You've heard of the Justice League of America. Well, meet the Justice League of Victorian England, better known as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Culled from the commercial side of 19th-century Brit lit, this motley crew ' Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, among others ' makes the X-Men look like the Osmond Brothers, so various are its members' powers and dispositions. And it's the sheer absurdity of their being brought together to prop up the British Empire that keeps The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen afloat.
Director Stephen Norrington produced some shivery jolts in Blade, also based on a comic book, but here he seems overwhelmed by the sets and hampered by a weak script. As we veer from London and Paris to Kenya and Mongolia, not even Sean Connery, as a now opium-free Quatermain, gets a full performance off the ground. But Peta Wilson, as one of Dracula's concubines, is fun to watch when she lets her hair ' and fangs ' down. And the Invisible Man, here renamed Rodney Skinner for copyright reasons, is always good for a laugh.
Overall, I'd say, if you don't expect much, you won't be disappointed.
