Between 1999 and 2000, Alan Moore (who won the prestigious Hugo Award in 1988 as the first and only comics’ author, for his “Watchmen”) and Kevin O’Neill created a brand new comic that included a group of extraordinary people, heroes and monsters. This fantastic comic, which had an acclaimed success after it’s release, has been transferred to the movie screen with the name “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, directed by Stephen Norrington.
Those of you who are big fans of “Blade” will remember the director, since Norrington directed “Blade” as well. This newest film of Norrington’s debuted in Turkey on October 24. The cast includes Sean Connery, Tony Curran, Naseeruddin Shah, Peta Wilson, Stuart Townsend, Shane West and Jason Fleming, as the members of a league, all of whom have extraordinary talents, and all of whom are brought together for the benefit of civilization by the league’s leader, Allan Quatermain (played by Sean Connery). This film is the story of a battle against the bad guy Fantom (played by Richard Roxburgh), who wants to use his new weapons and bombs to destroy all civilization.
To be honest, I don’t think the movie was very good. There were many exaggerated scenes in which you will definitely say: “This is too much!” I don’t believe that there should be any allowance for imprudence in a movie, even if it is a combination of sci-fi and fantasy. Some of my disappointment might be because of the way the characters were altered from the original comic. The story takes place in Victorian England in 1899, and some of those gentlemen’s talents seem to be just a bit too “extraordinary” for those years. Especially Captain Nemo’s (played by Naseeruddin Shah) ability to create technologically advanced vehicles in 1899 will make you laugh. As far as I believe, that there is an important relationship between fantasy, sci-fi and absurdity.
According to this critic, more fantasy in sci-fi definitely leads to absurdity. What I mean is that it is nonsense to have such technologically advanced vehicles in 1899 that would be hard for anyone to imagine during those years. One should definitely consider the time relationship in creating something fantastic or scientific. Aside from this, the acting was of a high enough level that I still recommend the film and will let you be the person to decide since, as always, these are only the opinions of one humble film critic.