The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

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Plot

The film opens in 1899 with a series of dramatic robberies and outrages in Berlin and London. A tank breaks into the Bank of England to steal Leonardo Da Vinci's plans of the founding of Venice and a short time later, a group of scientists in Germany is kidnapped and a zeppellin hangar is destroyed. After t his, the governments of both countries accuse each other. When i n fact they were the work of a masked figure with a scar, with an East European accent and dress coat,a man known as the Phantom. .

An emissary of the Queen of England, Sanderson Reed, arrives at a club in Africa to recruit the legendary, now aged hunter and adventurer Allan Quatermain. Quatermain, seated in the shade reading a copy of The Strand Magazine, is not a great patriot and is not interested in the matter, but when a group of murderers wearing silver armor attack the compound and kill his friend Nigel Quatermain decides to take action and go but not before witnessing the destruction of the club.

It is there were he finds out that he was recruited lead a fantastic group of extraordinary gentlemen (and lady) to save the world. The League is composed by Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), the vampire Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), invisible man Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), the American secret service agent Tom Sawyer (Shane West), Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) and Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde (Jason Flemyng).

Eventually they find out that The Phantom's plan is to create a world war so he can sell his incredible futuristic weapons to the participant nations. It is now up to the league to stop him.

Alan Moore's Reaction

A very vocal man, Alan Moore has quite famously climbed onto a pedestal denouncing this movie. It's very understandable, as his experience with it wasn't very good. The movie was in development hell for the longest time, and when it was finally made, it was more a straight action movie with heavy changes to the characters, a great loss of subtlety, and an extra character in Tom Sawyer to make the movie more appealing to American audiences. His vision was lost, he feels, and has since then opposed adaptations to adaptions of his works.