Anahata

A quite different version of Verne's Captain Nemo, this international production boasts the kind of derring-do and adventure I used to enjoy at Saturday afternoon matinees. Disney's Kirk Douglas film of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" was among the first films I ever attended at a cinema as a child, and this is a worthy successor.

The anti-colonialist story line is appropriate, as well as the radically different casting. With top-notch production values, it plays with a type of sincerity absent from so many similar "reimaginings" of genre adventures, like the Disney "Pirates" movies or back when Sam Raimi was creating satirical efforts like "Xena" and Kevin Sorbo as "Hercules".

Dashing Shazad Latif as Nemo and the resourceful Georgia Flood as heroine Humility are delightful in their roles, and play them "straight", without any annoying tongue-in-cheek elements.

In the opening episode of Nautilus, we're introduced to the main cast on both sides-Captain Nemo's crew and the primary villains representing the Company-as well as how Nemo and his crew came to possess the submarine. The story moves along at a brisk pace, leaving no room for boredom. We also get the first flashbacks to Nemo's past, possibly hinting at the roots of his determination and his animosity toward the Company. I'm sure the following episodes will explore this aspect in more detail. Some of the characters can be a bit irritating, but overall, we get a clear sense of the basic pecking order.