(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Sat 3 January 2026 17:45, UK
There’s nothing more disappointing than when you start watching a movie that seems like it’s going in the right direction, only for it to turn into one big mess, because sustaining momentum for 90 minutes or more isn’t an easy task, and too many movies just crash and burn.
Critic Roger Ebert wasn’t going to let films that were guilty of such a cinematic crime get away with it, though. His job was to tear films apart where necessary, which is what he did with a certain Sean Connery vehicle that proved to be a massive failure with critics, although it did surprisingly well at the box office, as is often the case.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, based on the comic book series of the same name, might have a fun premise, but it fell flat, at least according to Ebert. A group of classic figures from the Victorian era, like Sherlock Holmes, Dorian Grey, and Dr Henry Jekyll (and of course his alter ego, Edward Hyde) assemble as superheroes, but all we’re left with is a mess of undercooked characters.
Giving the movie just one measly star, Ebert described how, “Just when it seems about to become a real corker of an adventure movie, [it] plunges into incomprehensible action, idiotic dialogue, inexplicable motivations, causes without effects, effects without causes, and general lunacy. What a mess.”
The movie, directed by Stephen Norrington, saw Connery star in one of his final roles as Allan Quatermain, and while he’s as splendid as ever, his performance wasn’t enough to secure the film’s success, with Ebert noting, “It all starts so swimmingly,” but soon, the film falls headfirst into disaster, leaving little to be desired.
“I don’t really mind the movie’s lack of believability. Well, I mind a little; to assume audiences will believe cars racing through Venice is as insulting as giving them a gondola chase down the White House lawn. What I do mind is that the movie plays like a big wind came along and blew away the script, and they ran down the street after it and grabbed a few pages and shot those,” he complained.
Perhaps the fact that this is a steampunk take (arguably one of the most displeasing aesthetics in existence) on the superhero genre was a sign that the film was doomed from the start, although you’d think that getting such iconic characters together would make for a movie more exciting than this.
Still, Ebert writes, “These team members have skills undreamed of by the authors who created them,” suggesting that the qualities that make these characters so iconic are wasted on the film, which takes liberties with these pre-existing figures of literary excellence.
“I wonder if Oscar Wilde knew that Dorian Gray was also immortal and cannot die (or be killed!) as long as he doesn’t see his portrait,” Ebert questions.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was clearly not one of the critics’ favourite movies of 2003, but that didn’t stop it from grossing a rather impressive $179.3million.
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