America's insatiable appetite for superheroes looks like it will only stop when some Hollywood whizzkid suggests a big screen treatment of Monty Python's Bicycle Repair Man.

So what better time than a British rival to the Spidermans, Batmans and Daredevils cluttering up the draughty gaps between New York's skyscrapers.

Originally starting life as a cult comic book scripted by Alan Moore and drawn by Kevin O'Neill, Blade director Steve Norrington has fashioned an awesome spectacle.

The grand conceit of Moore's source books is that the league are in fact classic literary characters created by the likes of HG Wells, Jules Verne and H Rider Haggard.

So we have the hero of King Solomon's Mines Allan Quatermain (Connery basically reprising his role as Indiana Jones's dad) backed by the muscle of Jeckyll & Hyde (both Flemyng).

Scientific know-how is provided by the vampiric Mina Harker (Wilson) while street guile is made flesh (sort of) by invisible footpad Rodney Skinner (Curran).

Staying power is the remit of Oscar Wilde's immortal dandy Dorian Gray (Stuart Townshend) while transport is taken care of by Capain Nemo in the good ship Nautilus.

Winding up both the British (raiding the Bank of England) and the Germans (blowing up a Zeppelin base), their nemesis - the evil Phantom - is desperate to upset the world order.

Setting the action in 1899 Europe means the special effects wallahs can have a field day recreating 19th century Venice as well as introducing some witty anachronisms.

These range from a limousine boasting pewter chandeliers for headlamps to Nemo's wondrous submarine, a gigantic gargoyled wedge that slides effortlessly under Venice's Bridge of Sighs.

Moore diehards will curse some cinematic touches - Dorian Gray wasn't in the original stories and Tom Sawyer is clumsily introduced to tempt the mighty American dollar.

Nevertheless, it's a thrilling ride even if the literary references pass you by. If the league are the Premiership then the X-Men are Sunday League.

Tim Evans