The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen [2003] - DVD (Sean Connery|Stuart Townsend|Shane West - Dir: Stephen Norrington)

The heroes of 1899 are brought to life with the help of some expensive special effects in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From the pages of Victorian literature come Captain Nemo, Dr Jekyll (and his alter ego Mr Hyde), Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, the Invisible Man, Mina Harker (from Dracula), and the hunter Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), all assembled to combat an evil megalomaniac out to conquer the world.

It's hardly an original plot, but perhaps that's fitting for a movie sewn together like Frankenstein's monster. It rushes from one frenetic battle to another, replacing sense with spectacle--Nemo's submarine rising from the water, a warehouse full of zeppelins bursting into flame, Venice collapsing into its own canals. It's flashy, dumb, and completely incoherent. Fans of the original comic book will be disappointed. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen [2003]

K. D. Squire
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, UK
21st September 2008

Good fun and a pleasent way to while away a couple of hours.
This film isnt offensive nor is it the best thing to come out since sliced bread. The story is well written and the cast list is impressive, the graphics arent out of this world but for this picture they are well suited.

ITs a pleasent way to spend a few extra hours, you dont need to concentrate hard, spot the hidden meaning its just a good plain honest fantasy action movie with some of the worlds most infamous characters all in one place.

Kilgore

15th June 2008

Disposable Fun
I saw this film before I read the graphic novels. Taken in isolation, this film is a lot of fun, and I thought it was pretty good visually. The liberties taken with historical reality are all part of the theme. Even before I'd read the novels, however, I felt that one of the drawbacks of the film was the Tom Sawyer character. The character seemed totally out of place, and an obvious device to attract mainstream American audiences. I can appreciate the reality of needing to make the film commercial, but I thought it was done in a ham-fisted way -- in a way, in fact, that does a disservice to American audiences. The result is an uncomfortable mix of quaint and quirky, and X-Men style superhero flick. So, yes, it's a lot of fun, but it isn't quite coherent enough to become a future staple of Christmas viewing.

Reichenbach

15th May 2008

Underappreciated Genius
I haven't read the graphic novel, and although I've heard that it has a very different story line, I certainly want to get my hands on it after seeing this movie. I only wish I could have given it more than five stars. I was very upset to see how badly this film's reviews were, so bad in fact that even fox refused to do a sequel. Much the pity.
A lot of this film will be missed if you just flick it on as an easy film, but if you've got a good eye, and even better - a love of literature from the 1900s, then this film will be one of those ones you'll watch twice in the same day.
Such as the scene when they're catching Hyde in France and they make references to him as a monkey, this is in fact a homage to Poe's brilliant short story 'Murder in the Rough Morgue' and there are a hundred other little things to pick up on in the dialogue and in the scenery.
Two actors in particular need to be applauded - Stuart Townsend (Dorian Grey) and Richard Roxburgh (M.) Townsend baffled me, his accent was wonderful especially considering he's actually Irish, because he was just superb and played all his lines straight so actually believed the character and Roxburgh is, in my opinion, a bit of a genius and once you get passed the fact that he's the Duke from Moulin Rouge, you can really appreciate how hard he worked to nail three different characters with accents.
So, if you're looking for a simple story-line with the best SFX around, don't buy this film, but if you're looking for a good plot, with a good cast and a bag-full of classic literature references, then this film can be bought for about £1 in the new and used section, honestly - you really have nothing to lose!
So open your mind to a film that isn't all about the green-screen and be prepared to have to pay attention, and you may be pleasantly surprised!

Fran
England
28th March 2008

An over egged pudding
The main problem with this, and there are many, is that there are too many characters who could have handled the film on their own. It starts of with Sean Connery in Africa being asked by a terribly English government official to help out with some troubles and if it had stayed that way everything might have been fine with the rest of the film. But then we get the invisible man, a good vampire, Dr Jekyll, Captain Nemo, an indestructible man and then the sugary icing on the cake, Tom Sawyer! Tom Sawyer? Yes, he's there for the Americans because this is a very very very VERY big melting pot with no regard for time, technology, common sense, logic, or the audience.
I learned some things about 1899. Bad guys have tanks not seen until World War 2, they also have machine guns. Zeppelins are commonplace and can be kept in aircraft hangars, ready for use. The good guys have a six-wheel white stretch limousine while the rest of the world make do with rubbish Model T Fords and horse and carriages. The good guys have an inexplicably large luxury hotel-submarine at a time when the only means of underwater travel for anyone else was to hold onto a heavy weight. Some pistols could shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Recorded sound was far more advanced than ever before known, and the canals of Venice are deep enough to allow easy passage for Nemo's colossal submarine.
Honestly, why do writers have to ruin a potentially good film with such complete stupidity? There could have been three or four films here which could have worked in their own right but instead we get a big pudding full of stodge and decoration and nothing to get your teeth into.

xyzzy
Arlington, Texas
6th March 2008

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The year 1899, the world under threat of war. World war. England calls to her hero Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery). Will he head the call? And who else may join to form the league of extraordinary gentlemen

Great concept for a comic book, however never had a chance as a movie.

Where do I start? The story (no plot) had no chance from the start. The graphics were substandard. The dialog was stilted. The fighting was poorly choreographed. The music was forgettable. However the hokey costumes were a quite amusing. I always thought Sean Connery could make any movie work until now.

On the plus side Peta Wilson could be a modern day Emma Peel "The Avengers" (1961 TV series)