(As a manga otaku, not a comic otaku, I will strive to the best of my abilities to reflect on connections of the adaptation in question to the comic canon it derives from. I owe that much to the fans.)
I had seen the trailer for this film years ago, and thought little of it, similar to the adaptation of Sherlock Holmes recently out in theatres. But I decided to take a consumer risk and buy this and after watching it, I was hooked for a time into understanding the comic backstory and discovering that there were actually multiple leagues through history. But historically speaking, this film is very nice for people who are literary and history buffs. The fact that the film roots you in the beginning of the 20th century is impressive enough, but the fact that we’re primarily in Europe only further emphasizes how foreign the locales may be to an American viewer, even with Tom Sawyer as an unofficial member of the league in this film. But enough of my waxing on the literary appeal; let’s summarize the plot instead.
We begin with some text indicating what I just told you, the time being 1899 and the nations of Europe being at an uneasy peace. The indication is that new weapons will be used and they are. The England Police are powerless against the single tank that trudges through the town and crashes through the bank. And the men inside are Germans, breeding suspicion among the English. The Germans deny this and another group attacks a factory in Berlin, further confusing everyone as to who is behind this group, led by a man with a cane with a skull on it and a metal mask. The scene shifts to Africa, where the British Empire calls on the services of one Allan Quatermain, who reluctantly agrees after some soldiers attack the building he was hiding out in. The intent is to create a group of unique individuals to combat the mysterious group that threatens to hurl Europe into a war of unheard of proportions. Quatermain is escorted to London where he meets three other members of the newly formed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Captain Nemo (from 20000 Leagues Under the Sea), Rodney Skinner (not the Invisible Man himself, but close enough) and Mina Harker (from Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Their mission is to stop the man responsible for the attacks, one Fantom, from attacking a conference of the world’s leaders in Venice. Their employer, M, directs them to find two other individuals, Dorian Grey and Dr. Jekyll. They find out about Nemo’s impressive technological advancements, like his car. They first seek out Dorian Grey and are attacked by Fantom, aided by Tom Sawyer who assists them. Fantom escapes and Dorian eventually decides to join, if only because he’s bored and has a hard on for Mina (who is revealed to be a vampire). After discovering Nemo has a subarmine, Tom (who joins the League) and Allan capture Dr. Jekyll’s counterpart in Paris, Mr. Hyde, and he is convinced to join as well. After a series of interactions between the various members (Tom rejected by Mina, Allan showing Rodney he isn’t as stealthy as he thinks, conversing with Nemo on his past and showing Tom about the English way of shooting, and Allan reflecting with Mina about trust issues within the League, as well as Dorian making moves on Mina and Dr. Jekyll confronting his inner demon as well as noting Nemo’s past). The group arrives in Venice and manages to stop Fantom’s attempt to collapse the entire city of Venice by destroying the many pillars underneath it with a combination of Tom’s ambition and Nemo’s technology to stop the chain of dominoes. Quatermain chases Fantom, saying he’s discovered the spy, suspected to be Skinner, but it’s revealed on the Nautilus that it was Dorian, who shoots Ishmael, the second mate. Not to mention the even larger revelation that M is actually the Fantom. Dorian escapes as does M. Nemo seeks to track them, but it is revealed by M that there are bombs onboard and that he has planned to collect samples of each of the League to create an even stronger army than before. The sabotage nearly sinks the Nautilus, but with Jekyll’s decision to collaborate with Hyde, the Nautilus is saved and repaired. It’s discovered that Skinner stowed away with Gray and knows the location of M’s secret base. The group follows him to Mongolia where the group meets with Skinner and devises a plan to sabotage M’s plans. Skinner will plant bombs to destroy the labs, Nemo and Hyde will rescue the prisoners, Quatermain and Sawyer will seek out M and Mina will confront Gray for his treachery. Tom and Allan find M, and Nemo and Hyde are found out by a soldier as they free the prisoners, the two split up, Nemo rescuing the scientists while Hyde holds off the attacking soldiers. M manages to escape after it is revealed he is James Moriarty, rival of Sherlock Holmes. Dorian and Mina face off, Mina eventually stabbed and apparently killed, but turning the tables and impaling Dorian against the wall, revealing his photo and killing him for good. Meanwhile, Sawyer fights off Reed and with Skinner’s help, manages to stop an armored soldier, Skinner burned badly and Sawyer taken hostage by Reed, still invisible. Hyde also has his share of problems fighting an unnamed henchman (Dante, I think), who overdoses on Jekyll’s elixir and becomes a monstrous entity of pure muscle and strength, which Hyde manages to defeat as they get it cornered in a room with a narrow opening where the explosion started by Skinner buries him. And in the final confrontation between Quatermain and Moriarty, Quatermain saves Sawyer from Reed, but is fatally wounded by Moriarty as he escapes. But Sawyer manages to take Quatermain’s advice and take out Moriarty with a shot from 600 yards or so and saves the day, even though Allan succumbs to his wound and dies. The League buries him in Africa and as the film ends, we get the potential for a sequel as Allan seemingly comes back from the dead, since a witch doctor blessed him, saying Africa would never let him die.
All the members of the League are depicted excellently. Sean Connery as Allan Quatermain is irreplaceable, sardonic, old, wizened and experienced from the 19th century as the great white hunter in Africa. Shane West portrays Tom Sawyer, the only American and the ambitious young adult who takes on the promise of the new century as the League begins to come into the light after all those years of hiding. Naseeruddin Shah is Captain Nemo, actually depicted as his Indian ethnicity from the books, is a true exotic character, fighting only hand to hand and with a blade, with seemingly peak human strength, but no special powers or superhuman strength like the others. Peta Wilson depicts Wilhelmina “Mina” Harker, the only female member, but a true vampire, summoning bats and sucking blood like no one’s business. Tony Curran does Rodney Skinner, the original comic character who stole the invisibility formula, and the comic relief, but also a surprisingly courageous soul who comes through in a pinch. Jason Flemying portrays Dr. Henry Jekyll, also getting into makeup for Mr. Hyde occasionally, a divided personality, withdrawn and timid on the one hand and bestial and rough on the other, eventually lining up in some way with the titanic monstrous form without and the intelligent personality within. Stuart Townsend does Dorian Grey as well as I can imagine with a comic book spin, suave, debonair and as he put it “complicated”. Richard Roxburgh portrays M, the Fantom and Moriarty, three radically different and yet interrelated characters, each with personality traits, voices and behavior within the narrative itself.
The two themes in the film are spread over time, the main one being the progress of the future and the danger and promise it holds for the new generation. This is emphasized by Moriarty’s characterization, probably being still relatively young, but as he said reborn after his accident, which according to my research would’ve been only 8 years ago in 1891 when he and Holmes fell off Reichenbach Falls. The ambition on his part to push the world into the future with advanced industrial technology as well as gaining profit from selling it could be seen as a capitalist virtue, but his desire to do this even at the cost of sacrificing lives does make his dream seem twisted in comparison to Nemo’s technological progress, who would be according to the history of the novels, at least in his 50s, if not his 60s (though they could’ve altered the history in the graphic novel in relation to Nemo to make him younger in contrast to his appearance in the Jules Verne novel set in 1866, which would have him aged 30+ years from then to 1899). The other theme is more related to the oldest and youngest characters, Quatermain and Sawyer. This comes about with the interaction of their English and American thinking as well as Quatermain’s relationship to Sawyer as a projection of his lost son and the eventual conviction that his young protégé will carry on the future as well as he did in the 1800s. Other more minor themes of sorts are Jekyll resolving his internal conflict with Hyde and Dorian and Mina’s romance ending with Mina noting that her immortality is less tragic than Dorian’s, dependent on the hiding away of his cursed picture. Nemo’s theme is not confronted as much, though I imagine his decision to come into the light in the ending indicates he is at least at peace with the issues he had from the Jules Verne novel (which I won’t spoil).
All in all, this film is great, though the accessibility issues I reflect on with a lot of these adaptations commonly harm my recommendation percentage. But even if one doesn’t understand the rooting of these characters in English prose from the 19th century by such great authors as Jules Verne, Mark Twain, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde, there is still the action/superhero atmosphere presented persistently, keeping you on the edge of your proverbial seat. The subplots balance out what would’ve been an otherwise unnecessarily action packed film with more mature themes, but not mature enough to give it an R rating, so the kids and teens can go to this legally with their parents, who can probably appreciate the literary influences more than the kids. On a concluding note on the comic relations, this is very much a sampling of what is a much larger storyline to my knowledge, involving other big villains, like Fu Manchu, Professor Moreau. It does involve Moriarty, although in a somewhat different vein and as the main overall antagonist, not to mention Rodney Skinner replaces the original Invisible Man, who according to this timeline would’ve been dead as per the events of the book and original characters such as Reed and Dante also make this very much a redux of the original premise which was much larger, spanning many eras and even travelling to Mars at one point I believe. But overall, a 5 out of 5 with a 60% recommendation. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha.
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