
Costume Design by: Anthony Powell
Set Decoration by: Stephenie McMillan
Art Direction by: Andrew Ackland-Snow, Mark Harris, Michael Lamont, Neil Lamont
Music by: Joel McNeely
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: August 14, 1998
Hits: 203
