BUT- I would in no way classify this as a Science Fiction. It is a story about 2 people in a hospital, the adult telling a child a fantastical tale, & the audience seeing that tale through her eyes. The tale he is telling is just the story within the story. The director had ideas where he wanted to take it, but sometimes the little girl in filming would take it somewhere else, & he went with that. Try to look up an article in Filter magazine (I think April 2008), talks about that.

I just wanted to clarify for those people talking about 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen', or those who are excited to see Darwin as a hero... those characters & storylines are very secondary. Unlike 'Princess Bride' where the main story is actually the story of the Princess Bride, In 'The Fall', the MAIN story is the dynamic between the 2 characters in the hospital... NOT the fantasy.

I hope this in NO WAY deters anyone from seeing this GEM of a movie. And to answer Plague's comment RE how could a good movie sit on a shelf for 2 years... Do you see how many BAD movies DON'T?? This movie cannot be pidgeonholed into any specific genre or type. Those kinds of movies are really hard to market (unless it's starring Brad Pitt or some other mega star), no one (studios) likes to gamble with not knowing who to market to, or how to advertise. I love this trailer, but it's kind of hard to get a clear picture of what the movie actually is from it.

The best way to watch this movie is to go into it with no preconceived notions or expectations of what kind of movie you think it is, or what kind of story, or even how movies should tell their stories. Do your best to just experience it in the moment. The sights & sounds, it is a work of art, truly... I saw it at a screening at the Hammer Museum! (that should tell you something)...

Hope all this was helpful to people. GO SEE IT!!!

lolawants2008

superbryant

I believe the Escher-esque stairwell is the stepwell in the village of Abhaneri in India. [www.gardenvisit.com]

uglyMood

SnotFare

frndlybnny

rogerniner

Jonn

icarusprime

No wait, that's not right...

92BuickLeSabre

lightninglouie

Have to see this movie. Charles Darwin. Who on Earth would've thought of making Darwin a hero!

CmdrHunt

Again though, I say LEE PACE!!!

blackeyedgurl

This movie looks quite epic, I think I shall have to see it post haste.

mewlink64

Poormojo

B

If anyone's interested, I'm pretty sure that car's a famous Delage - from so long ago that France not only built cars that weren't crap, they were actually splendid.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen wasn't nearly the worst movie adaptation ever. Just in the realm of this website's purview, we have the original Fantastic Four, I, Robot, Starship Troopers... the list is endless.
-Kle.

Klebert L. Hall

In my dream world, HBO would take on something genre and give us this.

picardia

Some of use knew about those Asterix movies... But 90% of Americans are unaware of it because it is French, not because Hollywood isn't involved.

As for Hero, they (Harvey and Co.) buy HK action movies by the ton, then hold on to them for years. It's what they do. But bringing a foreign film to an English speaking audience is in no way equivalent to having an unknown film sit on a shelf due to lack of interest. Your example doesn't work because there was a demand for Hero due to the director Zhang's track record. The Weinstein's recently bought the visually delightful "The Banquet", held on to it for over a year, then renamed it "Legend Of The Black Scorpion" so no one will have a clue it's the same film. It's just not the same deal as a movie that sits on a shelf because the studio won't promote it because they know it stinks.

@codydog:
You'll get no argument from me on Portman v. Fisher

Plague

[www.variety.com]

Brawndo

Chryss

Ghede

reddingofish

reddingofish

ProgGrrl

Sure. Especially if it's an indie film doing the festival circuit looking for distribution. Not every director has the good fortune to be Guillermo Del Torro The Indie Darling, who gets his films distributed world wide as soon as they're done. And even he had to shop The Devil's Backbone around for a while.

Hollywood is extremely insular. It took Quintin Tarentino smacking the Weinsteins around to get a film like Hero, which was a huge movie in China, to even be seen in the US.

Did you know that there is a trilogy of high budget, live action Asterix films being made in France? I didn't until last week when I accidentally ran across a story about it online. This is the European equivalent of a Super Man trilogy being made for a world audience but no one here knows about it because it has one fatal flaw: no one from Hollywood is invovled.

Gyrus

Metropolis

desiredusername

The Cell was beautiful but severely flawed movie. Now this looks like it may actually be a good story as well as beautiful.

Looks like it has a bit of flavor from Baron Munchausen and Neverending Story too.

catcubed

jin

jinchoung

Annalee Newitz

Ghede

antimatty

Well, Tarentino presented some damn good films to me in his time (not that I probably needed any extra reasons to see this -- it looks SHINY!) so I'm okay with that.

JennaW, Internet Tough Girl

FoolsRun

If i find a book that is really bad, or that i just can't get into, i throw it back on the shelf for the next guy.

Always another book.

It does not make my dick one nanometer longer to put down some hard working author someplace,and defecate in his rice bowl.

I might attack an over-rated, and popular book, if i see it has a lot of errors in it, but it does not make me feel like superman. My editor likes snark.

Same with movies. I see about 50 a year, and i can do the math; my $8.00 and two hours against three years and a hundred million or so.

I try to like them. Why poison my system looking for stuff to rank down?

Do i think Nick Cage is going to worry it i don't like him? Will Tom Cruise learn to act if i disapprove of "War of the Worlds" Probably not.

So?

So i pay my money and eat my popcorn and try to have fun. I rate four grades of movies. Worth Full Price, Matinee Only, $2.50 Theater, and Pay Me To Watch It.

Nobody pays me to snark on the internet, so i try to maintain my coolth.

But fanboys? I do like to tease fanboys. They are so serious about stuff that matters not.

codydog

tetracycloide

Makes me also think of The Adventures of Barron Munchousan. Particularly the hints of a blurry line between the story and reality as well as the role of the little girl.

almostscientific

So there. I always try to please.

codydog

Well, that's valid, don't want to spend all my time fighting the fantasy/sf battle. Come to think of it, the last four really memorable movies i saw, (not counting No Country) were fantasy. That would be "Pan's Labyrinth," "Mr. Magorium," "Enchanted" and "Spiderwick."

Sigh. Blow up some planets quick, i am coming down with elves.

codydog

Jimmy Dare

Belabras

Their names are in the trailer simply to attract audiences.

SoulCarnival

I must say I like the car/wagon with the human powered wheels. Maybe THAT'S the secret the car companies have been hiding. Also the MC Escher-esque stairwell scene.

Git Em SteveDave is a poor substitute for LindsayJoy

lightninglouie

Plague

braak

@codydog: Because those are fantasy films and this blog is about science fiction.

...yeah, I think it's hair-splitting, too, and means that excellent speculative fiction films like Spiderwick get ignored while we spend lots of time talking about lesser stuff like Jumper. Just call it all Spec Fic and have done with it.

(PS -- Am stealing "hatevibe.")

JennaW, Internet Tough Girl

Pegritz

OK for a matinee.

But i don't know why this blog ignores good, even great SF&F movies like "Mr. Magoriam's Wonder Emporium" and last week's "Spiderwick" Too fantasy? No comic book tie-in? Too kiddy?

They were both worth while, non- insulting and beautifully made.

Come to think of it, i don't remember any comment on "Nightwatch/Daywatch."

Oh well. As long as there is "Speed Racer" to cream over.

codydog

Sucks that it wouldn't play in the US without two big directors' names as producers. Same thing happened to Hero. Fucked up country we live in.

aspiringexpatriate

Kevin Kelly

lightninglouie

lightninglouie

Tim Faulkner

As an indiscriminate reader, I like quite a lot of non-genre stuff myself (I'll take Cormac McCarthy over George R.R. Martin any day), but I don't think it takes any "rationalization" to see this as a fantasy film. If not steampunk, then rattanpunk, if you will.

lightninglouie

MrJellytree

HerrIssyvoo

lebaneseblond

c0dek

AndrewMac

Tim Faulkner

And Tarsem is a music video director.

I'm with Plauge on this one.

Seth L

lightninglouie

Glad we're on the same page. I treat your comments the same way!
;)

Plague

Ed Grabianowski

Bravissimo!

92BuickLeSabre

This looks simply and utterly awful.

If one person could make a movie worse than LXG, it would be Tarsem.

Come on, would a movie that was good be sitting on the shelf for over two years?

Plague

ianhead

Very beautiful, but seems like it's really depressing.

Seth L

EDread83