Synopsis: When a masked madman known as “The Fantom” threatens to launch global Armageddon, legendary hunter/adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery) commands a legion of superheroes, the likes of which mankind has never seen. Now, they must join forces to save the world!
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The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 7.5

I read the graphic novels before seeing this film, as I try to do (to get proper perspective!), and I was surprised by a couple of things: firstly, they were equally enjoyable. But while the books were more consistent, they were less exciting. And while the movie was more exciting, it suffered from consistency issues and continuity errors.

While I don’t always pick up on such things, I remember noticing these issues the first time I saw the movie – they’re simply unavoidable. For instance, the invisible man makes himself visible by covering his face with cream. But one moment he’s got some on 60% of his head, and then the next his whole head is covered down to below his neck. And then back again. This kind of thing pops us regularly, which leads me to think that the director was not very detail-oriented.

The CGI was so-so. I’m not sure that it was even up to snuff at the time of its release, eight years ago, quite frankly. And there was so much of it that you couldn’t help but notice. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if they had considered the real-world impact of their CGI creations – for instance, the Nautilus’ proportions simply didn’t make any sense and they seemed to change perspective.

In the positives, the editing was good enough that it gave the impression that Sean Connery could still do action scenes. I mean, you can still tell there were stunmen involved, but I remember how painful it was to watch Sean Connery do fight scenes 10 years prior, in ‘Rising Sun’, and this was not an issue here. So kudos for doing the “movie magic” properly! Sure, the action was chaotic, but it hid some flaws very well in doing so.

The cast was alright. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough for the material. A few intriguing things of note: the female character was not a “babe” in the traditional sense, which was refreshing. She was attractive, but you know how Hollywood would traditionally make that choice, right?) Also, they added a character not in the books. I’m not sure if it was for the sole purpose of adding a pretty boy in the cast, but it’s an odd thing to do.

Anyway, all this to say that the League’s adventures were nothing super remarkable (extraordinary, contextually, sure, but hardly remarkable from a cinema-goer’s point-of-view), however they were enjoyable and they offered enough thrills and eye candy to satisfy fans of the genre.

I’m surprised that there wasn’t a sequel to this, as it seems destined to be a franchise (perhaps Connery, a central figure, decided against it? That would hardly be surprising…). Well, we’ve got one installment, and it’s fun. Fluff, fer sher, but fun fluff.