Reviews: Film

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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Cast: Sean Connery .... Allan Quatermain Naseeruddin Shah .... Captain Nemo Peta Wilson .... Mina Harker Tony Curran .... Rodney Skinner (The Invisible Man) Stuart Townsend .... Dorian Gray Shane West .... Tom Sawyer Jason Flemyng .... Dr. Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde Richard Roxburgh .... M Max Ryan .... Dante Tom Goodman-Hill .... Sanderson Reed David Hemmings .... Nigel Terry O'Neill .... Ishmael Rudolf Pellar .... Draper Robert Willox .... Constable Dunning Robert Orr .... Running Officer

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen:
I went to the cinema with the hope of seeing ‘Kill Bill’. This was sold out, so I entered the auditorium to ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen’ as a blank canvas. I was interested in seeing it as I had heard of some of the characters; Jekyll and Hyde, Dracula’s bride, the Invisible Man, I had even heard of Dorian Gray but I knew nothing about them in detail. They intrigued me as they were such English heroes, so I was ready for some hard-core action scenes held together with an amazing plot.

I was, however, to be disappointed. Although ‘The League of Extraordinary Gentleman’ began well, with Sean Connery not acting his age in the slightest and kicking some serious bad guy butt, the action towards the end fizzled out and dwindled into the exceptionally unrealistic. This is not necessarily a bad thing, action is not meant to be believable, or we would all try climbing up walls and it could lead to some nasty accidents. Nevertheless the action in this film was totally outrageous, unbelievable and not even fun to watch. As viewers we may have been persuaded that the car chase actually happened in 18th century London, as the car was a creation of Captain Nemo. However, being a simple girl, I had never heard of him, and the film gave me no help at all. Although, maybe an explanation of the characters may have extended the film, I think it was necessary, as many others in the audience felt, or looked to be as confused as I was. The lack of background information has, nonetheless, encouraged me to read up on the characters, so maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all.

Aside from the Madame Tussauds type action and the lack of any kind of outside knowledge, there is one major bone of contention I have with this film. This is that apart from one character the ‘extraordinary gentlemen’ are taken from British myths. This is not the problem. The movie was intended to be a gritty 18th century drama, alike to ‘From Hell’ or others of the sort. However, the director (Stephen Norrington) decided a young, American face was needed and plonked a handsome CIA officer smack, bang in the middle. Why? Super Nintendo Sawyer, or whatever his name was, created a forced love interest with the 500-year-old Bride of Dracula, and satisfied America’s evident hero complex. Throughout the film Sean Connery or his character Alan Quartermain, an experienced legend of a fighter, is the main attraction, fighting of hoards of the enemy. Subsequently, he become tired and weary of the being a hero and at the end of the film this combating ‘legend’ ends up being butchered by the bad guy, another legend I have never heard of. The fresh-faced American then proceeds to save Quartermain’s life, kill the enemy and save the day. Well, yay for America while the Britain’s go home unsuccessful.

The idea behind this film is fantastic and really appealed to me, it could have been so good. But an ending wherein these ‘extraordinary gentlemen’ first bury their idol and friend then respond to Captain Nemo’s offer of a gentle cruise on his ‘Sword of the Sea’, with ‘Ah, okay then, might as well’, does not fit the bill. It could have been a spectacular movie, it could have been so good, and it just wasn’t.

© Erin Burns November 2003
First Year Student in Creative Arts at Portsmouth University
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