The film of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) is not a faithful adaptation of the comic. This is not necessarily a bad thing, of course. A work that is too faithful can often be boring and redundant. In the case of LXG, the film is entirely different except in that it has several of the same characters, and a villain intent on world domination. No matter: I will try to judge the film on its own merits, although I am a fan of the comic and I think a more faithful adaptation would have worked better.

It started well, though. The introductory sequence, and the cut to Africa with Alan Quatermain had promise. The presence of Sean Connery has definitely warped the character (and for that matter, the entire film) but the changes, at least at the beginning, are intriguing: Quatermain as mentor, an old lion brought back to defend the Empire again. However, it rapidly becomes clear that retirement has not changed Quatermain in the slightest. There is no sign that his shooting skills are rusty, that his fitness is below par, that his instincts are anything but finely honed. The one concession to his retirement is that he now has to wear glasses. My first change to LXG would be to make Quatermain, at the very least, out of practice, less certain, more reflective – and for him to regain these things as he goes along. All his friends in the Club in Africa are shot or killed in an explosion. He should show, at the very least, sorrow that more people have been killed because of him. Later, he reveals that his son was killed in a mission. This is a perfect excuse for him to show hesitancy, doubt, or fear in subsequent encounters.

As it is, his belligerence becomes irritating, especially as Quatermain is introduced to M, the Invisible Man, Mina Harker, and Captain Nemo. We have come to expect that all of Sean Connery’s characters will be commanding and bellicose – that’s his schtick – but it should have been reined in. It’s not nearly as charming as they appear to think, and it weakens the other characters, especially Nemo and Harker, who, deprived of her leadership role, is required to become an actual vampire to make up for it.

Before I look at the characters in more depth, though, I’d like to address the overall plot. M is the Phantom, a war profiteer who kidnaps scientists and makes them develop new weapons that he will then sell to governments. He also provokes these governments towards war. He assembles the League so that he can obtain samples of Dr Jeckyl’s formula, Harker’s blood, the Invisible Man’s skin, and blueprints of Nemo’s submarine and technologies. He needs the League initially so that they can capture Hyde – after that, and all the samples/blueprints have been acquired, they are surplus to requirements.

I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about plots making sense. I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Most of the time, nonsense plots can be turned into plots that survive re-examination without making them less enjoyable to watch the first time around. The plot of LXG is one of these nonsense plots. Why does M pit the League against his own plot? Why not send them against something else that is threatening the Empire? That way he could avoid losing any of his (bizarrely loyal) followers, and not put himself into any danger either. This could make a lot more sense if M was not the Phantom – at first. Perhaps M genuinely wants to defeat the Phantom, not to stop the threat to the Empire, but to take his place. Why not, after all? The Phantom has a mask on all the time; and with the help of the League, it should be possible for M to discover enough about his operations to kill him and take his place. The League might apparently kill the Phantom part way through the film, only to have him improbably pop up later. In fact, they really did kill the Phantom, but by the second part, M has taken his place. This would require few changes to the plot. Perhaps the Invisible Man might be sent on some reconnaissance missions to discover more about the Phantom – his passwords, etc. Once M discovers that the Phantom’s followers are loyal due to some kind of drug, he can easily take over, and dispose of the League.

The ideal location for the killing of the original Phantom would be in Venice, of course. Here, we can dispose of the silliness of the city collapsing, the submarine in the canals, and so on. As a set piece, it was not nearly spectacular enough to justify its silliness. Instead, we should see the delegates for this peace conference, and the fact that they are already being heavily guarded; the League should have time to search for the assassins, going through the canals in mini-submarines and diving gear, and if there is to be any chase in Venice it should be by water, not by car!

Much as I liked the car – it was very nicely designed, as were all Nemo’s inventions – it didn’t fit there. In fact, it didn’t even fit in London, really. There were a number of inventions, like the car and the automatic machine guns, that might have been better saved until later on in the film. One of the pleasures of seeing a film set in earlier centuries is seeing swords still being relevant, and of martial arts not being absolutely pointless. Throughout the film, we could see the transition to modern warfare taking place. Machine guns should be a spectacular shock, not just another weapon with which to miss the good guys. Quatermain and Nemo should be disgusted by this mechanical change in warfare, while Sawyer immediately grabs one and starts spraying from the hip, not hitting a single bad guy. The Invisible Man should be fearing for his life, when the bad guys can just point and spray bullets everywhere. Harker (and Grey, if he hadn’t turned traitor yet) could protect the others with their bodies.

So, on to the characters. The father/son relationship between Quatermain and Sawyer was horribly rushed and amateurish. The revelation that Quatermain had a dead son should have come a great deal later, as an explanation of Quatermain’s behavior – his initial discomfort with Sawyer (which needs to be added), and his later nannying (likewise). Harker was fine, if lacking in presence due to the expanded Quatermain role. When she bit one of the bad guys in an early fight, there was some potential to explore her dark side, which unfortunately never goes anywhere. She is a vampire, so perhaps she enjoys this mission because she can drink the blood of people who really deserve it. And Sawyer’s attraction to her could be that much more dangerous if she found his young blood a temptation. Briefly returning to the plot, the ending promised that each of the characters would meet modified bad guys with their abilities – we have a second invisible man, and a second Hyde, but no vampires. This was perhaps the correct decision – she is already fighting an immortal – but it was a little unsatisfying. Perhaps if Nemo had a powerful aversion to vampires, avoiding Harker, he could face a vampire he could actually kill.

Grey made a terrific traitor, but it would have been nice to have a twist to his story. It was very obvious he would come undone thanks to his portrait, but it was delivered in a very straightforward way. Perhaps M flipped the portrait in a frame, to help Grey out, and had a second portrait done on the other side. Harker then reveals the portrait to him, but it has no effect, and she has to work out what happened. Even this does not solve the fundemental problem: when we are introduced to the portrait, even those who have not read or seen “The Picture Of Dorian Grey” know what is coming. It’s just a matter of when.

I suppose the real problem with giving the characters their own stories was that it could (and did) bloat the story a lot. “X-Men” avoided this mistake and made a very trim film, trusting they’d be given more chance to round out their characters in future episodes. I don’t have any real complaints about the Invisible Man – he had the nice twist of not being a traitor – but I do wish they’d put a little more thought into Jeckyl/Hyde. For example, it would have been fun to have Hyde a traitor, but Jeckyl not. The whole point of Jeckyl/Hyde was that Hyde was supposed to be absolutely evil and Jeckyl good, but we never get a sense of that in the film. I would greatly have liked them to make Hyde more dangerous and unpleasant. Dealing with him should have been like dealing with the Devil, and make Jeckyl’s victory over him, in the climactic battle of the wills, a satisfying conclusion.

The film as it stands does not survive a second viewing, and it’s mostly due to the nonsensical plot. There are many films that throw in twists at the end so that they make no sense whatsoever. This does seem to be an acceptable thing in Hollywood, and I really have to wonder why. In my experience, the most enjoyable action/adventure movies are the ones that do make at least a modicum of sense at the end.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 19th, 2004 at 9:44 pm and is filed under Action, Comic Book, Fantasy, L, shellshear. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.