The Mummy: 10 Monster Films It Must Improve Upon

Supposedly based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen unites several characters from 19th Century literature (including Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray) but, unable to decide what to do with them, has them run around for 2 hours dodging explosions.

Also included in the group is Dr Jekyll, whose transformations into Mr Hyde are more The Incredible Hulk than Robert Louis Stevenson which is surely intentional – Ang Lee’s Hulk opened that same summer, after all. Whenever onscreen, he growls while destroying the scenery with his fists, so the filmmakers missed a trick by not having him say, “Hyde smash!”

Described by the New York Daily News as “beyond banal”, and a box office stiff to boot (it cost $78 million yet made $66 million in the US), the film is extraordinary only for the effect it had on its cast and crew. Star Sean Connery went into retirement, director Stephen Norrington left Hollywood and Alan Moore stopped selling the film rights to his work.