The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: July 11, 2003
5.7
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Mixed or average reviews based on 144 Ratings
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User scoreBy dateMost helpful
4
Compi24Nov 28, 2012
Sporadically entertaining with only somewhat passable performances, and an almost comprehensible story.
2 of 2 users found this helpful20
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4
Cinemassacre94Mar 20, 2016
Alan Moore, the genius comic-book writer behind Watchmen, From Hell, and many other titles, has written deeper, more rewarding books than his League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, but it may be his single best idea. Shackling togetherAlan Moore, the genius comic-book writer behind Watchmen, From Hell, and many other titles, has written deeper, more rewarding books than his League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen series, but it may be his single best idea. Shackling together creations from virtually every author who put a stamp on the public imagination of the 19th century, Moore created a proto-superhero team out of such characters as Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man, Mina Harker from Dracula, Allan Quatermain, Dr. Jekyll, and, of course, Mr. Hyde. Without sacrificing the rip-roaring adventures, Moore captured how each hero and villain served to exemplify the anxieties of their age. Addicted and spent, Quatermain looked like the idea of a noble empire on the verge of collapse, while Mr. Hyde was a peek at what lay just beneath the surface of Victorian propriety. Much of that gets lost in this big-screen adaptation, but the script, by veteran comics writer James Dale Robinson, keeps enough of it to make League a cut above standard summer action fare for the first hour or so. Sean Connery leads the league as a spry, cranky Quatermain, enlisted with some reluctance on the eve of the 20th century to stop an evil mastermind from starting a world war by pitting one European nation against another. For a while, the film cleverly pits one century against the next, suggesting that one of the great contributions of the forthcoming technological advancement would be to unleash brutality that the logistics of musket and cannon warfare had previously kept in check. The cleverness of the concept, joined to production design by David Cronenberg vet Carol Spier, keeps League moving for a while, making it all the more disappointing when the problems kick in. Connery and imposing Bollywood vet Naseeruddin Shah (as Nemo) aside, a league of less-than-extraordinary actors fills out the cast, with Shane West particularly grating as token American Tom Sawyer and Stuart Townsend none too beguiling as indestructible fop Dorian Gray. As the film progresses, all its characters' internal conflicts get flattened in the interest of traditional heroics, and even those could be better. Blade director Stephen Norrington, who quarreled with Connery throughout the shoot, doesn't know how to film an action scene that doesn't devolve into chaos: One long, explosion-filled chase through the canals of Venice almost needs footnotes, and the climax drags on so long that all the talk about the upcoming turning of the century seems in danger of becoming irrelevant. League begins as a smart variation on the summer blockbuster, then loses its nerve in a second half sure to satisfy neither cheap-thrill-seekers nor fans of neglected literary oddities. What's a Mr. Hyde rededicated to doing good deeds, except a less-than-incredible hulk?… Expand
0 of 1 users found this helpful01
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5
TyranianFeb 14, 2020
Vaguely entertaining action-fantasy elevated by the presence of Connery but otherwise fairly lame.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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6
moonman1994Jan 28, 2013
When I was a kid this was honesty one of my favorite movies. When I look back at it now with a more critical eye I can defiantly see it's flaws. Yeah it has a silly simplistic plot but most action movies do. It's unique in who it chooses asWhen I was a kid this was honesty one of my favorite movies. When I look back at it now with a more critical eye I can defiantly see it's flaws. Yeah it has a silly simplistic plot but most action movies do. It's unique in who it chooses as heroes and who it chooses as the villain. That's what makes this a fun movie. Who hasn't wanted to see what would happen if the classic horror book characters (Invisible man, Dorian Grey, Dr. Jekyll/ Mr. Hyde) got together and made an X-Men like team. This movie satisfies this curiosity. No it's not a gem. It's not great but it's fun to watch and I enjoy it. Would I say that this movie is "good" per say. Well, maybe not but it's extremely entertaining, has a unique mix of characters and if you like the action movie genre you should enjoy this movie.… Expand
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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6
MATMAug 20, 2021
“The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” has interesting set designs and some fun practical effects. Sometimes it is even hard to tell whether the effect is CG or practical. It is fun to realize that each character is from literature, but“The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” has interesting set designs and some fun practical effects. Sometimes it is even hard to tell whether the effect is CG or practical. It is fun to realize that each character is from literature, but there is a severe lack of good dialogue, so the whole thing mostly comes across as a wasted opportunity. I give it a C, if you've already seen the best, but you insist on watching a movie, try this one out.… Expand
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4
SuperheroMoviesAug 2, 2013
Other than Sean Connery's reliving presence, this film is far from extraordinary, it's indifferently acted, and has a script that's bent on randomness rather than coordination.
0 of 0 users found this helpful00
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5
Kai82Sep 12, 2014
It is an O.K movie with a good cast of characters (Neither good or bad performance). If you knew the source material than the movie is crippled beyond recognition. All the creativity from the source material is gone. For the movie as it is isIt is an O.K movie with a good cast of characters (Neither good or bad performance). If you knew the source material than the movie is crippled beyond recognition. All the creativity from the source material is gone. For the movie as it is is pretty average in everything and worth watching but not remembering.… Expand
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4
MovieMasterEddyApr 10, 2016
The listless movie adaptation of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" has the sweat stains of wasted energy; it's dreary, yet frantic. The film is inspired by Alan Moore's comics of the same name, an imaginative and grisly take onThe listless movie adaptation of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" has the sweat stains of wasted energy; it's dreary, yet frantic. The film is inspired by Alan Moore's comics of the same name, an imaginative and grisly take on Victorian heroes.

Convened to battle a world-threatening evil, the league is a group of tough, forgotten or ignored British loners brought together at the behest of the queen to stop this encroaching danger. In the director Stephen Norrington's film, it's a plot engineered by a villain known as the Fantom to sink Venice, and, yes, eventually conquer the world.

To foil this plot, the British Secret Service agent Sanderson Reed (Tom Goodman-Hill), working under the auspices of the agency head M (Richard Roxburgh), is determined to bring the league of misfit adventurers together. The first summoned is Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), the legendary hunter and explorer who, though well past his prime, is still capable of some world-beating moves himself.

Quatermain serves as president of these immortals, a number that eventually includes the pirate Captain Nemo (Neseeruddin Shah) and an invisible man, Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran, using his voice wickedly well). As the plot thickens, others link up, like Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), a victim of Dracula who now uses blood-sucking prowess for good. She helps, um, seduce to the cause the dandyish Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), whose portrait makes him invulnerable in addition to being impervious to aging — a witty turn that Oscar Wilde apparently had no interest in. The noble, rambunctious and innocent Tom Sawyer (Shane West), now an adult operative for the United States Secret Service, tosses his Stetson in.

Eventually the league tracks down its final inductee, Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng), who stalks the streets of Paris after fleeing London. Wearing him down until he becomes the docile Dr. Jekyll, the league members browbeat him into joining. Aboard Captain Nemo's magnificent blade of a submarine, the Nautilus, the team sets out on its mission to find the Fantom and end his perfidy. Between bouts of bickering and possible treachery, the league must try to combat the Fantom's futuristic inventions — like tanks and flame-throwers — with valor, daring and some of Nemo's own engineering marvels.

The film's screenplay by James Dale Robinson — who toiled in comic books for some time himself — takes pains to get the spirit of Mr. Moore's tale right. It's a formidable task, bringing the comics' dank, coruscating vision to the screen — an abiding interest of the producer Don Murphy. Mr. Murphy was also responsible for a previous Moore adaptation, "From Hell" featuring another Victorian misfit, Jack the Ripper. Mr. Moore's melancholic and apocalyptic stories have a dour, murderous humor drizzling through the depressive clouds. No one in comics is his equal at conjuring the end of the world, and in his stories — from "The Watchmen" and "V for Vendetta" through "League" — the world is awash in brutality and ugliness, deserving of doom. Mr. Moore's pleasure comes in serving up Old Testament balance.

The league of his comics falls into two piles. One group consists of victims, like the haunted, doddering Quatermain, who battles an opium habit and fears that he's too old to do much good, and Mina, whose past with vampires is only alluded to (and who leads the group with her cool British common sense and an implied death wish stemming from her reputation as a fallen woman). Or else, they're sly, amoral psychopaths, like the invisible man, who's introduced raping young women at a girls' school, and Hyde, a calculating man-beast who remembers every slight done to him or his alter ego. The vengeance he finally takes on the invisible man is horrific, a fate that will never make it from the page to the screen. No one is going to follow that story to the letter in making a big-budget action movie.

But Mr. Moore's "League" is a meditation on ambiguity, something large-scale-action spectacles have shied away from since "The Empire Strikes Back" which came so long ago it now actually feels like a legend from Victorian England.

Despite the intentions to be reverent, Mr. Norrington, who did a ruthlessly elegant job directing "Blade" is bound and gagged by the need of "League" to be quick and glib. Somehow, you sense that Fox would be happier calling this picture "The Justice League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." As it stands, the movie is neither gentle nor extraordinary. "El-Sada El-Rigal" may be a better movie than other Connery fantasy-action films like "The Avengers" but then again a glass of muddy water looks good to someone just coming in from the desert.… Expand
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6
amheretojudgeJan 16, 2018
don't wander off..

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen

It definitely is low on logic and a gripping plot but it is high on entertainment which can easily pass on as one of the guilty pleasures section.
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