The Avengers (1998)

A different way of telling a story

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It comes to something when the most interesting thing about a film is spotting all the famlliar locations in the south of England, but that's what I ended up doing here! Being a massive fan of The Avengers TV series, I managed to resist watching this film for 20 years. In the end, morbid curiosity took over - just how bad could it be? The main problem here seems to be that the whole film is completely ill-judged. It's like a hotchpotch of lukewarm & half-baked ideas from the 60s TV series - thrown into a melting pot with no real love or appreciation of what made the TV series so special.Ralph Fiennes is miscast as a foppish & smarmy Steed, and never feels like a respected and likeable gentleman from 'the ministry'. Uma Thurman fares slightly better, but there's never any real chemistry between them, and it just makes you long to see the original instead.Why do they drink tea all the time? I don't remember that happening in the real Avengers! Predictable views of tourist London only serve to add to the feeling that someone thinks this will all make it more 'English' & please a section of the American audience who think England is still like how it was 50 years ago.Sean Connery does a good job as the villain bent on controlling the weather with his elaborate machine (nods to the episode 'A Surfeit of H2O' here), but the whole Bond-like epic climax falls flat, & goes the drain faster than rain in a rainstorm. This whole ludicrous film feels contrived, unreal, charmless and cartoonish. Its only purpose seems to annoy & confound long-standing Avengers fans, and to bore contemporary cinema watchers who now probably wonder what all the fuss was about.

Like a classic bond film. action & innuendo . Like a Gothamesk Batman super high tech , but on a 1950s background. I have no idea why people constantly feel disappoint by re-imagined versions of old classics. What did you think it is going to be like ? If you loved the originals and are hoping this will be exactly the same . Don't watch it. But, that would be a shame. Have an open mind and this is a brilliant film. I am hoping there is a squall just like this one !Many big mane actors placed cleverly in the film , congratulations to the casting director. (appart from steed , who was plainly a second choice)

How do you make Sean Connery appear uncharismatic, Ralph Fiennes uninteresting and Uma Thurman unsexy? No small feat, but in 1998 Jeremiah S. Chechik performed this dark achievement with his version of the classic British TV series - the one older viewers remember mostly for Diana Rigg looking like a million bucks in it.A supremely ugly-looking movie, with terrible visual effects, a worthless script and no sense of fun, The Avengers is worth mentioning as a curiosity, since it's arguably the worst project in the careers of all three leads - and when you are defeated by stuff like The League of The Extraordinary Gentlemen, Maid in Manhattan and Percy Jackson, you know you are sinking in deep, murky waters.3,5/10

I only give it 2 stars for the fact that I love the classic characters and Sean Connery. First off some say it's not worth griping about. Wrong. I could have written a better screenplay. First off they just meet for the first time? Mother was NEVER a character in the Peel series except till the last episode. The relationship between the two was never really brought to light except in hints, but naturally the movie biz can't make a film without the romantic stuff. The intro is bland. The script is awful. I'm sure Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg and even Honor Blackman laughed when they saw it and probably embarrassed. I never liked the Linda Thorson season much although some stories would have benefited Emma Peel. This movie could have made due without the "Mother" character. I thought Ralph Fiennes was acceptable as Steed. Not so much Uma Thurman. The movie is pointless compared to the series and someone should have boxed up that script and buried it. The series is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Couldn't wait for the film. After seeing it I was devastated. I'm sure not the only fan who was. Skip it.