The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY
GENTLEMEN (12)
D: Stephen Norrington
20th Century Fox (Trevor Albert, Rick Benattar, Mark Gordon,
Don Murphy, Michael Nelson & Sean Connery)
US/UK/Germany 2003
110 mins
Action/Adventure/Science Fiction
W: James Dale Robinson [based on the graphic novel by Alan
Moore & Kevin O'Neill]
DP: Dan Laustsen
Ed: Paul Rubell
Mus: Trevor Jones
Sean Connery (Allan Quatermain), Naseeruddin Shah (Captain
Nemo), Peta Wilson (Mina Harker), Tony Curran (Rodney Skinner / The Invisible Man), Stuart Townsend (Dorian Gray), Shane West (Tom Sawyer), Jason Flemyng (Dr. Henry Jekyll / Edward Hyde), Richard
Roxburgh (Prof. James Moriarty)
A
mess of a movie, taking place in an alternative Victorian age and pooling a group of literary characters of the time (Allan Quartermain, Dr. Jekyll, The Invisible Man, etc.) as a superhero elite
to take on a bad guy who goes by the name of The Fantom.
This may have worked as a series of graphic novels, but as a
film it really doesn't. The anachronisms don't feel right, the story is boring and the dialogue is littered with puns which will fly over the heads of the intended target audience.
There are some good visual effects, mostly the miniature work,
but there's also lots of bad CGI, particularly those that attempt to bring Jekyll's alter ego, Mr. Hyde, to the screen. Much of the other poor effects take place in too dark a composition to make
out what's really going on. This is often a common problem when the director of a special effects blockbuster has himself graduated from a background in special effects production rather
than stepping up from cinematography or screenwriting.
The production itself was allegedly a nightmare shoot. So much
so that director and its main star announced their retirements from their respective fields shortly after the premiere. Says it all really. This is the film responsible for Sean Connery quitting
showbiz.
4/10
