Fantasy adventure The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which foolishly tries to conceal a ramshackle screenplay behind special effects and action set pieces, sadly fails.

The budget reportedly ballooned to almost $80m, yet looks cheap and workmanlike, and a number of the special effects are embarrassingly clumsy.

When villains break into the Bank of England circa 1900 with a bullet-proof tank, undercover operative M (Richard Roxburgh) brings together a team of talented individuals - known as the League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen - to save the world from disaster.

He recruits Alan Quatermain (Sean Connery), adventurer Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), vampire bride Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), invisible man Rodney Skinner (Tony Curran), ever youthful Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), Dr Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) and gung-ho cowboy Tom Sawyer (Shane West).

The team is sent to Venice where the villains, under the command of the mysterious Phantom, apparently intend to blow up the city and initiate the Second World War.

The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a glaring misnomer.

For a start, the lovely Mina would no doubt feel aggrieved to be referred to as a gentleman, and some members of the league are anything but extraordinary.

Screenwriter James Robinson sniggers in the face of realism - he asks us to believe that Nemo's ten-storey high, 300ft long submarine Nautilus could successfully navigate the shallow, windy canals of Venice with barely a scratch.

And that Dr Jekyll can balloon to the size of a large elephant as his manic alter-ego, Mr Hyde, and then return to his normal size, without ripping his slim-fitting clothes to shreds.

The plot makes little sense at all and the unmasking of The Phantom's true identity will surprise only the few people who blissfully slept through the opening hour.

Performances are merely adequate - Townsend seems to be the only member of the cast playing his part with tongue wedged appropriately in cheek.

Rating: 4/10