Heroes of Another Kind
Literary League Hijacks History

The idea behind the new Sean Connery action film is a mind-bender. It supposes that the characters that we know from literature are not fictional at all, but based on real people. Then it supposes that, in Victorian England, some of those heroic personas are called together to save the Empire. Some are true heroes, others are mere rogues, and some are monsters. Think of it as the X-Men of the 1880s.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is the brainchild of Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill who created the six-part graphic novel back in the 1990s. While Moore and O'Neill's vision of the league was darker and sexier, the version that made it to the screen is more or less of the same spirit, if not the same story. As the story begins, a madman known as The Phantom is using high tech weapons and vehicles in an apparent bid to take over the world. As a result, Europe stands on the brink of war.

To stop the Phantom, the enigmatic M (Richard Roxburgh) brings together a motley crew of heroes and anti-heroes including Alan Quartermain (Connery), a hunter; the genius inventor and isolationist Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah); Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), a vampire; and Rodney Skinner, an invisible man (Tony Curran). The first act of the League is to entice a few more individuals to join, including the immortal Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) and Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) with his hulkish other half, Mr. Hyde. Once the group is assembled, including the addition of an American spy named Tom Sawyer (Shane West), the league sets off in Nemo's submarine, The Nautilus, to prevent a bombing in Venice.

And it is at this point that the film completely falls apart. I'm not saying that the League was destined for greatness. Moore's comic book is at best a niche market. Yet, the story Moore wrote was consistent in both its story and its motif. The film fails on both these counts with plot holes, inconsistencies, and a failure to create a sense of time and place. Tom Sawyer is a blatant attempt to create a recognizable character for illiterate American audiences, and doesn't fit within the framework of the story at all. Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray (while not in the comic book) at least fits within the British framework of the story.

The eye-candy that the story provides makes it a pleasing diversion for summer moviegoers, but nothing more. The League tries too hard to be an action movie while forgetting the literary (and dark) roots of the characters. While Quartermain is a true hero, the filmmakers seem to forget that vampires, the Invisible Man, and Mr. Hyde are monsters. Nemo, sadly, is treated as little more than a chauffeur, providing transportation for the League. He never commands the majesty that his character brings to Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

While the ending does provide a bit of a twist when the Phantom's true identity is revealed, it is ultimately unfulfilling. The film's conclusion is horribly unfitting, and smacks of Hollywood sequelizing.

For those looking for a mild action film of a different flavor than the normal summer smashes, I give The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen a tentative recommendation. Fans of the comic will be disappointed, as will fans of Connery, literature, and good filmmaking in general.

MY RATING: 5 out of 10.

RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 110 min.