With the overall success of Days of Future Past last year, I finally decided to check out what the X-Men movies were all about. I’ve never seen any of them before now, but from what I’ve heard, they’re a pretty popular film series. I’ve also heard that the quality of some were…. questionable, but I’ll have to see them for myself. This is the very first installment, released in 2000.
In the story of X-Men, there’s a subspecies of human called Mutants. Each of them is naturally born with superpowers. Apparently, the majority of normal people don’t like Mutants at all. In fact, many hate them with a passion. It’s out of fear and lack of understanding. Throughout history, Mutants have been shunned and discriminated against. However, Professor Charles Xavier, a Mutant himself, organizes a sort of boarding school that teaches Mutants how to control their individual powers. Xavier wants Mutants and humans to live in harmony. While he’s trying to accomplish that, another Mutant, who goes by the name Magneto, is convinced that it’s impossible for Mutants to live alongside humanity. He’s lost faith in making a world of tolerance, and now wants Mutant-kind to be the dominant species of Earth, free from the intolerance of the world as it is.
I will let you know right now that I have never read an X-Men comicbook. I’ve done my research on them in my spare time, and have gotten to know a bit about them, but I never read any of the stories. So I don’t know how well it adapts the basic story from the comics to the big screen. All I know is that I really enjoyed this movie. More than I thought I would, actually. Given the quality of other superhero movies at the time, I wasn’t expecting anything more than a cheesy, childish, stupid comicbook film. But it was actually good!
I know cheesiness when I see it, and this film didn’t have a whole lot of it. The only parts that could be considered cheesy were the characters Toad and Sabertooth. Other than that, it was taken pretty seriously. I like how the main purpose of X-Men is to be an allegory for prejudice. It really is the perfect allegory for the issue. The original comics were written during the civil rights era, when racism and discrimination was all over the place. The movie gets this issue across rather well.
The best part about this film is how character driven it is. Wolverine and Rogue are the main focus, and they’re both dealing with being a Mutant in a Mutant-hating world. I thought Rogue’s backstory was nice, and her friendship with Wolverine was pretty cool. I know that both characters were later additions to the X-Men team in the comics, but having them in the first movie wasn’t a bad choice. I think they’re 2 of the most interesting X-Men characters. With Wolverine’s mysterious past, Rogue’s power, and the friendship they formed, they were a great addition to the movie.
Now that I have seen it for myself, I can agree with everyone when they say that Hugh Jackman is THE Wolverine. This was one of the best casting choices in film history. I honestly, now, can’t picture anyone else being in that role in any X-Men movie. In fact, a lot of the casting was well executed. Ian McKellen as Magneto, Patrick Stewart as Xavier, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and everyone else was a good call on the casting director’s end.
As for the other X-Men, from what I know and what I saw, only 2 of the original X-Men team were there. You could argue that Iceman was in it, but he only had a couple scenes and wasn’t a part of the official team. He was only a student at the Mutant school. There was no Angel and no Beast. Only Cyclops and Jean Grey. Storm was also in the movie, played by Halle Berry. She can control weather, which is awesome. But I couldn’t feel like the actual X-Men team took a back seat to Rogue and Wolverine. I loved those two, but if the film was just a little longer, giving Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey a little more screentime to develop, I think I would have liked them a lot more.
Other characters I thought were alright were the Brotherhood of Mutants, formed by Magneto. Sabretooth was cool, Toad was a little on the cheesy side, but Mystique was the freakiest thing I’ve seen in a while! She can turn into any person she wants! But in her natural form, she's... blue. And scaly.
My favorite of the Brotherhood of Mutants has to be Magneto, played by Sir Ian McKellen. He’s not necessarily a bad guy, it’s just that he wants his fellow Mutants to be safe. He was in one of the Nazi death camps in Poland during WW2, and as you can imagine, he was not treated well. Probably worse since he was a Mutant. Though things have changed since then, he still won’t forgive humans for how they’ve treated Mutants, how they still do treat them. I can understand why he acts the way he does. Stan Lee even said that he was never really a ‘bad guy’. He was only looking out for the other Mutants, not wanting them to suffer like he did. And to Magneto, if that means destroying or enslaving humans to make the world a place of tolerance and prosperity for them, then he’d be willing to do it. I guess that’s why I like the character so much.
Surprisingly, most of the special effects still hold up pretty well today. Mystique’s transformation, Cyclop’s laser, Toad (to some extent) and a few other things. The fight sequences were impressive, too. I especially liked the fight between Wolverine and Mystique. That was fantastic! Storm kicked @$$, Jean Grey and Cyclops… well, they did some fighting. Not as much as I’d have liked to see.
In conclusion, X-Men was a solid movie. Great characters (with the exception of mostly Jean and Cyclops), good acting, sweet action, and nice music, too. I liked the touch on the issues of prejudice and equal rights, I liked the overall conflict between Xavier and Magneto, and I LOVED Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I’m disappointed that I didn’t see this sooner. I guess I really was missing out.
FINAL RATING: 36 / 50
STORY: 3 / 5
ACTING: 4 / 5
CHARACTERS: 4 / 5
SPECIAL EFFECTS: 3 / 5
ACTION: 4 / 5
SOUNDTRACK: 3 / 5
TONE: 3 / 5
ENJOYABILITY: 4 / 5
REWATCH VALUE: 4 / 5
OWNING VALUE: 4 / 5
Now I'm committed to seeing all the others. No matter how bad X-Men 3 and Origins: Wolverine supposedly are, I will see them.
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