Video Reviews

X-Men

D: Bryan Singer (2000); with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Tyler Mane, Ray Park.

It was a long time coming for the all-time bestselling comic characters. Despite the X-Men's massive fan base, it's taken almost four decades for someone to finally put out a movie based on the popular Marvel characters. With this cinematic adaptation, some fans walked away satisfied while others still wanted something more. The important thing, however, is that director Singer's screen version is friendly toward X-neophytes and gives a degree of respect to devout fans. In the film, America is in a "Red Scare" of sorts. Genetically enhanced humans (aka mutants) are under close scrutiny by a right-winged senator (Davison). While this junior Joe McCarthy scares the daylights out of anyone who watches his televised tirades, good and evil mutants are keeping an eye on him and each other. On the nice-guy side are Professor X (Stewart), Cyclops (Marsden), Storm (Berry), and Jean Grey (Janssen). The bad guys are Magneto (McKellen), Mystique (Romijn-Stamos), Toad (Park), and Sabretooth (Mane). Two misfit mutants Wolverine (Jackman) and Rogue (Paquin) find their way into the mix and ally themselves with Professor X's stable. But Magneto has big plans for all of them. He wants to transform all of society into mutants to teach mankind a lesson. Before you can say bam, the heroic X-Men don their matching jumpsuits and combat the villains. In all, a decent effort as far as superhero films go. The introductions are kept relatively short, and the action is well-paced. Storywise, things get a little muddy, but the lead players (Stewart, Davison, Jackman, and McKellen) keep it interesting. Considering so many failed comic adaptations (The Punisher, Judge Dredd, Superman IV), this is quality stuff. Singer's interpretation is a nice balance of dark imagery and corny action sequences. Not too serious and never insulting, this is a subtle superhero film that relies more on themes than special effects. With that, X-Men is an easy watch for both comic nerds and nondiscriminating movie fans.