The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Stephen Norrington

Writers (WGA):

Alan Moore (comic books) and
Kevin O'Neill (comic books) ...

Release Date:

11 July 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Prepare for the Extraordinary

Plot:

In an alternate Victorian Age world, a group of famous contemporary fantasy, SF and adventure characters team up on a secret mission.

Plot Keywords:

Captain Nemo | Invisible Man | American | Crushed To Death | Great White Hunter

Awards:

6 nominations

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

Also Known As:

Die Liga der außergewöhnlichen Gentlemen (Germany)
LXG (USA) (promotional abbreviation)
LXG: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (USA) (trailer title)
Liga výjimecných (Czech Republic)
The League (USA) (promotional title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of fantasy violence, language and innuendo.

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA | Germany | Czech Republic | UK

Language:

English | German | Italian

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Malaysia:U | USA:PG-13 (certificate #39870) | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Canada:G (Québec) | Canada:PG | Chile:TE | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Hungary:14 | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG (cut) | Spain:7 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:12A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating) (2003) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Company:

Angry Films

Trivia:

The film's literary characters are Allan Quatermain, introduced in H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" (1885); Mina Harker from Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897); Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde from Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886); Rodney Skinner, who replaced Griffin from H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man" (1897) (due to rights issues, and the character in the comic was given the name Hawley Griffin as the original novel gave no first name); Captain Nemo from Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1870) and "The Mysterious Island" (1874); Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's "The Portrait Of Dorian Gray" (1891); Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876); Ishmael from Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" (1851); and Professor James Moriarty from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Final Problem" (1893). The Fantom's mask design alludes to Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom Of The Opera" (1911). Also, M (a shortening for James Moriarty) is taken from the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Hyde first transforms into Jekyll, before he collapses on the floor his pants are the right size for his Jekyll form. When he gets up, he has to hold up his now Hyde-sized pants. Later, when Jekyll transforms in the engine room, his pants and shoes remain intact even though his Hyde form is so much larger.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Sanderson Reed: [to coachman] Don't... wander... off.

Movie Connections:

References The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Soundtrack:

Promenade by the Sea

Saturday Matinee the LXG way.

Well, I just came out of the theater after having viewed LXG. First off, I do not think it was a bad movie. While i would not recommend it as a must see movie, I certainly didn't find it to be a waste of my time. Sure, some plot points could have been developed more/better, but hey, I didn't walk in expecting Shakespeare. Though I haven't read the graphic novel on which the film is based, I have read that both the graphic novel and the movie take place in a reality alternate from both out history and our literary canons; which means that even though Stoker never wrote Mina as turning into a vampire, it's okay for LXG to take the license to do so. And so on and so forth.

Yes, it would have been nice to see Connery make his character a little more swashbuckling. But maybe that was the writing. I almost loathe watching anything with Peta Wilson, but i found here surprisingly interesting in this movie. In fact, other than Tom Sawyer's character seeming a bit incomprehensible, I think the other Leaguers were pretty interesting. But what was the deal with the bad guy, "M"? I thought his M.O. was even more pointless and less fleshed-out out than any of the flattest Bond villains I've had the displeasure of seeing. It was just a badly written character.

Just a word or two about the Mr. Hyde F/X, the CGI wizards of the Hulk could take a clue. Sure, both characters were CGI rendered, but Mr. Hyde's size carried a credible degree of mass and weight, whereas the Hulk often moved as if mass-less, making him seem too two dimensional.

All in all, I give the movie a respectable 6/10.