Based on the Alan Moore/Kevin O’Neill graphic novel miniseries The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen steps into the realm of comic books turned motion pictures.
Sean Connery stars as Allan Quatermain, the world’s greatest adventurer, who leads a legion comprised of Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), Dracula vampiress Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), an invisible man Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), American secret service agent Sawyer (Shane West), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng). Richard Roxburgh (“Moulin Rouge”) plays the League’s enigmatic recruiter, M.
The League members must travel to Venice, Italy. There, a masked madman known as the Fantom plans to sabotage a conference of world leaders by setting off a domino chain of explosions, sinking the entire city, and the League has 96 hours to stop the madman and his plans of world domination.
LXG maintains action, and the special effects are stellar creating a believable invisible man and offers up the transformation of Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde. The film’s version of Hyde is a nine-foot-tall towering mass of menacing power, and power he offers.
It is hard to say where exactly this movie went wrong but the plot seems to need a bit more intrigue to encourage the audience to cheer on the League to victory. The character development stops once their special powers are revealed but it is hard to actually care what happens to any of them.
Don’t get me wrong, the movie is entertaining but the twists and turns the movie takes didn’t shock me too much because I didn’t really care.
And like the majority of movies now days we are led to believe that a League 2 is not entirely inconceivable. I guess it all depends on the box office draw so we will just have to wait and see.
