Day of the 'Dog: "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"

Few are fence-sitters when it comes to steampunk action film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with many claiming it is a great flick and even more claiming it is a weak attempt at a niche genre. But let's look at the facts here:

1. There's tons of action. I think there are more bullets flying in this flick than the Predator many-gun scene, and that's a lot of lead.

2. The interpretations of classic Victorian literary characters is inventive, and insightful, particularly how Dorian Grey is portrayed - an excellent twist on a classic figure that kinda makes sense.

3. Great special effects. While there are some continuity issues here (as with many comic book flicks) little can be said indicting the excellent use of CGI.

So, why is LXG under-appreciated? Well, while the characters have some depth, most are largely two-dimensional - again pretty typical of comic book film. Some movie-goers also have a hard time with the steampunk alternate world concept, and cars and solar-powered subs in the 1800s is a little more than they're willing to accept.

Perhaps some small mention of what innovation allowed technology to advance in that direction would have been appropriate early on.

However, LXG is a solid action film that's no more outlandish than your average shoot 'em up, and is appropriate and entertaining for a broad audience while having enough wink and nod period references to keep the interest of Victorians - history and literary buffs alike.

So I say ignore the mediocre 5.4 IMDb rating and give LXG a try. You might just find yourself pulled into the story enough to check out the graphic novel and the wealth of others like it - many of which are the contemporary crown jewels of the comic book industry.

"City of Ember" burns, though sometimes dimly

For a fledgling steampunk fan like me, City of Ember immediately draws me in, with its archaic and misunderstood technology of an age long passed. While the society smacks of Lois Lowry's The Giver so closely that I hope some royalties were paid (the same close semblance to Fallout, as well, if you're a gamer), it was enough to hold my interest.

The end was always a little transparent based on the "get you up to speed" montage at the beginning, which may or may not have been in the book; I haven't read it, I admit. The purpose of the City of Ember itself might have been better suited for a mystery the main characters - two rogue kids who share their parents' curiosity about Ember - to have to discover throughout the film. Thus, the film's progression felt a little spoon fed.

Because, in some ways, it was the elements that weren't explained (like what drove people underground to begin with) that I thought lent the most to my imagination.

I do wish I'd seen it in the theater, since many of the visuals didn't quite come through on my computer monitor. The types of people in Ember as portrayed by awesome actors such as Bill Murray (the mayor) were - albeit slightly mollified for a younger audience - pretty much the way I'd see people acting in such an environment.

You had the willfully ignorant, the curious, the thieves, the workers, and the politicians. The only trope of young adult literature that I found a little unbelievable was that it took so long for someone to get curious enough about Ember to uncover the truth. The human spirit - in many - yearns for pulling things apart and seeing how they tick, manifest in today's hackers, modders, and tinkerers. Surely a steampunk utopia such as Ember would have had more than its share and would not have been left stagnant for so long.

In the end, the film is a safe, fun ride through nice visuals, memorable characters, and an okay plot. Safe for the kiddies and still entertaining enough for the adults.