X-Men

It may not sound like much of a compliment to say that "X-Men" is the best comic-book movie to come along in quite some time. After all, its only recent competition has been "Mystery Men," "Blade" and "Batman & Robin."

In fact, it would have been difficult for this science-fiction action-adventure film to be worse than those. But, perhaps a bit surprisingly, it turns out that "X-Men" can stand alongside the first couple of "Superman" and "Batman" features as among the best in this admittedly non-competitive genre.

What makes this such a surprise is that "X-Men" is based on a seemingly untranslatable source — the cult-adored Marvel comic, which has already spawned a disappointing Saturday-morning cartoon.

While the results here aren't perfect (not all of the risky casting works, for example), and there are things that may irk fans of the source material (such as the drastically altered costuming), there's enough action and related "coolness" to please those unfamiliar with the comics, and just enough tidbits to appease more open-minded fans.

Also, the film contains some surprisingly heady material dealing with such topics as intolerance.

The title characters are mutated humans (including James Marsden, Famke Janssen and Halle Berry) with superpowers. Under the tutelage of Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a powerful telepath running a private school for mutants, they've decided to use those powers to benefit mankind.

And their ranks have recently swelled with two new additions — Wolverine (newcomer Hugh Jackman), a Canadian who can recover quickly from almost any wound and who sports razor-sharp claws, and Rogue (Anna Paquin), a teenager who can absorb the energy and memories of anyone she touches.

Both will be needed if the X-Men are to be successful in their fight against the forces of Magneto (Ian McKellen), a superpowerful Holocaust survivor who is trying to take over the world.

If that isn't enough, our misunderstood heroes are also trying to counter efforts by U.S. Sen. Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison), who wants to require all mutants to reveal their powers and identities to the world.

The latter theme and subplot adds significant weight and meaning to the story, which is fortunate, because it nearly falls apart with some too-comic-bookish contrivances toward the end. Still, although the script was written by committee, it holds together pretty well.