Back before I became a suave ladies' man, I was a big comic book fan. I never read X-Men, but I was aware of the characters and the special powers of most of the characters that appeared in the comic. The thing that impressed me the most about X-Men was that they were basically created out of laziness. Comic guru Stan Lee grew weary of coming up with crazy ideas to serve as the origin for each of his superheroes. I can just see him muttering to himself, “Radioactive spider bite … exposure to gamma rays … okay, that’s it. I’m out of ideas.”

So Lee came up with the notion of humans evolving and mutating into a new race. Not only was it possible to give any character any special power under the sun with virtually no explanation required, it also lent itself to a fantastic subplot in which the mutants are forced to band together as they find themselves outcast from society and generally feared by the normals, a la witches, Jews, Blacks, Japanese, Communists, and UK soccer fans.

While the comic has been going strong for over thirty years, its fans have clamored for a feature film version of their mutant heroes. And, boy, do they get it with Bryan Singer’s (The Usual Suspects) terrific adaptation that should both fulfill the expectations of geek-boys across the world and provide great summer entertainment for people that don’t know mutants from mud-flaps. X-Men is easily the best traditional action film I’ve seen this summer (as long as you don’t count Gladiator as a summer release).

X-Men is a kick in the pants right from the glowing “X” in the Fox studio logo to the opening scene showing a young mutant developing his powers in 1944 Poland (it looks like a cross between Schindler’s List and Se7en) to the brilliant finale in, on and around the Statue of Liberty The film’s story, which practically leaves viewers begging for a sequel, involves two groups of mutants.

One is led by Professor Charles Francis Xavier (Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: Insurrection), who tries to teach young mutants how to control their powers and function in modern society. The other – called the Brotherhood of Evil – is commanded by Magneto (Ian McKellen, Apt Pupil), a man hell-bent on destroying the world that wouldn’t accept him as an equal And how odd it is to see a big blockbuster summer action film that stars two really old guys, not to mention the 180-degree turn for McKellen, who played an ex-Nazi in Singer’s Apt Pupil and a Polish Jew here.

You might expect a film based on a comic book to begin with the series' first issue, but that’s not the case with X-Men. The film jumps into the story midstream, so the viewer doesn't really get to learn the origins of any of the existing mutants (other than the young Magneto). Instead, X-Men focuses on the introduction of two new characters to Xavier’s camp – Wolverine (hunky Aussie newcomer Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin, She’s All That). In Xavier’s School for Gifted Children, you can also catch glimpses of young versions of sequel-ready characters like Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Jubilee, Pyro and Colossus. And if you look closely, you’ll see Stan Lee make a cameo as a hot dog vendor in one scene.

The only complaints I have about the X-Men involve female characters. The Storm character, played by Halle Berry (Bulworth), isn’t as prominently displayed as the others, and her character's transformation makes the weakest jump from comic to screen, both in appearance and development. Casting supermodel Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but what’s the point of having her in a film if you can’t even tell it’s her? Mystique, a shape-shifter, is covered in scaly blue-green skin and, although the character displays some nifty fighting moves, there’s no way you can tell when she’s Romijn-Stamos and when she’s a stuntwoman. Ray Park (Darth Maul from Episode One) is a standout bad-guy in his portrayal of Toad.

The rumors swirling around the casting of X-Men were unlike anything I’ve ever heard before. The Wolverine character, which Jackson turns into a huge star-making role, was originally supposed to be played by M:I-2 baddie Dougray Scott, but he severely injured himself in a motorcycle stunt in that film. Before Scott, half of Hollywood was thought to be a cinch for the role of the steel-taloned Canadian, including Russell Crowe, Elias Koteas and even (cough) John Leguizamo. Actors that were “locks” for other roles included Terence Stamp, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The rumor mill didn’t stop when it came to X-Men’s script, either. David Hayter  (he was the voice of a garbage-eating possum in Doctor Dolittle) received the only screenplay credit, while Singer and his Pupil co-producer Tom DeSanto shared props for their “story.” But the list of other Hollywood scribes that supposedly had a hand in the film reads like a who’s who of the Writers Guild of America. They include Suspects' Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie, Gladiator’s John Logan, Ang Lee’s right-hand-man James Schamus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Joss Whedon, Men in Black’s Ed Solomon and Se7en’s Andrew Kevin Walker.

But too many cooks didn’t ruin this film. The film is dark and cynical, and the writers set up a great rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops (James Marsden, Disturbing Behavior), toss in some fantastic one-liners and even include a poke at the yellow spandex that the superheroes wore in the original comic. X-Men is also aided by top-notch work on the technical end of things, from Michael Kamen’s (Frequency, The Iron Giant) score, to Newton Thomas Sigel’s (Three Kings) cinematography, to John Myhre’s (Elizabeth) production design.

1:44 - for sci-fi action violence