League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The
1/2

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a difficult movie to review. The plot is unoriginal and unimpressive, and most of the characters are woefully underdeveloped. But, for what it's worth, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is decent summer fare. There have been better movies released this summer, but no harm has been done with the release of this one.

I'm not familiar with the comic book (sorry - graphic novel) on which The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is based, so I can't judge how faithful it is to the source material. I have a feeling fans of the comic will be pleased with the final result, but I don't know for sure. And, judging by the as-of-yet lukewarm response the more talky, and far superior Hulk has been getting, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen will probably make a decent amount of money at the box office, as it is everything Hulk is not.

The plot of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is pure comic book. It's 1899, and a cookie cutter villain called the Phantom is attempting to start a world war. The British government approaches legendary adventurer Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery) to ask for help in averting the disaster. An agent of the British government, "M" (Richard Roxburgh), gets together the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a group of men (and one woman) with roots in modern fiction: Moby Dick's Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah); Dracula's vampiric Mina Harker (Peta Wilson); Oscar Wilde's immortal Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), who just happens to have a portrait missing; the Invisible Man, Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran); an older Tom Sawyer (Shane West); and Dr. Jekyll and the Hulk-ish Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng). Together, they set out to put a stop to the Phantom's nefarious plans.

Artistically, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is excellent. The bleak landscape of London is wonderfully realized, and the set and costume design is good almost without exception. Unfortunately, the special effects can't match up with the sets. Blue screen work is blatantly obvious, and Dr. Jekyll's transformation into Dr. Hyde (and Hyde's transformation back) is laughably bad. In an ill-concieved attempt to reduce the use of special effects, Stephen Norrington has chosen to use short flashes of Dr. Jekyll in various stages of transformation. Unfortunately, the makeup is so fake-looking, that each stage of the transformation is just rediculous. Once Dr. Jekyll becomes Dr. Hyde, the effects are not exemplary, but not terrible either. Anyway, I cannot imagine anyone lamenting the Hulk's appearance after seeing this.

The idea of using literary characters is interesting, but, outside of two or three characters, none of them are developed well at all. Only Quartermain is fully realized. Dorian Gray, Mina Harker, and Tom Sawyer are all intriguing characters, and are all developed reasonably, but the rest of the cast is just thrown in with a few minutes of introduction, and that's it. Captain Nemo in particular has a backstory that I wish would have been more fully developed.

The actors, for the most part, get the job done. Only Connery and Townsend rise above the rest of the cast. Connery is, well, Connery - charismatic and fun to be around. Townsend is the best in the film, and his Dorian Gray is a perfect example of a cocky English gentleman. None of the rest of the cast is particularly notable.

But I guess the real question is, do I recommend The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, or not? Well, that's a hard question to answer. When the film works, it works quite well, but the rest is typical and underwhelming. So I'll say this: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen shouldn't be your first choice for an afternoon movie, but if you want some escapist entertainment, and you've already seen the other, better options this summer, then go. If you don't expect a lot, this League is deserving of a visit to the local multiplex, if you don't have to drive too far.

© 2003 Matt Nolle