The league of extraordinary gentlemen

Year of release : 2003

Run time : 1h50m

Genre : Action / Fantasy / Steampunk / Dieselpunk

Cast : Sean Connery, Peta Wilson, Shane West, Stuart Townsend, Jason Flemyng

The superhero movie is based on some characters from the first volume of the comic book series of the same name by author Alan Moore and illustrator Kevin O'Neill, although apparently has nothing to do with the comics.

The year is 1899, and a terr0rist organization led by Fantom robs the Bank of England, getting Leonardo da Vinci's Venice blueprints, kidnaps German scientists and destroys a Zeppelin factory. This creates problems between the German and the British empire who threaten with war thinking each other to blame for the other one's problems.

A British emissary travels to Kenya to talk to Allan Quatermain, a hunter and adventurer. He almost refuses, until assassins sent to k1ll him k1ll his decoy and try to k1ll him too.

The emissary's boss, M, tells him Fantom wants to profit from a world war, and is about to attack the world leaders at a Venice conference which will take place within a few days.

Trying to stop this from happening, M, creates "The league of extraordinary gentlemen" recruiting also vampire scientist Mina Harker, Captain Nemo, and the invisible man Rodney Skinner.

They travel to London to ask Dorian Gray to join them, and although at first he refuses, he agrees to help after his home is attacked. US Secret Service agent Tom Sawyer disguised as one of the members of the Fantom's group helps the League against the attack.

Tom joins them too, and they all travel to Paris where they capture Hyde who was terrorizing the city. Turning back into doctor Jekyll, he agrees to be part of their League.

Once on board of the Nautilus, they suspect they have a mole, as they found camera flash powder and one of doctor Jekyll's vials are missing, and think it's Skinner, as he is nowhere to be found.

 

The movie was a visual feast. I loved the world they created, the architecture, the pastiche and crossovers. Everything on screen was beautiful, the interior design, the clothes...the problem was with the plot which didn't quite make sense..I found it ridiculous and cliched.

Although almost 2 hours long it still feels the characters have no depth, and not much time is spent on character build. They do things just because they can. Allan does take a liking to Tom, in whom he probably sees his dead son.

Mina appears with red hair then brown, straight hair, then curly, to have it straight in the same scene again! Did they re-shoot the scenes and forgot about the looks?!

At the end of the movie SPOILER they seem to revive Alan, I guess anticipating a sequel. I don't like it when they revive characters as you can't fear for their safety, as they are invincible!

The visual effects were great, and still stand the test of time, 22 years later!

The acting was fine.

The soundtrack was Ok, nothing special.

The movie received negative reviews, but was a success, grossing 179 million dollars at the box office, against a budget of 78 million.

Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a B-.

Sean Connery earned 17 million dollars for playing in the movie.

The movie was nominated for 3 Saturn Awards, for Best Fantasy Film, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Costume Design.

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link :

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9gkee8

Rating : Could have been a contender !