Reply #44: They took all the quirkiness and campness out of the original

[Screaming Lord Byron]

strangely enough by trying to replicate it. It was like they kept winking at the camera saying 'this is a knowing reference to the original show' if that makes sense. In the original show, there's a real sexy playfulness between Steed and Peel, but it's ambiguous because Emma is married, and John is a gentleman (and also, a little sexually ambiguous himself, as she is) so the sexual tension carries it. There was no chemistry at all between Thurman and Fiennes, they just seemed dull and flat. In the original show it's like there's a world of simmering emotion underneath Steed and Peel's English reserve that is extraordinarily sexy.
The other problem was that the original show was quite surreal, in a very sixties way, with lots of Freudian subtext and dadaist absurdity that they tried to recreate in the movie. Unfortunately the writers didn't capture the subtlety and nuance of the original, so it all seems rather silly. The real appeal for me about the Avengers show is that there's a real threat behind the camp absurdity, and real emotion underneath the clowning. The movie is just bad camp.
I hope this makes sense, it's a difficult subject to articulate.