The Avengers movie Review

In 1998 one of my favourite TV shows from the 60's was turned into a feature movie. The Avengers was a British mystery show about two secret agents, the suave and debonair John Steed (who was played by the amazing Patrick MacNee) and the sexy cat suit wearing Emma Peel (played by the beautiful Diana Rigg). The show starred these two sophisticated, suave, yet sexy secret agents solving mysteries for the British Ministry of Defense. The show featured quick wit, and elegance, that only a British show could pull off. In 1998 this amazing television show was brought to the big screen with Umma Thurman as Emma Peel and Ralph Fiennes as John Peel. The movie also featured the legendary Sean Connery as Sir August as the mad scientist. and the amazing Eddie Izzard starred as his main henchman. The movie tried to capture the sexiness, and the wittiness of the television show, with its over the top mad scientist Sir August De Winters, who has created a machine to control the weather, and he uses it to hold the world's leaders hostage unless they agree to buy their weather from him. There is also this thing about cloning going on, a power struggle between the heads of the ministry of defense "Mother" and "Father". An awkward romance played out in puns and innuendos between Peel and Steed, and all of this while our two heroes are trying to save the world, while never forgetting to take time for a cup of tea. I will be honest, I want to really like this movie, I really want to, because I am such a fan of the original series. I will even say that I do like this movie, which is true that I probably like it more than anyone else I have ever talked to who has actually seen it. However...The puns and innuendos all seem forced, the comedy in general just feels like it was all forced, and doesn't actually work. The stars try to act all suave and sophisticated but come off as more of a mockery of proper British culture rather than an over emphasis on it. The original series the characters seemed sincere, but in this they seem, well, fake. Really everything about this movie feels like they were trying to over emphasize aspects of the show, and ended up just making a caricature, even a mockery of the show. This movie was destroyed by the critics and some even said it was one of the worst movies ever made, I don't agree with that, as I have see some truly bad movies, but it did deserve rough treatment, because the folks who made this fucked up some amazing source material. If it was better written this could have, and should have been an amazing movie. I don't even blame the actors honestly, I feel like they were given a shit script and did their best. The costumes were pretty decent, we did see Emma Peel in her cat suit she was famous for, and Steed in his customary three-piece suit and bowler hat, and let us not forget his umbrella/sword. The sets were decent, they were very British, and elegant, and they had the absence of extras which always gave he show a certain feel to it. I like that they tried to stay true to Steed driving his classic (antique) car, and Peel having her more sporty car, which shows a bit of a difference in their personality types (likewise with their choices of outfits). Also I feel like Sean Connery did well as the mad scientist, and I loved Eddie Izzard as his henchman, I feel like he played that roll like a character straight out of the original show. Honestly Izzard's portrayal of the henchman is the most true to the series of any of the characters, his looks, his mannerisms, the fact that he never speaks, it is all pretty true to a henchman in the show. I do wish I could say more positives about this movie, as I do actually like this movie, but let's be honest it did fail miserably for legit reasons. Honestly the writers and directors tried way too hard, and came way too short. Honestly if I was a British persona and I saw this I would feel like my culture was being made a mockery of by this movie. I do hope someday, a good writer and director will make a better movie based on the Avengers, a movie that would actually do it justice. Until then, I will have to settle for this mediocre action/mystery movie. Would I recommend this movie? Yes, but not to everyone, I don't think there are very many people that will actually appreciate this movie, and I am finding that it is actually hard to find people who are even familiar with the television series, which is a shame because it is such an amazing series. I will say this though, every time I watch this movie I have fond memories of my mum and I watching re-runs of the Avengers together on the Mystery Channel. Not the worst movie in the world, but also never gonna make any top 10 lists for sure, but I do enjoy it, and this is the third copy of it that i have owned, and this movie will always have a place in my collection.