I have been trying to watch more movies. Growing up, my mom and I would watch movies together as a way to spend meaningful time together. It sounds odd since when you watch a movie, you don’t speak during the movie. It’s when the credits flow down the screen where my mom and I would discuss the movie at length. Ever since attending college, I put watching movies on the backburner. It was tough for me to find two hours to watch one movie versus watching thirty-minute TV episodes instead. Now, I try to watch movies on the weekends when I have more time to do so. This past weekend, I watched the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for the first time thanks to Hulu.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is based on another graphic novel produced by Alan Moore. The movie introduces various literary characters as they are forced to work together to eliminate a common threat. These characters include Alan Quartermain, Mina Harker, Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, The Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll, and Captain Nemo. Sean Connery plays the titular Alan Quartermain who at the beginning of the film, causes a shootout in this rustic hotel lounge. It was badass to see Sean Connery still carry epic action sequences in his old age.

Mina Harker was another character I enjoyed seeing on screen. She has become a vampire since her adventures with Van Helsing and her fiance Jonathan. There’s this one scene where she’s in the library and she feasts on one of the men sent to eliminate the league. Plus her black, Victorian outfit was giving me major Renaissance / Cosplay inspiration.

According to Letterboxd, people vilified this movie. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has been credited as the movie where Sean Connery retired from acting. There was drama between Sean and Stephen Norrington, the director of the film. Sean Connery when he took the role, was paid so much money, they couldn’t recruit any other famous actor to be in the movie. This is according to Wikipedia, so who knows how accurate this statement is.

Many of the complaints with this movie include the terrible CGI, plotholes, and in one review this movie is a “dumpster fire”. When I watched this movie, I didn’t think the CGI was awful. The movie was made in 2003, so it’s not going to have the best technology available. I enjoyed the action sequences. There’s a shootout in a library while recruiting Dorian Gray where I was entertained throughout the scene. This is also where Mina Harker shines which I detailed above.

I’m glad I took the time to watch this movie. I have the first volume of Alan Moore’s graphic novel being shipped to my apartment for me to read. I read a review on Letterboxd from Karen who stated, “this movie fucking slaps and that’s that on that”. Karen, I couldn’t agree more.