The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Starring: Sean Connery, Peta Wilson, Stuart Townsend, Shane West
Directed by: Stephen Norrington
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action
2003

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: In an alternate universe, in 1899, the world's greatest heroes are brought together to stop a world war from brewing. The heroes include adventurer Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery), Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), and Tom Sawyer (Shane West).

Review:

Tim: This film is interesting enough to see some of literature's greatest heroes together at the same time on the big screen. It is important, however, to be familiar with each of the characters to fully enjoy the movie, however. Sean Connery plays Allan Quartermain, which is a great casting job. The rest of the group includes Captain Nemo from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea; The Invisible Man; Stuart Townsend as Dorian Gray from Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray(great book by the way- you should read it!); Mina Harker from Dracula; Shane West as Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, from the book of the same name.

This really is a "What if?" movie. What if all these great characters were together to fight evil? That is a very good idea and I like the attempt to bring them all together. It honestly is interesting to see each of these literary heroes interacting with each other and the film does a good job with that. Sadly, the storyline is unoriginal and unexciting and the movie is ridiculous.

Sean Connery gives a good performance, but has some horrible lines ("That was naughty...." kill me now, please). Shane West is surprisingly good as Tom Sawyer. I also enjoyed Stuart Townsend as Dorian Gray. Perhaps better than anyone else, he captured exactly what his character was like.

Besides the characters, this film offers very little. There's some tired plot about a madman hoping for global domination and our heroes are the only ones who can stop them. There is betrayal within the League, etc. etc. and on and on. The plot is not that exciting at all. The film isn't done very well. If you'd like to see some terrific characters from books on screen together, see this film. If not, pass this one up.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Bram Stoker's Dracula, most comic book movies, Entrapment