Great screen careers seldom end on a high note, and Sean Connery wasn't an exception. His final film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, is a startling example of how even the most seasoned actors can fall victim to a disastrous production. Released in 2003, this film is one of the most embarrassing failures of 21st Century Hollywood.
Based on the popular graphic novel by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, the film attempted to gather some of the most iconic characters of 19th Century speculative and adventure fiction into a superteam. The plot begins in 1899 when unknown assailants using new tchnology attack British Museum in London and Zeppelin factory in Berlin, thus bringing British Empire and German Empire closer to war. Sensing that someone might deliberately stir trouble, British secret service led by M (played by Richard Roxburgh), recruits famous adventurer Allan Quatermain (played by Connery) to gather a group of extraordinary individuals, including submarine captain Captain Nemo (played by Naseerudin Shah), vampire chemist Mina Harker (played by Peeta Wilson), shape-shifting Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (played by Jason Flemyng), immortal Dorian Gray (played by Stuart Townsend) and invisible thief Rodney Skinner (played by Tony Curran) to investigate.
Alan Moore's works were quite popular in the early 21st Century Hollywood, serving as basis for several high budget film adaptations. However, the author himself was notoriously unhappy with the results, and his name was notably absent from the credits. In the case of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, this lack of enthusiasm proved to be justified.
On paper, the concept of gathering literary legends into a supergroup seemed fresh and ingenious. In fact, this idea would later be applied by Marvel Cinematic Universe in Avengers, with much more success. The director, Stephen Norrington, had previously demonstrated his potential with his imaginative low-budget sci-fi film Death Machine and the successful comic book adaptation Blade.
The problem, like in many such grand Hollywood disasters, could be attributed to the script. Things begin to look bad from the start, with opening titles actually giving a relative lengthy explanation of how the 20th Century is different from the 19th Century. This clearly indicates that the film is designed for the lowest common denominator, or mostly young and presumably completely ignorant and uneducated audience. Since the film was made as a family-friendly summer blockbuster, the script sucked out all the edginess from Moore's novels – Quartermain stopped being an opium addict, while there weren't any references to Jekyll/Hyde being a serial rapist. Even worse was the addition of Tom Sawyer to the group. The producers went on record explaining that the decision was made to improve the film's chances on the American market and pander to youth demographics. The character, played by Shane West, doesn't actually add anything to the mix and, apart from the name, doesn't share anything with Mark Twain's iconic character.
Norrington fails as a director; the whole idea of the film having a steampunk atmosphere is compromised with the relative lack of actual contemporary people in the film. The audience doesn't have the impression of the film taking place in late 19th Century. Even the seemingly spectacular scene when heroes rescue Venice from destruction is reduced to an orgy of special effects.
One of the few things that the producers did right was casting renowned Indian actor Naseerudin Shah as Captain Nemo. The iconic character, who was originally written as Indian by Jules Verne, has actually never been played by Indian actors before. But this interesting detail is hard to notice with the rest of the characters being reduced to stereotypes and played by generally uninterested actors, including Connery.
Some of the problems weren't exactly the producers' fault; disastrous 2002 floods stopped production in the Czechia for weeks, while the studios demanded that the film be finished on time for the 2003 summer release, resulting in a rushed production and stress that Norrington couldn't handle well. This reflected on the tension on the set, with Norrington and Connery, according to various anecdotes, almost coming to blows.
While the film did have success on the box office, film reviews were almost all negative, and all plans for eventual sequels and the start of a new franchise were quickly scrapped. One of the contributing factors was Connery being so displeased with his experience on the set that he decided to finally retire from acting. Norrington, for his part, even refused to attend the premiere and sent a letter to the producers claiming that he would never work in Hollywood again.
In conclusion, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a mess of a film and an utter disappointment, made worse by knowing that it contributed to the ending of not one but two great screen careers.
RATING: 2/10 (-)
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