The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (2003) 3 stars out of 4. Starring Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng, Richard Roxburgh, Max Ryan, Tom Goodman-Hill, David Hemmings and Terry O'Neill. Musicy by Trevor Jones, Based on the comic books by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Screenplay by James Dale Robinson. Directed by Stephen Norrington. Rated PG-13. Running time: 112 minutes.

Just think of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as Victorian era X-Men. The people in marketing at 20th Century Fox are pushing the film that way; that's why the "X" in the LXG logo stands out.

Based on the comic books by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, LXG unites some of the Victorian Age's most famous literary figures: Great white hunter Allan Quatermain; genius inventor Captain Nemo; Dracula vampire Mina Harker; rogue scientist Dr. Jekyll and his brutish alter ego Mr. Hyde; and an invisible man named Rodney Skinner.

Joining their ranks are immortal Dorian Gray and American Secret Service agent Sawyer.

These individuals, borrowed without even a thank you from H. Rider Haggard, Bram Stoker, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, are brought together in 1899 by an official of the British government who calls himself 'M' to battle a masked madman known as the Fantom, whose goal is to initiate a world war, then sell the advanced weaponry he has created to whichever nation or nations can afford his price.

A hidden agenda also drives the Fantom's various machinations.

OK, so originality is not the movie's trump card. But LXG smells of franchise, so it's the characters who are important here. Sell them to an audience and a sequel or two becomes automatic.

The glue binding this feature is Sean Connery, who also serves as one of the executive producers. At 73, Connery -- who plays Quatermain -- shows he still has the panache and the fists to breathe life into an action hero.

Connery is sagelike, steely and wise as the leader of this band of late 19th century mutants and outcasts. Plus the script affords him the opportunity to dash off some pithy one-liners similar to another heroic character he played earlier in his career.

Director Stephen Norrington, working from a script by James Dale Robinson, hardly gives the audience time to catch their breaths. The movie is propelled from one action sequence to another with the speed of Nemo's Nautilus.

Literary touchstones abound throughout LXG, with references to Melville, Dante and Conan Doyle.

If the film contains a drawback, it centers on the editing. At times the cutting is so frantic during action sequences that it's difficult to follow the events.

A handsome cast surrounds Connery. Most notable are Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah as Nemo; Peta Wilson as Mina; Stuart Townsend as Dorian Gray; Shane West as Sawyer; and Jason Flemyng as Jekyll/Hyde.

The special effects behind Hyde are superb. Jekyll's alter ego out-Hulks the Hulk. He is what that big green giant should have been.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is old-fashioned, Saturday matinee fun spotlighting larger-than-life heroes, a masked mystery villain, deadly perils and scientific wonders.

And who knows. The film may inspire one or two or 20 people to pick up copies of King Solomon's Mines, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea or one of the other novels featuring LXG protagonists. Now that would be a heroic feat, indeed.

Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier in Lafayette, IN. He can be reached by e-mail at [email]bbloom@journalandcourier.com[/email] or at [email]bobbloom@iquest.net[/email]. Other reviews by Bloom can be found at [url]www.jconline.com[/url] by clicking on movies. Bloom's reviews also appear on the Web at the Rottentomatoes Web site, [url]www.rottentomatoes.com[/url] and at the Internet Movie Database: [url]http://www.imdb.com/M/reviews_by?Bob+Bloom[/url]

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X-RT-RatingText: 3/4