X-MEN (2000)
Tagline: We're Not What You Think
(Action, Adventure, Superhero) [PG-13]
Does it ever wake you in the middle of the night? The feeling that one day they will pass that foolish law or one just like it, and come for you? And your children?
Coming 2 years before SPIDER-MAN, this movie was actually the one that made me realize that we were entering an age of super-hero movies.
In this one, we meet Logan (Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman who hadn’t starred in much at that point) and he ends up giving this girl Rogue (played by Anna Paquin) a ride home after she sees him in a fight. Rogue is basically being hunted for her powers by a powerful mutant known as Magneto (played by Ian McKellen (most famous for the LORD OF THE RINGS movies where he plays Gandalf “The Grey”, or “The White” or whatever is going on that day), that can control metal. Professor Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart probably best known for STAR TREK as Captain Picard) runs a school for mutants to try and help them get used to their abilities, but also to learn about the world itself. Upon learning that Magneto and the world domination seekers he leads are after Rogue, Charles sends Storm (played by Halle Berry may be best known for CATWOMAN) and Cyclops (played by James Marsden who is the main dude in SONIC THE HEDGEHOG) to bring Rogue and Wolverine back to the school to mess up Magneto’s plans.
If you have never seen this, a lot of the cast might come as a shock. Ever since 2006, most of the main roles have changed with the occasional “let’s go back to the future, or the past but partly the future or something” ala X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST.
The Good – For the kickoff of a franchise this movie is pretty good. The cast was stellar and outside of the outfits being black they all looked pretty freaking great. I say that, because I think most everyone thought they might go with the colors in the comics, only maybe a more-gritty version. I will say that due to the cartoon, I did expect that Rogue was going to have a serious twang in her voice and red hair, that really isn’t the case here. I liked the characters we got and the storyline especially for its time really fit. The cinematography was pretty great in most of this right up until the final fight scene where things got a little out of control.
The Rough – As much as I like both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen it was clear right away given their age, they were not starting this X-MEN story at the beginning. It’s the reason why later movies like X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and others actually spend their time before this movie chronologically. It’s almost as if the writers had no clue what they were doing. To make matters worse, the storyline was nothing based on the comics. That is all well and fine, my own "the movie is never the comic" thought process on source material understands these things, but then at the very least, you have to nail the story. This movie is okay in that regard, but looking back at this thing, it’s just so-so. There are parts of the dialog that I was fine with, but other stuff that was just hokey as hell. The laziest thing about the script was the over-focus on evolution as the cause of mutants. Apparently, there is a lot of debate about this, but in the comics, mutants have an X-gene or X-Factor that makes them mutants. In some cases, it’s given to them by Eternals or Deviants who are races of Celestials, or in the movie's case, they “evolve” that way. Needless to say, the over-focus on that for me was annoying since it had so little to do with the actual story. This for me was a focus “error” that fortunately the rest of the X-MEN movies handled better.
Overall X-MEN for me is still a classic super-hero movie that brings up challenging questions in a by-proxy metaphorical world. In a large sense, it works, but I still can’t get over that they didn’t start at the beginning. What we actually got, if this thing was a stand-alone movie, was a 4 out of 7, so that is where I land on this one.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
X2: X-MEN UNITED
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
THE WOLVERINE
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX
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