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The production budget on LXG ended up costing Fox $78 million. Opening on July 11, 2003, the film grossed an okay $23 million on its opening weekend, good enough to place it at #2, behind another opener; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. It finished its run with $66.4 million in the US. Given the horrendous reviews upon release, the fact that it managed to gross $179 million worldwide is something of an achievement. It wasn’t a flop, but it wasn’t enough to warrant a sequel either, which Shane West’s Tom Sawyer was supposed to lead.

LXG obviously isn’t a great film. The opening action sequence in Africa is a good introduction to Quatermain, and then there’s the grandiose production design. The rest of the film just comes across so dull, like it was being re-written as it was shot. Given the strain placed upon the shooting schedule, this is probably what happened. The action sequences are haphazardly edited together, as if to hide what little training the actors had.

Alan Moore’s graphic novel is a much darker story. It did make it out before the film, yet there are still many differences between the two, the main one being that Mina is the lead character. She is a strong willed survivor from her confrontation with Dracula, but she is not a vampire. Recruited by the British Intelligence to assemble a league of extraordinary individuals to protect the country, their first mission has them pit against Fu Manchu, who plans to build an airship to destroy the country. The ending is also different, with an aerial attack over London.

According to Kevin O’Neill, Moore wanted nothing to do with the film, so O’Neill was sent the script instead. In an interview with The Times, he said that upon reading it he thought, “I don't recognize any of this - the Bank of England, Venice. The character names were similar, but they added Tom Sawyer. It was a bit of an odd thing and I didn't think much more of it.” From watching it, O’Neill felt that the film had strayed too far from the original source, saying, “They made the film they set out to make…it's nothing to do with our [League].” Moore claims never to have seen the film himself.

That it differs greatly from the graphic novel is, to me, the other reason why this film didn’t work. What is the point of getting a hold of decent source material only to screw with it? Sometimes changes can be beneficial, but with LXG there are so many that it’s altered beyond recognition. Kinda like everyone having their way with the cute girl, but only after the baby is born, no one can tell who the father is. The potential was there for this to become a franchise-starter in the vein of X-Men, with iconic characters at the turn of the 20th century. Instead, it ended up becoming The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

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