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Movie: The League of Extraordinary Gentleman Director: Stephen Norrington Actors: Sean Connery, Tony Curran, Naseeruddin Shah, Stuart Townsend, Shane West, Peta Wilson, Jason Flemyng |
The League of Extraordinary Gentleman is based on a comic book. The story revolves around a group of legendary characters brought together to fight evil. No buffed up youngsters in spandex and red capes but some other weirdos in outrageous costumes set in the era of the Industrial Revolution. The characters are lead by the adventurer Allan Quartermain played by Sean Connery, former secret agent James Bond as a superhero, now that's interesting!
The story in a nutshell:
Allan Quartermain finds himself in a new and dangerous mission to save the world. He joins a group of extraordinary gentleman (and 1 woman) handpicked by the Queen herself. The Invisible Man (Tony Curran), Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), The Immortal (Stuart Townsend), Tom Sawyer (Shane West), Vampyre (Peta Wilson ) and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng) all must fight the madman The Fantom who tries to ignite a world war.
The fun things about this movie are the unusual characters set in a totally different world. The scope of LXG is enormous with huge sets and impressive special effects. The ship of Captain Nemo is something I've never seen before and the car chase sequence in Venice is fantastic. Lots of credit goes to the production designer Carol Spier who turns LXG into a superhero period piece. Director Stephen Norrington proved his stylish vision in Blade. Norrington lets it all hang out in LXG and takes full advantage of the big budget he gets to make this film. Casting Sean Connery (who also produced the movie) in an action adventurer was a nice surprise. Okay, Connery kicked ass in The Rock but that was a couple of years ago, he's getting pretty old now (70+). But he did it again, it's really amazing to see him fighting off a bunch of bad guys in the opening sequence. He still kicks some serious ass and wise cracks in between with his charming "acsjent." The other characters are fun to watch. I loved the performance of Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo and Jason Flemyng as Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, but don't expect some deep character developments. LXG's flaw is that it's just a tiny bit over the top. There's sometimes too much action going on that almost causes an overkill and doesn't help out the story but in the end it's a fun and entertaining ride.
What makes LXG worth the visit is the extraordinary design, setpieces, it's something you absolutely haven't seen before and of course Mr. Connery himself as one of the greatest superhero's of the ancient generation.
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Written by Reggy 19/08/03
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