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THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN Send This Review to a Friend
The gentlemen may or may not be extraordinary but the picture is merely another in the run of senseless action extravaganzas loaded with special effects wasted on harebrained material. Billy Wilder, frustrated at not being able to make more pictures, once complained to me that all producers then wanted was a combination of car crashes and explosions. That was tame stuff compared to the sort of mayhem mercilessly unleashed in this film directed by Stephen Norrington from a screenplay by James Dale Robinson based on comic books by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Excuse me--the term is graphic novels.
The plot involves yet another scheme to take over the world, this time in 1899 by a gang producing weaponry of as yet unheard of power--like a tank that can crash through walls. For a few moments the setup looks promising when we meet Sean Connery as Allan Quatermain, once a great adventurer but now opting for peace and quiet in Africa. When the evil ones invade his turf, he agrees to come aboard for an all out onslaught against the plotters. Soon even Sean Connery, aged a long way from his Bond days, looks ridiculous making like an action hero.
The bunch we meet is a compendium of characters from assorted sources. There are Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), who lives on, Mina Harker (Peta Wilson) a vampire from Dracula days, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng)--you get the idea. Also in the contingent are Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah) and Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), an invisible man.
Most of the all too visible film is a binge of just about every kind of violence imaginable--explosions, firepower, hand-to-hand combat, undersea battling and fighting between gigantic muscle-bound hulks. It makes a little vampire neck biting seem quaint. Apart form the odd moments of comic relief, the total effect is numbing. A 20th Century Fox release.
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