Review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Set in an alternate 1899, he mysterious M (Richard Roxburgh) gathers together a band of Victorian-era characters for a secret mission to thwart the evil plans of the elusive ‘Fantom’, who is using highly advanced weaponry and artillery to set the world at war. However, there’s more to this plot than meets the eye. This team is named The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Sean Connery is legendary adventurer Allan Quartermain (or Quatermain if you’re a bit of a twat), Naseeruddin Shah plays Indian inventor and explorer Captain Nemo, Shane West is American Secret Service Agent Tom Sawyer (!), Tony Curran plays invisible thief Skinner (aka The Invisible Man, except not quite The Invisible Man if you know what I mean), Jason Flemyng is the troubled scientist Dr. Jekyll who has a beastly alter-ego, Stuart Townsend plays the immortal Dorian Gray, whilst Peta Wilson makes the title nonsensical, playing vampiress Mina Harker. David Hemmings turns up briefly as Quartermain’s brother.

 

Based on comic books by Alan Moore (“V for Vendetta”, “Watchmen”) and Kevin O'Neill, this 2003 action-adventure with a literary bent from director Stephen Norrington (“Blade”) is the infamous film that inspired star Sean Connery to quit the movie biz for good (He called the film a ‘nightmare’). Jesus, Mr. Bond it’s not that bad. In fact, it’s not a bad film at all (And you served as EP yourself, pal!). It’s just not quite a good one, either. Scripted by James Dale Robinson (who has a brief cameo in the film), the schlocky action and CGI aesthetics are at first a bit hard to stomach in a film that nabs several of literature’s most famous characters for the purpose of an all-star comic book adventure. However, it nearly comes off. In fact, I liked it a tad more the second time around, and don’t think it deserved to bomb at all. “Van Helsing” it ain’t. If you go into it knowing pretty much the kind of mindless entertainment the film provides (Think of it as “The Avengers” for people who don’t need pictures with their words in their literary source material), it does indeed play better as mindless spectacle.

 

The biggest flaws for me were some of the casting choices. ***** SPOILER WARNING ***** I was particularly underwhelmed by the performance of Richard Roxburgh, yet again out of his depth as a villain. His Snidely Whiplash villainy (previously misjudged in “Moulin Rouge”) is incredibly underwhelming, even if the deceit/mystery involving his character’s true identity is clever. ***** END SPOILER ***** I also found Shane West a completely bland and uninspired Tom Sawyer (a Secret Service agent? Really? And boy is he tacked-on for commercial reasons), and Stuart Townsend a mopey and dreary Dorian Gray who looks more vampiric than Mina Harker. Meanwhile, I understand that Captain Nemo was meant to be Indian, but I found it highly unlikely that he would be an extremely proficient martial artist. It’s a silly invention that in no way improves the film, and rather detracts from it. The performance by the rather cut-rate Naseeruddin Shah is nothing to write home about, either (His First Mate, however, gets the best line in the entire film. Yes, he says exactly what you think he does).

 

However, other than these issues, the film pretty much works and it’s a shame that Norrington hated this experience so much that he hasn’t directed a film since. Roger Christian (“Battlefield Earth”) I could understand, but geez, Norrington’s hardly inept. The opening 10 minutes of comic book action are especially terrific, and no matter how frustrated Connery felt working on the film (the guy doesn’t seem to like fantasy or FX-driven films from what I can tell) he lets none of it show on screen with a very professional performance in a role he is perfect for. The literary “Avengers” premise is pretty irresistible, so long as you’re expecting more “Avengers” than intelligent writing. This is a summer blockbuster kind of movie, albeit one that missed with audiences at the time. One wonders if it would fare a bit better in today’s comic-book loving climate. Aussie-born C-grade actress Peta Wilson is much better company than Townsend, and rather well-cast as vampire chick Mina Harker. Tony Curran’s cockney Invisible Man worked much better for me second time around, and although not in the film enough, he steals the show…even when not seen on camera! We also get a good performance from the underrated Jason Flemyng as the tortured Dr. Jekyll. Mr. Hyde is actually a much better CG effect than I remembered it being in 2003, though they’ve made the mistake of turning him into a giant “Hulk”-like creature (with Gollum-esque schizophrenia to boot), which is a shame (As was “The Hulk” being so big in the 2003 film of the same name anyway). I think the reason why the effect works as well as it does is that the colours used are more realistic (Something they kind of botch with another creature late in the film that isn’t nearly as convincing). I also appreciated the cute cameo by the late David Hemmings, who used to be considered somewhat handsome, much as you won’t believe it here.

 

Another asset to the film is the strong music score by Trevor Jones (“Excalibur”, “The Dark Crystal”, “Labyrinth”), giving the film a lift. I won’t deny that this film could’ve and should’ve been even better than it is. Those of you who feel that way may be inclined to take a glass half-empty approach to assessing this film. But for the mindless entertainment that it seems to be aiming for, I think it’s an OK film with a fantastic opening. It’s almost worth a good grade, actually. Almost.

 

Rating: C+