Trailer:
“The students at this school go on to better lives, or to become what they have affectionately dubbed X-Men.”
So here we are again with another Marvel film, notorious up to this point for their bad films (excluding Blade for some). But where Blade was simply a competent film based on an obscure character, Marvel finally grew the balls to put some real money into a franchise with a large fan base. Thus we are given the first legitimately good film in Marvel’s movie library. The X-Men. This film did more than that though, with the start of the new millennium this is very much viewed as THE movie to kick start the massive Superhero adaption movement.
Creating the story for the film must have been a very tricky task for the writers during the preconception phase. With fifty years of history and hundreds of characters and villains to choose from, it would have made them beat their heads with a mallet….at least that’s what I’d do. Eventually the writers (primarily David Hayter) decided to move away from an origins story and attempt the film with the X-Men already established and at work. This is where the story really starts to work, but also where you begin getting all those complaint over it being too single character centered. You can all guess which character that was.....
It’s Wolverine idiots.
Yes this film might have been better titled “Wolverine and the X-Men” as it’s main character was definitely the clawed Canadian. Yet in a way it worked. Though comic fans and those who watch the TV cartoons might know the concept and characters, the film really needed a grounded person for audiences to experience these events through in order to better understand what was going on. Through Logan the audience quickly learned everything they needed to know in way of convenient exposition.
Hugh Jackman plays the part as his major breakout role. Before that he was mostly involved in stage work and some indie films like Oklahoma, the popular musical. Playing a violent, animalistic mutant was definitely a jump for him. The roll was originally supposed to go to Russell Crowe but due to the money grubby actor who wanted a couple million more, Jackman instead stepped up to take over. He could not have been a more perfect choice for the either; looking like the comic book drawing had stepped into real life. He could pull off both his violent moments and the more emotional ones. He quickly rose to become the most relatable and likable character of the film, something most fans would not have expected from the characters background.
But in the end the title is X-Men, so who else is in the team? The film pretty much picks out the most well known of the X-Men with exception to Beast. Professor X is portrayed pitch perfect by the already elected fan favorite Patrick Stewart. Along with Magneto’s Sir Ian McKellen they play off one another brilliantly and have great on screen chemistry. You can buy that they are both old friends and arch nemesis. Not only that but every word that comes out of Magneto’s mouth is epic.
Cyclopes, the on field leader, also makes an appearance in his only substantial roll in the five X-Men films. Somehow one of the most pivotal characters got written out of the other three. Yet even here the actor doesn’t have a whole lot to do besides trade off lackluster banter with Wolverine. Though some of his fight scenes are cool.
The there is also Jean Grey as Wolverines love interest, a part of the film that was about as interesting as watching grass grow. It is never very convincing that the two fall for each other and rushed as well. It’s like they just threw it into the script, half hashed, in order to fulfill some sort of obligation. Jean Grey is simply one big bore in this film.
Lot’s of people have a complaint when it comes to Halley Barry as Storm. I’m not sure why though. She does a good job, takes a backseat in the film, and does the role justice. With exception to one horrible line involving a Toad and lightning, it’s a solid performance. Her accent is even convincing though she loses it in the third film so it was all for naught in the end.
Surprisingly enough the Duetagonist was the character of Rouge who was transplanted with Shadowcats relationship with Wolverine. People who may have liked her in the comics will be only disappointed as she in no way resembles that character beyond the absorbing powers. That is not to say she is bad though. The actress gives a decent but not overwhelming performance yet she is pivotal to the plot and adds a lot of great development to Jackman’s character. They have some great scenes that add a lot of humanity to the movie. The film relies heavily and spends a lot of time developing their relationship.
So what is this plot? Let’s break it down. Mutants, people with abnormal powers, start appearing all over the world and the government and majority of the population becomes paranoid. They fear them and begin planning to have them register and separated. For Holocaust survivor Eric Lehnsher, better known as Magneto, he will have none it. Fearing that past events will repeat themselves, he prepares to go to war with the Humans, planning to transform all of them into mutants like himself. Unfortunately the machine he thinks will do this is actually just going to turn them into rain puddles.
Yet Magneto is none the wiser. The great part of the film is that the villain doesn’t have truly evil plans. He is just fighting for self preservation by turning other people into mutants. In reality he is unknowingly about to become a mass murderer….though I doubt he would lose any sleep over that. But to do that Professor X thinks he needs the help of Wolverine. After he and Rouge are attacked Xavier grants them sanctuary in his school for Mutants while Magneto and his brotherhood use every trick up their sleeve to lure them out.
The film deals a lot with themes of fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of the past, fear of the future. It plays that theme well without beating the audience over the head with it. As Blade in comparison sometimes lacked in subtly. In this way the scripting stays well targeted at one of the X-Men’s more interesting subjects.
The effects in the film where fantastic at the time of their release and the majority are still simple enough that they look pretty good. The only major ones that don’t hold up involve Magneto bending some of the CGI metal and Toad’s tongue. The martial arts fight scenes between Wolverine and Mystique or Sabertooth are more fun anyways.
Besides Magneto, who is terrific, most of the villains are fairly bland. Mystique is pretty cool as a silent but deadly spy but Toad is annoying and has about three lines. Sabertooth might as well have been just a big dog. All he does is bark and growl at people. He has all the personality of Bane from Batman and Robin, not to mention the most absurd costume of the film.
The biggest fault of the film is still that it isn’t overly true to the original characters. It takes a lot of liberties with their personality and many times doesn’t not do all of them justice in the development department. Yet using Wolverine as the center allowed audiences to be better informed about the universe so it was a win-lose situation. In the end X-Men is a solid beginning to the new millennium of superheroes and lord knows that Marvel needed a big hit. If it hadn’t been for the likes of X-Men we might never have gotten Spider-Man, Iron Man, or the Avengers.
FINAL RATING: 7/10- (70%)
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