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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, July 11, 2003

Excellent 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' packs extraordinary punch

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN (PG-13) Three Stars (Good)

An amusing, action-packed summer comic book adventure with a surprising literary bent. Heroes of 19th century literature join forces to save the world. Sean Connery, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Stuart Townsend, Jason Flemying, Shane West, and Tony Curran star for director Stephen Norrington. 20th Century Fox, 112 minutes.

In a summer of slam-bang movies based on comic books, it's refreshing to watch one that suggests that a library card can be as powerful as kryptonite.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is an entertaining special-effects action extravaganza based on an amusing premise: A handful of great characters from adventure and fantasy fiction have banded together to save the world from catastrophe. Finally — a comic book movie for folks like me who preferred Classics Illustrated to Marvel Comics when they were growing up.

Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), the African explorer who discovered King Solomon's mines, leads a bizarre action-hero team that includes the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, vampire Mina Harker, a now-grown Tom Sawyer, Dr. Jekyll (and his dark alter-ego, Mr. Hyde), and the eternally youthful Dorian Gray. Even lesser characters pop up with literary names, like Ishmael and Dante.

"LXG," as fans call it, is an adaptation of the so-called graphic novel (comic book serial) by Alan Moore ("From Hell") and Kevin O'Neill, and concerns the efforts of a notorious madman of 1899 to generate a world war and then profit from weapon sales to the many participants.

The League is called in to corral the villain and his army of warriors and munitions manufacturers. Stephen Norrington ("Blade") directs with a strong eye for fast-moving action, though some of his more intense sequences suffer from overly quick editing and movement. It's not always easy to follow the staging. The settings, though, are remarkable, creating a Victorian Age rendition of fantasy adventure, as well as intensely detailed depictions of London and Venice at the turn of the last century.

One of the film's intriguing contributions is restoring the image of Captain Nemo as a genius of Indian descent. (His rebellion against the ways of the world was aimed primarily at the British Empire.) Not only does a major Indian actor (Naseeruddin Shah) play this Nemo, but also the interior of his ship, the Nautilus, employs rich Indian designs.

Though he'll be 73 next month, Connery is still believable as the robust force at the center of film. (He has a few choice lines about "getting too old for this," but he still manages to get the job done.) And although Connery reportedly didn't get along with director Norrington, and recently bad-mouthed him, there is no indication of on-set problems in the resulting film.

Connery's supporting cast is adequate, though none of the actors ever rises above the already-established qualities that make their literary characters famous. (In other words, they function like chess pieces with specific functions on a very elaborate chessboard. They're sufficient for the game at hand.) Despite the literary heritage, the "LXG's" occasional lapses in logic remind us of its comic book source. (Why, for example, would any team of heroes want to include among their number folks as undependable as the evil, Hulk-like Mr. Hyde and the bloodthirsty Harker? And how does the vampire Harker manage to walk in sunlight. Isn't that a violation of basic vampire rules?)

Still, you have to admire any summer action flick that finds room on its roster for Dorian Gray. Wouldn't it be something now if folks actually read Oscar Wilde's book, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"?

Rated PG-13 for violence, innuendo.