League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The

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Summary

This is one of those movies that starts off strong, scores lots of easy points but ends in a cliched mess. It's still a fun movie to watch, just don't expect much. For the most part, the characters are good, as is the direction and the dialog. The problems all happen where the movie departs from Alan Moore's graphic novel, and there are very significant problems.

Details and Notes

Spoilers ahead.

The first big problem is with the introduction of the Tom Sawyer character. He's simply out of place in so many ways. The character, who does not appear in the original story is shallow and uninteresting compared to everyone else. He has no dark side, no conflict. He a bit bumbling. He has no special power. He's just out of place.

This is all tolerable until we get to the end of the film, which has two big problems. The first issue is that they try to put a big bow on all the character's inner conflicts. In one form or the other, most of the characters face themselves, their inner demons. It's far to trite, and not really necessary.

Of course Sawyer has no demons to face, so nothing interesting happens with him. Oddly, Nemo--who certainly has his dark side--is also excepted. One has to wonder if eliminating Sawyer would have given the film the time to develop Nemo who ends up being somewhat of a secondary character.

The second issue is the nauseating changing of the guard between Quatermaine and Sawyer. In case you don't get it, Quatermaine gives a little speech that his time is done, and the next century belongs to Sawyer. One can only assume that this is a ham-handed metaphor for the ascension of America over England.

It's frustrating because the original story, which peeks through at times, is sophisticated, well developed, human, and interesting. With the addition of Sawyer and injection of pathetic jingoism at the end it becomes a flat, wooden, caricatured, and ultimately uninteresting.