“The Avengers” was a British TV series in the 1960’s which was made into a movie released in 1998. Its popular characters were John Steed (played by Patrick MacNee) and Mrs. Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg). In the movie version, Ralph Fiennes played Steed while Uma Thurman was Mrs. Peel.
Steed is a British secret agent of an intelligence agency called “The Ministry” headed by “Father” (ironically a woman) and “Mother” (yes, a it’s a man). Mrs. Peel or Dr. Peel is a scientist who is involved in “The Prospero Project” which is about the weather who was allegedly caught in a video of sabotaging the project. To clear her name, she joined Steed in his investigation per instructions from “The Ministry”. Their first step was to visit Sir August De Winter (played by Sean Connery) who is said to be an authority on scientific studies on the weather. After their visit to the latter’s place, they were chased by mechanical insects which intentions were to kill both of them. They suspected that Sir August was behind the attack which turned out to be true. Sir August is the Chief Executive Officer of a company called “Weather Wonderland” which create various weather situations. It can create a snowy or sunny weather.
Later, Steed and Peel went to the company premises of Sir August to further investigate. There, they found out a lady who look like Peel. They concluded that she was the one caught in the video in the act of sabotage. They encountered tight situations when they went back to Sir August’s home since he was later proved to be an expert in creating extreme weather conditions. But eventually, they were able to escape. Steed found a mysterious blue print at Sir August’s home which he later brought to his agency’s headquarters in London and sought the help of a veteran spy called “Invisible Jones” (played by Patrick MacNee as a special role) who is literally not seen. With the latter’s help, Steed found out that Sir August was formerly connected in a weather project at “The Ministry” with his superior “Father”. Meanwhile, Sir August is demanding ransoms in gold to the wealthy nations of the world, threatening them with extreme weather disturbances if his demands are not met. But his plan failed because “The Avengers” attacked his hideout and destroyed his facilities which create these weather disturbances. He was later killed by Steed in a one on one fight.
I observed that the movie used the various elements that were used in the TV series like the invisibility of a person, the mechanical insects, a person running around endlessly in a room, the fashion outfit of the main characters, the vintage car, the mention of tea and macaroons and its music theme. This is sort of paying homage to the TV series.
However, when I watched this in cinema in the year that it was released, I felt that there were lapses in the way it was translated to the big screen. They were the following:
- Sean Connery was under utilized as a villain.
- The story line is not very well covered in its 90 minutes screening time.
- Where did the impostor Emma Peel came from? It was not shown clearly whether she was surgically cloned to look like the real Emma Peel.
- It is better if Patrick MacNee was given a different role and shown physically in the movie not just hearing his voice and seeing a split second image of him in his scene.
If these lapses were avoided, the movie might enjoyed a better reception from its audience.
The poster image used for this blog entry as updated was taken from online sources as references.
That’s all for now.
Until my next posting.
Happy Weekend!
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