“The League” reinvents some classic adventure characters with Hollywood juice.
The opening of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” reveals it’s not exactly a people movie: A bunch of cops watch a vicious tank roll through Victorian London and when it crushes one of them, his fellow bobbies scatter without bothering to check on him.
“League” is about looking cool. It’s a triumph of art direction, featuring the destruction of one great-looking set after another: buildings toppling along a Venetian canal, Capt. Nemo’s gorgeously baroque Atlantis, a posh hangout in Africa, the rooftops of Paris with the Eiffel Tower standing proudly in the background. Each vista is more stunning than the last, and in some of the shots, the filmmakers give the images a slightly two-dimensional appearance, as if to remind us that “League” is ripped from a comic book, where looking good is everything.
Set in 1899, “League” envisions a guy called M (Richard Roxburgh, the humiliated duke from “Moulin Rouge”) who assembles a team of superheroes to stave off war. True, the superheroes are fictional, but they’re a solid bunch: hunter Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery, again taking orders from someone named M), Tom Sawyer (whose unique skills are unclear, except that he throws a bone to American moviegoers), indestructible Dorian Gray, scientist-with-a-secret Mina Harker, crafty/strong Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Nemo and an invisible pickpocket named Skinner.
The guys who created the comics on which “League” is based obviously love the old-fashioned adventures of Mark Twain, Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and “League” reinvents them, juicing up the special effects to appeal to a new audience.
Director Stephen Norrington gets that. Instead of trying to explain away the mysteries (as “The Hulk” boringly did), Norrington understands comic books don’t have to conform to human logic because they have their own logic.
And, cleverly, instead of spreading one story over the course of the film, Norrington’s ripping yarn has about five climaxes – it’s as if we’re “reading” issues 1-5 of an action-packed comic series.
You can see how this might have led to Norrington and Connery’s acknowledged dislike of each other. So much time is spent on exciting setpieces and impressive backdrops there’s no room for characterization.
An icon and an Oscar winner, Connery undoubtedly rankled at the realization that he’s little more than an extraordinary piece of scenery.
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THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN
3 stars
Directed by: Stephen Norrington
Starring: Sean Connery, Richard Roxburgh
Rated: PG-13, for substantial – and sometimes graphic – violence
SHOULD YOU GO? It’s improbable but, hey, it’s a comic book. Deal.
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(c) 2003, Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.).
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AP-NY-07-10-03 0609EDT
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