Once upon a time, long ago in the ancient days of steam, there was a small association. TZV. The League of the Extraordinary. Ruled by Allan Quatermain, its members included vampire Mina Harker, Dorian Gray, invisible man Rodney Skinner, Captain Nemo, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde and, of course, American Tom Sawyer. And this group of adventurers set out to help the world, to destroy the Phantom.This was a joke once upon a time, of course, because the League of Extraordinaries never existed. It was only comic book creators Alan Moore and illustrator Kevin O’Neill who dreamed it up, a story about an invincible group of dudes and dudettes made up of a select few characters from famous novels. And of course, now that comic book movies are making a comeback and these movies are successful, it certainly wouldn't be a shame if America didn't come up with another movie.
It did, but somehow the filmmakers didn't pull it off. The League of Extraordinaries may be a famous comic book, but it doesn't stand up as a film, even though the producers have engaged a director who has already made one film, based on a comic book. That director was, or rather is, Stephen Norrington, who made his name with the first filmed story of the half-vampire Blade. And unfortunately, his League of Extraordinary Dust didn't work at all. Maybe it's just a poor choice of subject matter, but I don't think that's it. The film is a bland, bland mess, with no proper story to make it interesting. It may be about saving humanity, but it's not that important. What about the acting? Well I'd say they were a bit but not worth much, if it was supposed to be a comic movie,the level of exaggeration was low, and if it was supposed to be a serious movie it needed more acting craft. One movie can't be saved by one star actor – S. Connery, who outplays the others. The film has to be a group creative effort by the director and his collaborators, as well as the actors, to create a good atmosphere for the film.
Let's not forget the gimmicks, which were also a major part of the film. They're not very good, their conception and insight took me back a few years, about ten, when the first computers were made, and they didn't do much. Even with a normal PC, the tricks could have been made better, so that it wouldn't be so obvious that they were tricks.At times I felt like I was in a video game.
It's worth remembering that this film was shot in Prague during last year's floods, but from Prague you can only see the Rudolfinum, and that its producer and actor S. Connery.
Original edition of this article November 6, 2003 – Kritiky.cz
