The mutants are coming! The mutants are coming!!

Well actually… they’re already here. And the normal humans are getting a bit nervous about them…

X-Men opens with a political debate in which Senator Kelly (Bruce Davidson) argues for the compulsory registration of all mutants, believing them to be inherently dangerous creatures. He is not alone in having these feelings, though not everyone shares them.

Enter the mutants themselves…

On the tolerant side (it’s not only the normal people who show intolerance) is Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his students – he runs an Academy for the Gifted. Some of the teachers at this academy include Storm (Halle Berry), who can create thunderstorms at will, Cyclops (James Marsden) who can zap people (wish I could do that sometimes…), and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who has some psychic & telekinetic powers. The intolerant mutants are led by Magneto (Ian McKellan), who has plenty of reason to dislike humans (this is mainly explained in the opening sequence of the film). His sidekicks include shape-shifter Mystique (Rebecca Romijin-Stamos), Toad (Ray Park) who is… um… toad-like, and Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) who is… well, stupid (but strong… and stupid…) The two groups have lived in an uneasy peace for years… until now. Magneto sees an opportunity to make a move against humanity, while Xavier realises that this must be countered at all cost.

However, the role of a particular mutant named Wolverine (High Jackman) and his companion Rogue (Anna Paquin) seems to attract the particular attention of Magneto – but why? How does Senator Kelly fit into this? Can Magneto be stopped? Just what does the “X” in X-Men stand for anyway?!??!

You’ll have to watch the movie to find out…

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Strengths

The film itself is an exciting superhero action flick with an underlying theme exploring tolerance / intolerance. This theme is tackled intelligently by the film without it ever getting in the way of the action. The plot is typical superhero fare without insulting the viewers’ intelligence.

There are plenty of good performances with Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan being perfect in their roles as friends who parted ways due to philosophical differences. Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijin-Stamos were great too. Ray Park revelled in a rather sadistic toad-like man (though if you ended up looking like a toad I guess you’d be quite bitter!)

The special effects are great throughout. The music is pretty good, too.

Director Bryan Singer paces the film brilliantly. There’s always plenty going on but in places it slows down just enough to make you think a bit more about things.

Weaknesses

Some of the characters are quite uninteresting – Rogue and Sabretooth particularly. The pathetic stupidity of the latter is also something of a disappointment.

Halle Berry doesn’t play her character with much conviction and most of her lines sound awkward. I didn’t find James Marsden too convincing in some scenes either, though mostly he did a good job.



Overall

I loved X-Men, though I thought the second film was even better. The storyline is complete in itself but leaves itself obviously open for a sequel, which also paves the way for the soon to be released third (and presumably final) X-men film. It certainly seems that the writers have a trilogy-based story arc in mind anyway, but we shall see. At any rate, if you like superhero movies, you’ll probably like this. It’s a bit different from Superman, Batman et all in that you have a whole cast of heroes rather than just the one, and I think it probably benefits from this. Not a perfect film but very enjoyable and, while I’ve never really read the comics, gives me enough information about the characters to be going on with. (There are a few in-jokes, the only one of which I got was after Wolverine commented on the uniforms, Cyclops’ reply “would you prefer yellow spandex?” as a reference to what he wore in the comic strip.) Fans of the comics have had a mixed reaction to the films but I suspect that those who weren’t expecting absolute authenticity will have liked them.

I went to and fro as regards the rating for this. There were a couple of obvious weaknesses as listed above, but since it’s sp enjoyable and let’s face it, very few films have absolutely nothing wrong with them, I’ve gone for 5 stars.


Related Links

X2: X-Men United

Top Ten Superhero Movies




Recommended:
Yes