If the Americans should ever need a clear-sighted adventurer to extricate them from the morass of Middle East politics, then here's their man.

"Trained by monks and mullahs," the ever resourceful Gabriel Van Helsing (Jackman) fights for what is right armed with a ready quip and a gattling-gun-come-crossbow.

We first meet the intrepid vampire slayer in Paris where he's knocking seven bells out of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

After despatching the killer campanologist, Van Helsing is boning up for the next world-saving challenge in a bunker beneath the Vatican.

Aided by a resourceful Friar Carl (Wenham) - sort of medieval Q from the Bond franchise - Van Helsing sets off to Transylvania to nail power-crazy Count Dracula (Roxburgh).

Local help comes in the form of the aristocratic Anna Valerious (Beckinsale), a game floosie packing a formidable array of weaponry and a splendid chest.

However, will Van Helsing's firepower and Anna's full-frontal armoury be a match for Dracula, his three brides from hell and his army of malevolent minions?

As you might expect, this looks utterly stunning - soaring gothic castles criss-crossed with electricity pylons against a wintry backdrop of snowbound peaks.

There are also some corking setpieces - Van Helsing's first brush with the soaring brides of Dracula as they swoop down on the hapless Transylvanian village.

However, there is no calm before the storm - the whole movie is a Force Ten sfx gale with one startling chunk of CGI grandstanding careering into the next.

What's also missing is the camp humour that informed The Mummy - Jackman can glower with the best of them but Brendan Fraser could deliver the gags.

Rather than stick to one story, characters from other fables - Frankenstein, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dr Jeckyll - are tossed into the ever-curdling mix.

The net result is a tension-free yet visually stunning tour de force with stunts that would form the centrepiece in most movies queueing up to squeeze into the two-hour plus running time.

You certainly won't see many films which bowl you over let leave you feeling strangely unmoved.

Tim Evans