Here we are again in another summer full of sequels, remakes, and adaptations. In fact, there are very few movies scheduled for this summer that have a completely original screenplay. Nevertheless, there are actually a few of these that will hopefully be worth the risk that filmmakers are taking. Among these is X-Men: The Last Stand, the third installment in the X-Men franchise. It experienced a huge opening weekend, raking in over $120 million—the biggest opening for a Memorial Day weekend in history—despite some challenges. The biggest challenge was the loss of director Bryan Singer (who directed the first two) to Superman Returns, scheduled to come out in June this year. Brett Ratner (director of the Rush Hour movies) picked up the project, dumbed down the script, added more characters and special effects, and actually ended up with a really cool movie.

This time, the X-Men have a multi-level war on their hands (or claws, as the case may be). In one facet of this conflict, they must confront Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who, if you remember the second movie, everyone thought was dead. It turns out that she is still alive and is probably the most powerful mutant in the world. As Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) began teaching her when she was a girl, he helped to suppress her more dangerous tendencies. Since she survived, her dark side has come out and now calls herself the Phoenix. She can obliterate anyone who even so much as looks at her the wrong way. The X-Men’s conflicted antihero, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), still sees the good in her and is on a mission to save her from herself.

Also, in the imaginary world in which the movie takes place, mutants—humans with abnormal genes that give them super powers—have become a problem for the normal humans. So, a pharmaceutical company has come up with a “cure” for mutantism or mutancy or whatever it is. The U.S. government has now seen this as an opportunity to force this drug on disorderly mutants who may pose a threat. The problem is that most mutants don’t see their abnormality as a disease and they view it as an insult that anyone would want to cure it. Some of them see these powers as gifts that they can use in order to help humanity and make the world a better place. A newcomer to the X-Men movie world is Dr. Hank McCoy, a.k.a. Beast (Kelsey Grammer), a longtime X-Man who’s been away in Washington serving in the President’s cabinet as Secretary of Mutant Affairs. McCoy is in a tough situation, as he must decide if national security is more important, or if it’s more important to be true to the thousands of mutants who are affected by this drug.

Finally, the X-Men must once again fight Eric Lensherr, or Magneto (Ian McKellen), their powerful enemy who’s bent on destroying all the Homo sapiens and making “Homo superior” the only human species on the planet. Lensherr assembles a group of angry militant mutants, known as the Brotherhood to destroy the drug company and free Leech. Leech is a young boy whose mutant powers can temporarily suck the powers from other mutants. The drug company has been using his DNA to create the anti-mutant drug, which they put on the ends of darts and fire out of plastic guns, so that Magneto can use his magnetic powers on them.

[Spoiler Warning This Paragraph!] The story is full of unexpected surprises, as some of the main characters lose their powers, and some actually die. Because she complained about having small supporting roles in the first two movies, Halle Berry, as Storm, now plays a larger role, as she and Wolverine must lead the team, due to circumstances that can only be explained if you watch the movie. If you’ve seen the first two, prepare to be shocked; that’s all I’m saying.

There is a noticeable difference between this movie and the first two. The former director, Singer, is a master of character and helping his audiences understand the characters’ psychological processes. Ratner, the current director, is more of a brainless-action-movie-with-lots-of-explosions kind of guy. While some see the action and excessive special effects as a drawback for this film, it really helped to raise the stakes. It makes the circumstances seem more urgent and dire for the characters. The main reason for sequels like this—in movies, as well as comic books—is so that audiences will come back and say, “what’s going to happen this time?” and expect something bigger than what they saw last time.

I only have two regrets with the movie’s new style. The first is that they’ve introduced several new characters—more, in fact than I think the movie could handle. It’s true that some characters will have more on-screen time than others, but the minor characters take up so much space that we don’t get to know or associate with the major ones. If you’re familiar with the comic book version of X-Men, as I am, you know that a lot of times the stories often play more like psychological dramas than action-adventure epics (though there are some).

My other complaint is that the story of the X-Men naturally brings up several questions about social issues and ethics, and the movie dodges these questions before they get too deep. It’s hard to delve too deeply into some of these issues without taking a side or coming across as too “preachy,” but it’s nice to see a summer blockbuster that also forces its audiences to think. For example, some of the real-life issues that the movie brings up in a fictional way include terrorism, illegal immigration, homeland security, genetic engineering, and how far the government should go to affect people’s lives. It doesn’t necessarily have to take a side—in fact, I don’t like it when movies do that—but it is possible to fairly present both sides of an issue and let the audience decide. The movie was just afraid to approach itself, so it just settled for blowing everything up.

As I said earlier, the movie is really cool. Nerds like me will enjoy the familiar characters that have been left out of the movies so far. Casual movie-goers will “ooh” and “ahh” the CGI effects, and they will probably appreciate the surprisingly good acting that’s usually rare in summer action movies. Whoever you may be, prepare to have your head spin. I give the movie three and half stars. It met and exceeded most of my expectations. I guess I just want to see some intelligence in a movie that really doesn’t need it.