X-Men Review by Michael Lee

It didn't suck.

For months, I've been saying "Please don't let the X-Men movie suck" as a mantra -- movies based on superhero comic books always tend to have fatal flaws; the first two Superman films with a parody Lex Luthor, Batman films that casually reveal Bruce Wayne's identity to all, to the outright abomination that was Batman & Robin. So while the trailers for The X-Men looked promising, the casting looked solid, and the messages director Bryan Singer was sending in interviews were the right ones, you can never be too sure, and I feared for the worst.

I'm perhaps glad I did, because it meant I enjoyed the film all the more. The X-Men, as a comic book, is one of the four cornerstones of my geek adolecence. When written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne (and later various others), this was a universe I regularly escaped to with delight. Days of Future Past, where we visit a future dominated by mutant hunting giant Sentinel robots still stands as one of my favorite comic storylines ever. While I've found the current X-Men comics to be increasingly less relevant to me through the years, I still care about the series and the characters.

So what did they do right? Obviously, the biggest thing is that we got Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. We knew going in that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen would do a good job, but Wolverine is the central character of the movie and the most popular X-Man. Considering that he signed on so late to the production, it's even more amazing -- he was Wolverine -- from the chewing on the cigar, to his dialog and character, he was absolutely perfect. It was his movie through and through.

What did they do right? They kept it fun, but didn't make it a parody. They made changes that would make for a better movie without betraying the ethic and spirit that made the comic book successful for so many years. This isn't an easy task -- I can't think of very many examples where they don't end up sacrificing what made it originally appealing to make it more accessible for a general audience. Anna Paquin's Rogue starts younger than we really ever see her in the comic, but she's the most tragic character in the film, and she fits perfectly into the film. Her relationship with Wolverine -- one that is borrowed from the relationship Kitty Pryde had with the character in the comic -- is ideal, and enhances both characters.

In fact, there were some things that the movie was even better than the comic -- I've never been as convinced that Xavier's school was actually a school until this movie.

The biggest problem with the film was there wasn't enough of it -- we didn't get nearly as much interplay between Magneto and Professor X as I would have liked, as each scene they had together left me wanting more. But then, better not enough than too much, it left me hungry for more.

None of the actors were disappointing -- even Halle Berry, who was the least promising in the trailers, was completely Storm by the time we saw her in the last battle sequence. James Marsden wasn't that prominent as Cyclops, perhaps, and didn't get quite the time as the other characters, but that's about the weakest link in the cast. Once again, the problem was not enough.

I waited until after I saw the movie a second time to write up my review -- because sometimes you decide you don't like something as much on second viewing. Fortunately, I liked it as much or more the second time -- and I'm sure I'll see it again, and I hope that the DVD release is filled with some of the footage that was cut as they rushed to get this out.

The best superhero adaptation in a generation, The X-Men left me wanting more. More Stewart, McKellen, and Jackman. The movie is set up to have sequels, of course, and that's what I want. I hope that the makers of any sequels to this film don't follow the path of the Superman or Batman film franchises, which self-destruct in the most spectacular fashion possible.

Bring on the Sentinels. I want the giant, mutant hunting robots next please.

If you aren't that familiar with the X-Men, I highly recommend The Essential X-Men: 120-144, which captures the peak period of the X-Men during the early 1980s. It is what hooked me on the book and on comics in general. Reprinted in black & white, it's an inexepensive way to get the reason why this movie was made in the first place.

Tim Wick also wrote an X-Men review.

Views Home Me, Myself and Irene: There's Something About Jim Carrey (07/12/2000) The Patriot: Another revolutionary review. (07/03/2000) The Patriot: Another Independence Day? (06/30/2000) Dinosaur: Disney's trip to the land before time. (06/29/2000) 2000 MISFITS Picnic: Pictures from the recent MISFITS Picnic (06/29/2000)

The X-Men

Four and a Half out of Five Beakers

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Michael Lee stepped into the MISFITS Website and vanished .... He woke to find himself trapped on the Internet, facing pages that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change the MISFITS Website for the better. His only guide on this journey is Professor Maxwell Misfittle, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Mike can see and hear. And so Mr. Lee finds himself leaping from site to site, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. Michael previously reviewed Reinventing Comics.

Better not enough than too much.