You never know what Sean Connery will be up to these days. He’snot exactly the consummate action star these days, but he was inthe Michael Bay opus “The Rock” and the CatherineZeta-Jones drooler “Entrapment.” And my skin crawls tothink of “Finding Forrester.” It almost did again, butnot quite, for “The League of ExtraordinaryGentlemen.”

A curious crew of literary characters have been summoned at theturn of the 19th century to save the world from a dangerous manlabeled “The Fantom,” who threatens to wage war on theinnocent peons of the planet.

A mysterious British man who goes by “M” recruitsRodney Skinner (Tony Curran), the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo(Naseeruddin Shah) and James, er, Allan Quatermain (Connery),leaving the motley three to collect the rest of the team en routeto Italy, where the first report of major catastrophe pointsto.

The remaining members are Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), fatedcharacter from “Dracula,” “forever young”Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (JasonFlemyng). Good ol’ boy Tom Sawyer (Shane West), now an agent withthe CIA, gets in by way of his reckless, but effective,gun-slinging skills.

I was about to read the graphic novels upon which this film isbased on (written by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill), but like everyother college student, I had no time to do such things. Twosessions of summer school, a job and a healthy social life keeps meaway from even reading the Harry Potter series. So sitting down tothis flick was really just an excuse to see Mr. Connery charm hisway through another two cinematic hours of my life.

He’s accompanied by a charismatic group of actors andone actress (somewhat defeating the purpose of the title itself;somehow the title “The League of Extraordinary People”doesn’t ring well) who make the joy ride all the more worthwhile.The film is above-average and more thorough in characterdevelopment than most movies, but there is major fault in theInvisible Man being, well, invisible from the plot for half of themovie.

The real fault in the movie lies in the special effects. CaptainNemo has the ultimate submarine and the only existing automobile atthe time in the movie, but his forms of transportation look morelike gigantic pieces of his mother’s China set than assaultvehicles. But worse, when Dr. Jekyll turns into Mr. Hyde, watchout. You’ll burst into laughter or shake your head in disgust atthe ridiculous CGI work used to turn the doctor into beast.

The DVD meets the challenge of this dark flick, with acrystal clear presentation and bombastic soundtrack. Thecommentaries are sub-par, while the documentaries go into nicedetail over production and development. It’ll certainly solve theappetites of “LXG” film fans. The comic book, well, it’s just likethe movie, or any comic-to-movie adaptation: it’s all relative.

“LXG” is like a good thrill ride on a sunny afternoon, withnothing more and nothing less to write about. Sean does itagain.