The Avengers was a British TV show in the 60's and 70's and starred Patrick Macnee as secret agent John Steed. It Started life as a straight faced espionage drama with Steed as an assistant to Dr. David Keel, (played by Ian Hendry). During the course of its run, it evolved into a camp, fun, quintessentially English show centred on Steed and his constant mission to protect our beloved green and pleasant land.
The bosses and villains became more outlandish and extravagant as did the storyline and settings, leading the show to become a 'spy-fi'. From battling robots to invisible men, from being shrunken to pursued by ferocious anatomically altered house cats, (really!), The Avengers was both futuristic and off the time. It was believable in that it seems plausible, but reality was stretched, pushed and at times it was all just a bit 'out there'. Similar, perhaps, to James Bonds gadgets or the moon setting for Moonraker. This made the show unique, quirky and entertaining and it soon gained a strong following both in the UK and the US, (which was no mean feat for a low budget 'limey' show).
One constant throughout this evolution was that Steed was accompanied by a female assistant. There was singer and novice agent, Venus Smith, (Julie Stevens), leather clad, judo throwing anthropologist Dr. Cathy Gale, (Honor Blackman) and fully qualified agent Tara King, (Linda Thorson). However, the most popular assistant and the one who is probably best remembered is Mrs Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg.
Mrs Peel was sexy, intelligent, cool and boy, could she kick ass! The girls wanted to be her and the boys wanted to, well, put posters of her on their bedroom walls. Her partnership with Macnee worked beautifully due to the juxtaposition of the classic pre-war English gent with suit, bowler hat and umbrella against Peel's modern fashion, sex appeal and 60's liberation. It was the old established way meeting with the swinging 60's. Very apt at the time as ideas and values were changing at a fast pace and was probably watched by the old guard with curiosity and a bit of fear. Steed and Peel showed that both could co-exist, work well together and have a jolly nice cup of tea at the end of it. Super!
Although I could not proclaim to be an avid fan, I liked The Avengers. Whether it was the daft stories, the sending up of the stuffy old English ways or leather cat suits I don't know, but I liked it. That's why when I heard a US chappie had made a film based on the original TV series, my heart sank, particularly because films made based on old TV shows generally don't work.
The 'A' Team, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, Dukes of Hazzard and one of the worst films ever and somehow missing from our list, Lost in Space. They completely failed to recapture what made the original shows fun to watch. The problem is invariably they are compared to the show on which they are based on and because of this they nearly always they miss the mark. The scripts are shallow and weak, the casting poor and all in all it just seems like a studio trying to cash in on a franchise that they have acquired. The Avengers, I'm afraid, is no exception to this rule.
The Avengers sees Ralph Fiennes, take over from Patrick Macnee as John Steed, Uma Thurman is Emma Peel and Sean Connery plays the baddie of the movie, Sir August De Wynter. Now on paper you would think, 'Hang on, pretty solid cast, we're in safe hands here'...... and you would be wrong.
The plot revolves around Sir August De Wynter who has developed a machine which controls the weather. De Wynter plans to hold the world to ransom with his device and unless the countries of the world pay him vast sums of money, he will unleash all manner of apocalyptic weather on the offending countries. Thus it is up to Steed and Peel to stop De Wynter. Which they do.
I would try to pad this plot out for you, but this is really all in essence there is to it and it's jolly boring along the way. This is partly due to a script so thin you fold it, put a comb in it and come up with a musical instrument more exciting than any point of the movie. It's not helped though, by some very poor casting.
Fiennes' Steed should be applauded as he has managed to create a character the complete opposite of the original. Macnee's version in the 60's was classy, warm, funny and the epitome of the English gent. Fiennes' version is smug, arrogant, condescending and carries an air of self righteousness. Think George Osbourne, but much, much more of an arse. Fiennes has completely misread the character which needed to be almost a caricature of Englishness but with affection. Fiennes strolls around acting like some Etonian out to lash some oik for serving luke warm tea.
Coupled with him is Thurman's Mrs. Peel, who looks the part but has one massive problem..... her accent. You see in a film which is trying to be English and in which it's lead characters are supposed to have well spoken English accents, you would have been forgiven for thinking they would have casted an English actor. But no, they turned to Thurman who really struggles to keep the accent up and is about as convincing an English lady as a former bond actor playing a Russian submarine captain. I mean an American trying to play the all English Mrs. Peel, what next, an American Robin Hood!
Thurman oozes about as much sex appeal as a pummel stone and is just as cold. Rigg's Peel enjoyed flirtatious wit and a duel of minds with Steed, Thurman's version involves a subtle sledgehammer with a neon sign buzzing 'when we gonna fuck then?'. I would discuss the chemistry between Peel and Steed but there is none. For characters who should have a mutual, but not necessarily sexual, attraction between them, they seem aloof and distant from each other and never really warm to themselves or indeed us.
Finally Sean Connery's De Wynter is a one-dimensional bad guy, who we've seen played a thousand times before and with more convincing wigs. With one eye clearly on the pay cheque he puts no effort into the character and just waves his cane around, wears kilts and speaks in a Scottish accent quite loudly. It is like he has just driven to set, walked on, read some cue cards and sent the invoice to Warner Bros. By the end of the movie I really could not care less if he lives or dies. He dies.
Off course the actors are only one part of this disaster, the director, Jeremiah S. Chechik, must take an almighty share of the blame. His vision of what is 'Englishness' is so wide of the mark, he's actually hit the North Sea. Having the word 'tea' every other word does not make the movie feel English. It makes it feel like you have done a good joke about the English being obsessed by tea and then you have just repeatedly hit that joke in my face again and again. Don't get me wrong, The original Avengers would have done a similar gag, but suitably and as a polite little send up of our quaint ways. The constant blumming tea reference just makes it feel like Chechik doesn't really know about Englishness and is hanging onto the one thing he thinks he does know.
For example, Steed first meets Mrs. Peel in a sauna. He is buck naked and reading the Financial Times. No, not quite there, he should have been in his suit and Bowler hat in the sauna reading the Financial Times and smoking a pipe. We English are a decent sort and do not do that nudity kind of thing.
Maybe he was just being faithful to the original Avengers by gently sending up the English way. He obviously is a familiar with the Avengers as at times it does look the part. The 'spy-fi' element is there, with mechanical bees chasing Steed and Peel in one scene. They are pursued by Shaun Ryder and Eddie Izzard, presumably in a bold attempt to stop this mockery. Incidentally Ryder says nothing the whole movie and Izzard says only two words, 'Oh Fuck!'. Ironically it is the only dialogue I agree with.
Also off course the weather machine being another element of science fiction, although we did watch this during the coldest Easter on record in the UK which meant De Wynter's threats sounded a bit hollow to us.
There is one scene, which I will admit I did like. De Wynter assembles his 'weather team' and to protect their identities from each other, they are all dressed as life sized Teddy Bears! I actually laughed at this and visually I thought it looked great. It would not have felt out of place in the original and lends weight to my theory the Chechik does get some aspect of The Avengers.
A subtle example of this is outdoor scenes, which in the original show, usually only consisted of Steed and his assistant and no passers-by or extras. If you watch carefully you will see that Chechik has replicated this, and outside there are no extras. London looks deserted, as it did back in the 60's version. Unfortunately, if Chechik had looked at his audience, he would have noticed that the cinema was deserted as well.
The Avengers is just another bad movie version of a popular TV show. If I was to give Chechik the benefit of the doubt, I would say that he was trying to do a tribute to The Avengers. However, I think he should have sent it up more. Starsky and Hutch sort of worked as it was more of a piss take of the original rather than trying to be a new episode. The Avengers did not take itself seriously so why should the movie version?
If you want to watch The Avengers, then buy the DVD of the original 60's series. The 70's mini revival, The New Avengers and also on DVD, is not bad either. However, if you want a modern film version of The Avengers, then make sure it has the word 'Marvel' in front of it.
The Avengers sees Ralph Fiennes, take over from Patrick Macnee as John Steed, Uma Thurman is Emma Peel and Sean Connery plays the baddie of the movie, Sir August De Wynter. Now on paper you would think, 'Hang on, pretty solid cast, we're in safe hands here'...... and you would be wrong.
The plot revolves around Sir August De Wynter who has developed a machine which controls the weather. De Wynter plans to hold the world to ransom with his device and unless the countries of the world pay him vast sums of money, he will unleash all manner of apocalyptic weather on the offending countries. Thus it is up to Steed and Peel to stop De Wynter. Which they do.
I would try to pad this plot out for you, but this is really all in essence there is to it and it's jolly boring along the way. This is partly due to a script so thin you fold it, put a comb in it and come up with a musical instrument more exciting than any point of the movie. It's not helped though, by some very poor casting.
Fiennes' Steed should be applauded as he has managed to create a character the complete opposite of the original. Macnee's version in the 60's was classy, warm, funny and the epitome of the English gent. Fiennes' version is smug, arrogant, condescending and carries an air of self righteousness. Think George Osbourne, but much, much more of an arse. Fiennes has completely misread the character which needed to be almost a caricature of Englishness but with affection. Fiennes strolls around acting like some Etonian out to lash some oik for serving luke warm tea.
Coupled with him is Thurman's Mrs. Peel, who looks the part but has one massive problem..... her accent. You see in a film which is trying to be English and in which it's lead characters are supposed to have well spoken English accents, you would have been forgiven for thinking they would have casted an English actor. But no, they turned to Thurman who really struggles to keep the accent up and is about as convincing an English lady as a former bond actor playing a Russian submarine captain. I mean an American trying to play the all English Mrs. Peel, what next, an American Robin Hood!
Thurman oozes about as much sex appeal as a pummel stone and is just as cold. Rigg's Peel enjoyed flirtatious wit and a duel of minds with Steed, Thurman's version involves a subtle sledgehammer with a neon sign buzzing 'when we gonna fuck then?'. I would discuss the chemistry between Peel and Steed but there is none. For characters who should have a mutual, but not necessarily sexual, attraction between them, they seem aloof and distant from each other and never really warm to themselves or indeed us.
Finally Sean Connery's De Wynter is a one-dimensional bad guy, who we've seen played a thousand times before and with more convincing wigs. With one eye clearly on the pay cheque he puts no effort into the character and just waves his cane around, wears kilts and speaks in a Scottish accent quite loudly. It is like he has just driven to set, walked on, read some cue cards and sent the invoice to Warner Bros. By the end of the movie I really could not care less if he lives or dies. He dies.
Off course the actors are only one part of this disaster, the director, Jeremiah S. Chechik, must take an almighty share of the blame. His vision of what is 'Englishness' is so wide of the mark, he's actually hit the North Sea. Having the word 'tea' every other word does not make the movie feel English. It makes it feel like you have done a good joke about the English being obsessed by tea and then you have just repeatedly hit that joke in my face again and again. Don't get me wrong, The original Avengers would have done a similar gag, but suitably and as a polite little send up of our quaint ways. The constant blumming tea reference just makes it feel like Chechik doesn't really know about Englishness and is hanging onto the one thing he thinks he does know.
For example, Steed first meets Mrs. Peel in a sauna. He is buck naked and reading the Financial Times. No, not quite there, he should have been in his suit and Bowler hat in the sauna reading the Financial Times and smoking a pipe. We English are a decent sort and do not do that nudity kind of thing.
Maybe he was just being faithful to the original Avengers by gently sending up the English way. He obviously is a familiar with the Avengers as at times it does look the part. The 'spy-fi' element is there, with mechanical bees chasing Steed and Peel in one scene. They are pursued by Shaun Ryder and Eddie Izzard, presumably in a bold attempt to stop this mockery. Incidentally Ryder says nothing the whole movie and Izzard says only two words, 'Oh Fuck!'. Ironically it is the only dialogue I agree with.
Also off course the weather machine being another element of science fiction, although we did watch this during the coldest Easter on record in the UK which meant De Wynter's threats sounded a bit hollow to us.
There is one scene, which I will admit I did like. De Wynter assembles his 'weather team' and to protect their identities from each other, they are all dressed as life sized Teddy Bears! I actually laughed at this and visually I thought it looked great. It would not have felt out of place in the original and lends weight to my theory the Chechik does get some aspect of The Avengers.
The Avengers is just another bad movie version of a popular TV show. If I was to give Chechik the benefit of the doubt, I would say that he was trying to do a tribute to The Avengers. However, I think he should have sent it up more. Starsky and Hutch sort of worked as it was more of a piss take of the original rather than trying to be a new episode. The Avengers did not take itself seriously so why should the movie version?
If you want to watch The Avengers, then buy the DVD of the original 60's series. The 70's mini revival, The New Avengers and also on DVD, is not bad either. However, if you want a modern film version of The Avengers, then make sure it has the word 'Marvel' in front of it.
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