A movie like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen could have been the best movie of the year or the 2000s. It looked like a whole bunch of fun as a concept. Based on the graphic novels by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill, it mainly was about public domain characters like Allan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, among others as superheroes. It would’ve been a fun action movie.
But something went seriously wrong. It had Stephen Norrington, the director who turned Blade into a big success in 1998, at the helm. British comic-book writer James Robinson Dale, who revived the Justice Society of America, was penning the screenplay. And it had none other than James Bond in the lead. The recently knighted Sir Sean Connery, who had received a re-emergence in popularity in the late 20th Century, was playing Quartermain, the leader of the League. And it looked like perfect casting as Connery seemed to fit the role of an aging adventurer to a T.
But…there were problems from the start. Reportedly, Connery only took the role because he had said no to Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Architect in The Martix movies. He would’ve made a fortune if he agreed to do LOTR, even though now I can’t see anyone by Sir Ian McKellan in the role. Connery, who is also credited as producer, got a $17 million salary, which was still a high amount for the early 2000s. And Connery had won an Oscar and still had a fanbase over many demographics.
Unfortunately, Connery’s salary was almost a fourth of the $78 million budget. This meant the rest of the cast was mostly character actors and up-and-comers. Peta Wilson, popular from the TV series Le Femme Nikita, was hired to play Mina Harker. Naseeruddin Shah was cast as Nemo. Jason Flemyng was hired to play Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. And Stuart Townsend, who had notoriously been fired as Aragorn shortly before production begin on LOTR, and Shane West were hired to play Dorian Gray and Tom Sawyer respectively. I’m assuming this was to get younger audiences into the theater.
Of course, the inclusion of Sawyer doesn’t make much sense. Most of the characters were from the Victorian era of the third part of the 19th Century. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer had been published in 1876, but Samuel Clemens (writing as Mark Twain) had set the story about 30 years earlier in the 1840s. LXG, as it was used in promotions, was set in 1899. Sawyer is a 20-something as West was in his mid-20s at the time of filming. Sawyer would’ve been almost as old as Connery at the time of filming.
The inclusion of Tom Sawyer, who bonds with Quartermain, takes away from the relationships with the other characters including Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), an invisble man. (Reportedly the production couldn’t get the rights to Hawley Griffin, the character from the H.G. Wells’ book The Invisible Man. Again, it was another problem with production before they even got started.
But even when the cameras began rolling, problems began. A special effects set failed requiring the production to seek another effects shop. Connery and Norrington argued so much on the set they grew to despise each other. Reportedly, Connery demanded Quartermain have a certain style of an elephant gun to carry which was hard to locate. And the production was heavily rushed to make for the summer of 2003 to beat the fall release of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. All in all, it became such a headache for Norrington, who reportedly couldn’t handle the large crews and studio input, that he skipped the opening party.
When asked where Norrington was, Connery quipped: “Check the local asylums!” Needless to say, this would be Norrington’s last directing credit as of this post. Connery, himself, decied he had enough at 73 and never appeared in another movie prior to his death in 2020. And the rest of the cast have continued to act, but the movie didn’t exactly open the doors it should’ve for them. West found success as a main character on TV’s ER and Townsend starred in the revival of Night Stalker, which lasted six weeks in the fall of 2005. Following the failure of him replacing Tom Cruise as Lestat in Queen of the Damned, it’s no surprise he’s appeared in less than stellar movies.
The movie may have made about $180 million at the box office worldwide which was still pretty damn good for 2003, but it also had the misfortune of being released the same week of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which made about $650 million worldwide. Also, of that $180, only about a third $66.5 million was from North American audiences. Pirates was better received by critics and seemed to have the mixture of fun, excitement, and humor that LXG was missing. Critics were harsh to it with most dismissing the movie as one of the worst movies of 2003.
Part of me feels that LXG went through a massive re-edit prior to its release. Both it and Pirates are 110 minutes in length give or take a minute but I feel LXG might have been longer before the studio felt chopping a half hour out would lead to more showings. Moore has infamously refused to talk about the movie/TV adaptations of any of his works, even not allowing his name on the “Based on…” credits for the 2009 Watchmen. O’Neill said the problem was the filmmakers didn’t respect the source material and both Norrington and Connery ignored his advice.
Is it bad? Yes. Like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, it presents an alternative past reality in which tanks, cars, and submarines are fully operational in 1899 and there’s a mastermind The Fantom trying to create a world war and the League is the only one to stop him. It begins way too violent for a movie that’s aimed at young children, despite the PG-13 rating, but it also looks too cheap. If anyone has seen the 1990 Captain America movie with Matt Salinger in the titular role or the Roger Corman-produced Fantastic Four movie, it feels like that.
And the plot just meanders with the characters saying things until action sequences begin without rhyme nor reason. The Fantom is later revealed to be Professor Moriarty (Richard Roxburgh) for anyone who’s never seen a movie before in their life and didn’t see it coming. Also Dorian Gray, who is an immortal as long as he doesn’t look at his portrait, is a spy working for The Fantom/Moriarty to obtain DNA of all the other Leagues to create some type of super army of vampire/Hyde people. Apparently, Mina is a vampire…sorta.
Like I said, it looks like they cut out any real development. Just like Sky Captain, it’s as if the filmmakers said, “Hey, as long as we make it look cool, they won’t care about other things.” And even though he’s invisible, they didn’t really find much to do with Skinner. Even the interior of the Nautilus, Nemo’s submarine looks hilariously too big to be a submarine even for modern times. And most of the sets inside looks, well, like sets built on soundstages. Hyde is CGI and looks it. Other special effects look fake and cheesy. And the movie ends with a set-up that suggests a sequel that never really happened.
It’s also a testament to how Hollywood couldn’t really handle comic book/graphic novel adaptations during this era. Yes, things will be lost in the transition. But considering that X2: X-Men United had opened earlier that year, it shows that it can happen and you can assemble a wide range of characters who work perfectly off each other. Here, it just seems characters are saying their lines. Even worse, a year later, filmmaker Stephen Sommers would understand the assignment and deliver Van Helsing, also co-starring Roxburgh and featuring Jekyll &Hyde. That movie isn’t the best but it has the feel and excitement that LXG was trying to achieve.
It’s a shame because Shah seems to fit his role of Nemo so perfectly. But Townsend seems to offer no mystery to his character from the start. We know he’s a turncoat, but the question is when he will double-cross the League not if he will. West is unfortunately outnumbered and just seems to act like he was Marty McFlyed from The WB. Flemyng is mostly allowed to be just a background extra as Jekyll until he transforms into Hyde. And Wilson probably was meant to be the sex appeal but can’t muster anything but the Token Women Role in these movies.
Worse, this movie is remembered as the one that Connery just decided he had worked half a century and took the money and ran. He would only lend his voice to a few other productions, mostly documentaries, but mainly stay off-screen for the rest of his life. I know a lot of actors want to end on a high note, but they can’t all be Henry Fonda and pull off a perfect role like On Golden Pond. Connery came close with Finding Forrester but he should’ve quit while he was ahead.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 