Let me just preface my opinion on X-Men by saying that I am a comic book addict. For the past 25 years, I have made the weekly trek to 7-11, the local newsstand, and eventually comic specialty shops for my fix of POW! BAM! and BOOM! Comics are more than a hobby to me; they’re a way of life. That being the case, you can understand my interest every time it’s announced a new movie or television adaptation of one of my favorite super heroes is in the works. Over the years, there have been some good ones. Superman (the first two anyway), the Batman series, and the Flash on TV immediately come to mind. You’ve more than likely seen some of these.

If you know a little bit about comics, you might recognize the fact that all the examples I mentioned above are the properties of DC Comics, one of the two dominating companies in the industry. The other big guy on the block is Marvel Comics. They have a litany of characters as robust as DC does, and in fact they had a hit TV show back in the seventies called The Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby. Big screen success has always eluded them however. Oh, movies have been made using their characters. Captain America, The Punisher, The Fantastic Four. Maybe you have seen some of these. If you’re lucky, you haven’t. The latter was in fact so disappointing it was shelved prior to distribution so that it could be completely re-done.

Things seem to have turned around a bit recently with, ironically, one of Marvel’s lesser known characters, Blade. This was actually a well-made film with top names and great effects. This gave me hope that the production of Marvel’s hottest title, X-Men, would receive proper treatment too.

It did. X-Men is the story of the next step in human evolution. Certain people, called mutants, are born with special abilities unique to each of them. Some of these mutants see a war with mankind as inevitable and seek to strike the first blow; other mutants oppose them. The movie is well-cast, has a decent plot, and has plenty of action and great special effects. The buzz at the comic shops prior to the film’s release was, of course, about Wolverine. Would Hugh Jackman be able to bring the character to life? As it turned out, he did. Wolverine is a gruff, tough loner brought nicely to the screen in this film (though he could have said “bub” a few more times.) The decision to go with an unknown was a wise one in my epinion. Wolverine is Wolverine. He can’t be anyone else, and a big-name star might have done just that.

For Professor X, however, a certain well-known actor was perfect for the role. Patrick Stewart not only has the ideal intellectual air required for the mind-reading Professor
, he’s also convincing in the role for the same reason he wasn’t as Scrooge: he’s bald. Halle Berry is ok as Storm, though she doesn’t really get a chance to strut her stuff. Famke Janssen as Jean Grey and James Marsden as Cyclops have the same problem, though they really do look like the characters. Janssen could have stepped right out of a copy of Uncanny X-Men.

I liked Anna Paquin as Rogue. She had the accent, she had the look, and she did a fair acting job. Her interaction with Wolverine was the reason she got more attention than the other major characters.

Bring on the baddies. Ian McKellen is Magneto. He exudes the aristocratic air that the character screams for in his quest to dominate mutantkind. He’s the most powerful of the mutants, and McKellan makes him believable but not quite evil. I had at first questioned the wisdom of including the Toad as a villain when there are so many more interesting X-foes to choose from, but he’s a bit more menacing here than the sniveling comic book version I’m used to. I actually liked the character in the end, though poor Ray Park doesn’t get many more lines as the Toad than he did as Darth Maul in Star Wars (where he was dubbed over to add insult to injury).

Tyler Mane had an even rougher time as Sabretooth. Grunts and groans are about all we hear from him, but at least he did have an impressive showdown with Wolverine atop the Statue of Liberty. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos certainly has the body to play Mystique, but she’s more of a visual effect than anything else. Her changeling abilities, combined with Magneto’s control of magnetic forces and Cyclops eye beams made for some of the more interesting effects in the film.

So what’s not to like about the film? Mostly what’s missing: the Beast is my favorite X-Man, and he got left out. Juggernaut and the Sentinels are imposing villains who could have been used here to good effect. But hey. There’s always the sequel.


Recommended: Yes