Friday, July 11, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MOVIE REVIEW: Common Valor

Despite cast of literary heavyweights, 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' devolves into typical summer fare

Desperate to halt a chain of explosions that could sink Venice entirely, Secret Service agent Sawyer (Shane West), left, takes the wheel of Capt. Nemo's latest invention, with adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), center, and Mina Harker (Peta Wilson) riding shotgun. One of the Fantom's masked minions takes on Capt. Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), right, during a furious battle in "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen."

If too many cooks spoil the broth, too many characters can spoil the movie.

Especially when they're some of the most memorable characters in literary history -- and nobody knows what to do with them. (Or, in one key case, even how to spell his name.)

Such is the cruel fate that awaits "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," a handsome but frustratingly shallow adaptation of the comic book series by Alan Moore ("From Hell") and Kevin O'Neill.

A kind of Victorian-era Justice League operating in 1899, when Britannia still ruled the waves -- and much of the land in between -- the League consists of six extraordinary gentlemen and one extraordinary woman, who team up to thwart a masked marauder known as the Fantom. (I told you this movie had spelling problems.)

The Fantom has launched an arms race that threatens to trigger a world war -- with fearsome advanced weaponry that could transform the very nature of armed conflict.

Clearly, this is a time for heroes. Or, more to the point, superheroes.

That explains why a mysterious British intelligence official known only as M ("Moulin Rouge's" Richard Roxburgh) recruits some renowned figures to join the League and preserve world peace.

His choice for fearless leader: author H. Rider Haggard's legendary adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), although the movie can't make up its mind (or what passes for one) whether his last name is Quatermain or Quartermain. (We'll go with Haggard's original, Quatermain.)

A veritable 19th-century Indiana Jones, Quatermain has soured on derring-do and spends his days in a placid corner of a Nairobi club. But when a deadly ambush disrupts his solitude, the two-fisted hunter picks up his safari gun and heads to London to meet his comrades in arms.

Jules Verne's Captain Nemo ("Monsoon Wedding's" Naseeruddin Shah) is renowned as a scientist, engineer, inventor -- and, some say, traitor -- for his efforts to free India from Britain's imperial grasp. Oscar Wilde's elegant Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) boasts a remarkable ability to avert death -- thanks to a portrait that reflects every evil deed he's ever done. Bram Stoker's Mina Harker (Peta Wilson, of television's "La Femme Nikita") had a close encounter with a Transylvanian count named Dracula, which transformed her from vampire-hunter to vampire.

Also joining the crusade: Robert Louis Stevenson's gentle Dr. Henry Jekyll ("Snatch's" Jason Flemyng), who's not always strong enough to resist the dark allure of his hulking alter ego, Mr. Edward Hyde; Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), a nimble thief who's stolen a secret invisibility formula from its creator, Dr. Hawley Griffin, alias H.G. Wells' "Invisible Man"; and a brash young American named Sawyer (Shane West), a Secret Service agent whose adventures have been recounted by another extraordinary gentleman known by the nom de plume Mark Twain.

Despite this all-star lineup of fictional giants, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" hardly does anything extraordinary with any of them.

It's too busy worrying about being a big, bombastic summer blockbuster to bother.

Rather than explore potential clashes between such literary titans -- raging ids Gray and Hyde comparing notes, for example, or oppressed colonial subject Nemo debating "great white hunter" Quatermain -- "League" strands its characters in a series of elaborate but by-the-numbers action sequences that prove short on brain power and long on blasting powder. Only a surrogate father-son relationship between Quatermain and Sawyer makes a stab at emotional depth.

Even worse, screenwriter James Dale Robinson (who wrote comic books before turning to scripts) also manages to make these extraordinary individuals seem -- dare we say it? -- a trifle boring.

Moore and O'Neill's original comics gave the League members some intriguing (and, in some cases, downright kinky) quirks, from Quatermain's opium addiction to Nemo's megalomania. But Robinson's screenplay smooths over such idiosyncracies, transforming distinctive individuals into almost generic superheroes.

Finally, Robinson lacks a flair for the kind of florid, tongue-in-cheek dialogue that might have given the League's exploits a welcome dash of campy fun. (For an instructive contrast, catch "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" and note the difference actual character development and clever repartee can make when it comes to a movie's overall success.)

Stuck with "League's" clunky script, effects expert-turned-director Stephen Norrington ("Blade") can't do much more than gun the engines and forge ahead, lumbering from one explosive set piece to another.

In the process, there's plenty of time to marvel at production designer Carol Spier's inventive sets, from the opulent interior of Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus, to re-creations of turn-of-the-century London, Paris and Venice. (Turn of the 20th century, that is.)

As for the League's human element, Connery's commanding presence and decades of onscreen heroism bring a welcome -- and much-needed resonance -- to his role as League leader.

Much of it has to do with the fact that Connery's an old-fashioned movie hero. Alas, "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" remains a resolutely newfangled movie -- which renders it far from extraordinary indeed.