X-Men (2000) - Review

I've talked briefly about how far Marvel came with their movies. The first movies that were based on their comic characters included Howard the Duck, The Punisher, Captain America with Matt Salinger, and the unreleased Fantastic Four film by Roger Corman. And all of them were not so praised like Richard Donner's Superman or Tim Burton's Batman. However, at the turn of the 21st century, 20th Century Fox gave us a movie based on Marvel's popular team of mutants, the X-Men. This, along with Blade, would be the start of Marvel's rise to successful blockbusters.

Mutants are people with powerful abilities who are oppressed by the human population. There are some who use their powers to save people and they are Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his team of X-Men which include Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden), and Storm (Halle Berry). Then there's Magneto (Ian McKellen) who believes mutants are superior to humans and uses his metal-bending powers and Brotherhood of mutants to suppress them. At the beginning, we see him as a young man in Nazi-occupied Poland, being separated from his parents and discovering his power. We then meet a young mutant named Rogue (Anna Paquin) who accidentally puts a boy she likes in a coma with her absorbing powers. She runs away from home and meets Logan a.k.a. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) who has regenerating powers and can unleash metal claws from his knuckles.They suddenly find themselves in a predicament with one of Magneto's mutants, but are saved by Cyclops and Storm. They find themselves in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, a safe haven for mutant children and adults. Wolverine becomes the audience surrogate at this point and Charles Xavier becomes Captain Exposition, giving him things to know. Meanwhile, Magneto forms a plan to use a machine to turn humans into mutants. Rogue gets kidnapped and it's up to Wolverine and X-Men to stop Magneto and rescue her.

The movie does a decent job of introducing the characters and their powers in an hour and forty-four minutes with plenty of action but not much character development. However, it is necessary to set up everything and this does stand out on its own all right. Some characters make cameos like Kitty Pride and Jubilee. On Magneto's side, we also have Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) a blue mutant who can morph into anyone, Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), and Toad (Ray Park who also played Darth Maul).

But going back to the X-Men, the actors do well for the most part. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen bring a great contrast to what they believe in and why they do what they do. I mean they're two awesome actors and have a great relationship off-screen. But of course, it goes without saying that the biggest stand-out is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. This is one example of bringing a comic character to life in an extraordinary way. Even though he's taller and doesn't wear yellow spandex, Hugh Jackman won over people with his performance and became a star in Hollywood. Which is why it is going to be hard to see him go after playing the character far longer than any other actor who's played a comic character. But we love you, Hugh, and are grateful for your commitment to this franchise. The weakest link of the cast is Halle Berry as Storm, mainly because of her on again, off again African accent. She even delivers the worst line of the movie when she's fighting off Toad:

"Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else."

Um...snap?

The sad part is that line came from a draft written by one of my favorite writers/directors, Joss Whedon. But another line in his draft made it into the movie and it's one of the best. It's when Wolverine rejoins the team after fighting Mystique posing as him:

WOLVERINE: Hey! Hey! It's me.

CYCLOPS: Prove it!

WOLVERINE: You're a dick. 

In closing, X-Men is not a perfect film but it does okay in setting up characters and situations and manages to satisfy the fans. I'm sure people were left wanting more and they certainly did get more in the sequel. This movie would have the elements that would make Marvel movies so unique including good action, good humor, class A actors playing the heroes, and a cameo from Stan Lee. But Marvel was only beginning to take the world by storm one little step at a time.

RATING: MODEST APPROVAL