The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

In this 1899-set flick based on the comic book styling of the multifaceted Alan Moore, an ultra-secret league has been formed by the government to curb the mischief of the mysterious "Fantom," a miscreant attempting to ignite a world war by pitting Britain against Germany. Moore steals several literary legends for his league, including H. Rider Haggard's uber-adventurer Allan Quartermain (Sean Connery); Bram Stoker's lusty Mina Harker (Peta Wilson); Mark Twain's wholesome Tom Sawyer (Shane West); Robert Louis Stevenson's duplicitous Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde (Jason Flemyng); Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend); an invisible man (Tony Curran) based on H.G. Wells's and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah). An odd grab bag of characters, to be sure, this ersatz rat pack may have clicked stunningly in graphic novel format but in the film version it's less than dazzling. Connery, who fully takes the lead, delivers lines with something less than bravado, backed by characters that seem uncomfortable in their rather under-defined roles, but fitting nicely into the proverb of the square peg. However, Shah's Nemo is a refreshing twist away from James Mason, and apparently back to Verne's original concept. Available in full and widescreen editions, this DVD offers your standard extras. There's commentary by a plethora of people involved in the production, from costume designers, make-up and visual effects artists and miniature creators to the producer and a handful of actors. There are also a dozen deleted/extended token scenes, which offer little insight and deviate only slightly from those included, and the making of featurette, "Assembling the League." "Assembling the League" walks viewers through the movie in a six-part sequence, aided cartoon-like by caption boxes that remind viewers where this extraordinary concept came from. (Fox)