The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a Big Budget Bore
West Life News (7/23/03)
Review by: Terri Clark
Good or bad, I generally like movies with Sean Connery. Until now. Even he
couldn't save "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" from being
extraordinarily bad.
The premise held promise, but the execution was shallow. Director Stephen
Norrington relied too heavily on inferior special effects and not enough on
characterization and plot.
Based on the comic books by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, the story is
centered
around Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), a famed adventurer who has retired to
the wilds of Africa. Her Majesty's British Government calls him back into duty
in order to stop an impending world war that's being instigated by a
mysterious
menace referred to as The Fantom. This masked madman intends to destroy
civilization by attacking a conference of world leaders. Quatermain has nine
hours to stop the mass execution. He'll attempt the rescue with the aid of The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (and one woman) which is comprised of the
pirate, Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), the vampiress, Mina Harker (Peta
Wilson), the invisible man, Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), the immortal and
indestructible, Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), the brash American Secret
Service Agent, Tom Sawyer (Shane West) and the dual personalities of Dr.
Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng). Together these singular individuals form a
unique
super hero squad.
A novel concept in more ways than one. Unfortunately, the film doesn't focus
enough on these powerful personas and their interactions among each other.
Instead it focuses on frenetic fight sequences, that are difficult to follow
because of their quick cuts from character to character, and shoddy special
effects that often look unintentionally cartoonish. The largest of which is
Mr.
Hyde. He's a cartoon cretin. Moviegoer's criticized "The Hulk" for his
unrealistic appearance, but Mr. Hyde's animation is laughably bad.
In fact, laughably bad might best describe this big budget bore. In a long
line
of comic book movies "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is quite
simply...out of its league.
MOVIE FACTS
Title: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Grade: D
Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy violence, language and
innuendo.
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Director: Stephen Norrington
Cast: Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Tony Curran, Stuart
Townsend, Shane West, Jason Flemyng
Time:110 minutes
Genre: action/adventure/sci-fi/thriller
Terri Clark (
TerriClark4@aol.com) is a freelance movie critic. She writes
reviews for West Life News, Moviefone.com and the Apollo Guide.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/author-5505/
==========
X-RAMR-ID: 35498
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1187430
X-RT-TitleID: 1123784
X-RT-SourceID: 1446
X-RT-AuthorID: 5505
X-RT-RatingText: D
NOTE: This review was posted on the usenet
to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup.
Mooviees.com accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review.
Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Movie Database
In Theaters
