The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)
The Best of the Best have been assembled to battle a greater evil than had ever been previously existed. The Phantom has been destroying the world and only the League can stop them. But there is a traitor in their midst and the League may fail before the even get started.
Overall-Comics: I thought it only appropriate to analyze this film by comparing it to the comic book, which came first. The original premise of the story was an alternate world in 1899 with the British Government assembling the best of the best to foil the evils that were cropping up. The original members: Mina Murray of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula;" Captain Nemo from Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea;" Allan Quatermain, the hero of H. Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines;" Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde, from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde;" Dr. Hawley Griffin, the "Invisible Man" from the 1897 novel by H.G. Wells. They were lead by Campion Bond (Bond is an original creation likely an homage to Margery Allingham's Albert Campion and Ian Fleming's James Bond) and were under the direction of M (initially believed to be Mycroft Holmes (Sherlock’s brother) and later found out to be Prof. James Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes nemesis). The initial villain was Fu Manchu. A portrait seen in the background of one shot appears to be of a previous League, and corresponds to a similar portrait seen in the comic. 
The 1780's League consists of: Dr. Syn, pirate and highwayman of "Dr. Syn" by Russell Thorndike; Sir and Lady Blakeney, the "Scarlett Pimpernel;" Natty Bumpo, aka the Deerslayer, hero of "Last of the Mohicans"; Lemuel Gulliver, of "Gulliver's Travels"; Fanny Hill, of "Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" (she is a 1740's London Prostitute for the wealthy) Overall-Movie: Ok, I'll admit this isn't a horror film...but because it has horror characters, I felt it was appropriate. Now that you’ve been given the above history of the comic books let's just admit that Tom Sawyer, Ishmael & Dorian Gray were all additions from the movie-makers. Tom Sawyer was added solely to appeal to U.S. audiences because frankly, all the original characters are either British or created by a British writer. So the addition of “The Phantom of the Opera” was also to confuse audiences from discovering the real bad guy. The fact is, the film is just not very good. Like with Will Smith's film “Wild Wild West,” the audience is not gonna buy the idea that these “heroes” have technology more advanced than actually existed at the time. Nemo’s sub & automobile just aren’t believable. However the comic book does indicate an “alternate universe” which the film never hints at. I think the bottom line was that the film never really explained anything about the origins of “The League” so the audience, unless they were comic book fans, just wasn’t gonna get the film. In addition, the additions of Tom Sawyer and such, as well as the deleted scenes hinting to Huck Finn, made the story just outrageous campy. Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Ishmael? These are simply just "people," not even great adventurers. Dorian Gray? At what point was he ever a good guy? Now I can buy Quatermain and once you agree with the comic writers that the character of Dracula would have overshadowed everyone but still wanted a living vampire and grabbed Mina, I am slightly ok with the team. But Ishmael is portrayed as a servant (and he wasn’t that good in “Moby Dick”) and Mr. Hyde is a giant gorilla. Oh and since the filmmakers couldn’t get the rights to Griffin’s name as "The Invisible Man," they renamed him Skinner and put out the story “he stole the invisibility fluid from someone.” So the film wasn’t starting off on a good foot when you had to add lesser characters and make stuff up to cover up behind the scenes issues. Ok, so given all that, the film still fails to explain much but the deleted scenes help to get us back to somewhat of a cohesive story. I think a major problem was they didn’t give us enough background on the various team members ahead of time, relying on the audience having read the stories to know their backgrounds. Not a good idea because frankly, not even I have read the Quatermain stuff although I did watch the 2 1980’s films. Many friends of mine didn’t know the background of Dorian Gray and again, how could anyone confuse him as a good guy. I still say that Tom Sawyer ruined any legitimacy this film had. That was such a terrific mistake that the film’s legitimacy went downhill from the moment he showed up. In addition, the fact is that they basically rewrote the original story, adding and subtracting characters as they wished. And by the way, Mina Harker was the leader in the comic, not Quatermain. I've added links above to our major characters in case you needed background on them. As I said...you really may have no idea who some of these characters are...it is an internet generation, not a book-reading one! Comparison: Van Helsing meets Avengers |
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