Though the story about a group of latter day heroes banding together was weak, the sound and the DVD extras help make the DVD passable to watch.
--Randy
League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The
Directors: Stephen Norrington
Producers: Don Murphy And Trevor Albert
Writers: James Dale Robinson
Features: Anamorphic Widescreen(2.35: 1), Full-Length Audio Commentary(Producers/Actors), Full-Length Audio Commentary(Costume/Makeup/ Visual Effects Team), "Behind-The-Scenes-Documentary," Twelve Deleted Scenes, English And French 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, Spanish Dolby Surround Sound, With Subtitles In English And Spanish.
Characters:
Allan Quartermain...Sean Connery
Tom Sawyer...Shane West
Mina Harker...Peta Wilson
Dorian Gray...Stuart Townsend
Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde...Jason Flemyng
Rodney Skinner...Tony Curran
Captain Nemo...Naseeruddin Shah
Nigel...David Hemmings
Genre: Action/Adventure
Review:
As I may have mentioned in my <a href="/review.php?id=417">theatrical review of "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen,"</a> this movie suffered from too many characters that not enough time was given over to have the audience gain a familiarity. It also suffered severe logic problems such as the huge Nautilus submarine able to negotiate the canals of Venice and go unnoticed by the population as it traveled above water. The arms of Mr. Hyde looked puffy and not natural, though preferable to the inept CGI used for the Hulk in his movie that came out around the same time. In total this movie was a mess storywise. The idea of these early heroes banding together was novel, but that may have been the only positive in the movie other than the acting which I felt helped lessen the stupidity of the movie. Now "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" has been released on DVD.
The plot has Allan Quartermain(Sean Connery), a famous white African adventurer, being enlisted in 1899 by the government of Britain to lead a host of unique individuals to stop a madman named the Fantom from starting a world war. There is a female vampyre named Mina Harker(Peta Wilson), an invisible man(Tony Curran), Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde(Jason Flemyng), Dorian Gray(Stuart Townsend), Captain Nemo(Naseeruddin Shah), and a United States government agent named Tom Sawyer(Shane West). This story had come from a graphic novel written by Alan Moore. In one of the commentaries it is pointed out that Mina Harker led the League in the book and Tom Sawyer was not in the book. It was the movie studio that insisted a young American be part of the group and so enter Tom Sawyer/Shane West.
There are some nice bonus features on this DVD, but there is no theatrical trailer. There are twelve deleted and extended scenes, though the back of the DVD box says they are all deleted scenes. One deleted scene has Quartermain and Mina Harker getting snippy with each other as the Nemobile drives through London. Another scene shows that Tom Sawyer may in the future take over the leadership of the League(if a sequel is made and Connery doesn't sign on). In an extended scene, Tom Sawyer is seen being more assertive in his fancy for Mina Harker. Captain Nemo's dark past is hinted at in another scene, but for the most part the other scenes are negligible.
The "Behind-The-Scenes Documentary" is broken into six categories under the title of "Assembling The League": Origins, Attire, The Nemobile, Making Mr.Hyde, Resurrecting Venice and Sinking Venice. 'Origins' tells how the graphic novel came to be the movie. Producer Don Murphy, who used Alan Moore's "From Hell" graphic novel for a movie simply called him up one day and asked if he had anything new. Sean Connery talks how he was offered both "The Matrix" and "Lord Of The Rings," movies, but had passed because he couldn't understand either. He admits to not understanding the "League," but didn't want to pass again. In 'Attire,' Jacqueline West discloses how she came up with the wardrobe, and the last four headings have detailed technological discussions and displays of how things were done SFX-wise. The only thing wrong with this part of the DVD were unnaturally long pauses between sections.
There are two full length commentaries. The first is by the two producers, Don Murphy and Trevor Albert, and actors Jason Flemyng and Tony Curran. The movie is said to have had a budget of ninety-three million dollars. The heavy floods that hit Prague where the movie was being filmed are mentioned. These floods destroyed many sets and even forced some actors to flee their hotels. Murphy points out that the African looking landscape where Quartermain was first introduced was only an hour out of Prague. A painting of Mount Kilimanjaro was used in the background. Originally the villainous Fu Manchu character was supposed to be the main bad guy, but the character's rights had been optioned by someone in Canada so the 'Fantom' was created. The actors talk about how they were told not to do Sean Connery voice imitations, but they did anyway and Connery was cool with it. They talk about how tall Connery is in real life and how everyone called him 'Big Sean.' It is said that the Studio wanted a PG-13 rating so no blood was shown when Dorian Gray and Mina Harker dueled with swords.
The second DVD commentary has the costume designer, Jacqueline West with three special effects men, Steve Johnson, Jahn E. Sullivan, and Matthew Gratzner talking about the technical side of the movie. The three men were talking over my head most of the time and would describe what was CGI, matte work or miniatures, as scenes in the movie came up. They go into detail about the Mr. Hyde suit and how it didn't suffer any damage when they needed it for an underwater scene. Jacqueline West was more down to earth and said how every costume was made from scratch. Some were made as far away as India and Italy. She was impressed with how tall Connery was like the other actors and likened him to John Wayne in stature.
Both DVD commentaries for "The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" were full of useful information. Having the special effects described as the scenes went by was very educational in that I did not realize how almost everything I saw was not really there, but some kind of SFX. This film is loaded with CGI and in places you would not expect. The first commentary had a few long pauses in the second half as if the speakers were running out of steam, but overall it was good. The second commentary had no long pause problems, but was very technical.
The sound is stupendous in this DVD. You can imagine how the zipping of bullets, buildings crumbling and the ocean sounds of the Nautilus can sound. The picture is crisp too though this more than occasional blue light flash could be seen and I wondered why it was not CGIed out.
The "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen" story is creaky, but the extras on the DVD make this movie less hurtful. It is probably good to go through the "Assembling the League" feature first to better get an understanding of the characters.
----Randy