X Factor.

AT LAST, A MUTANT, COMICBOOK, SUPERHERO MOVIE

X marks the spot for one of the most eagerly anticipated movies of the summer. Based on the Marvel Comics series about genetically mutated superheroes --and starring Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, and Hugh Jackman--X-Men tells the story of exceptional people who are rejected by the world.

"In the world of the movie, a percentage of society is born different, possessing unique powers, and they are feared and oppressed," says director Bryan Singer. "Nevertheless, a small group of them forms a fighting force to help defend the world that ultimately hates and fears them."

As you might expect from a movie where characters have the power to change the weather or to make laser beams come out of their eyes, X-Men (due out July 14) has a great deal of action. But just as Singer's best-known film, The Usual Suspects, brought a mind-bending cleverness to its cops-and-robbers plot, X-Men should make your brain tingle while it makes your pulse race. "The X-Men connect with the universal experience that people feel different from others," says Singer. "You feel lonely and misunderstood. I think it's something all young people feel."

Singer, now 34, felt it growing up in southern New Jersey. His superpower, he says, "was being able to talk a bully into confusion. But sometimes it would backfire, and he would punch me, give me a wedgie, or stuff me in a locker."