X-MEN
[Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romjin-Stamos, Halle Berry, James Mardsen, Famke Jennsen, Tyler Mane, Ray Park]

How many good super-hero movies can you think of? The first two Superman (Christopher Reeve) films, the first Batman (Michael Keaton), and Blade (Wesley Snipes) are the only ones that readily come to mind. It's so hard to sell stories about characters with extra abilities and weird costumes to mass-audiences. You can see why there are good reasons movies full of such characters almost never get off the ground. The X-Men are lucky in that most of their powers don't require too much expensive CGI work to pull off, but their inherent themes of paranoia and racial injustice added with enough back-story to fill seventeen Mexican soap operas more than make up for it.

With tons of fan boys out there and a lot of history behind it, I'm surprised that the movie actually turned out as good as it did. Given every opportunity to screw up, Singer and a crew of credited and uncredited screenwriters overcame almost every obstacle in their way. "X-Men" should be the blueprint for super-hero films to come.

The first task is setting up the world: From the opening we learn that human evolution is lurching forward. People born with significant genetic differences (blue skin, wings, whatever) are called mutants. In the not too distant future, normal humans such as Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison) react to those born as mutants with fear and revulsion, much as others have reacted to blacks, Jews and homosexuals in the past. Kelly leads a political and societal movement to single all mutants out, first with identification, but he is not unopposed.

The second task is setting up the characters: Among the mutants there are two factions. One is the Brotherhood of Mutants, led by Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen). He's seen the same attitudes before when he saw the Nazis put his parents to death in the gas chambers. Magneto is not taking any chances about a repeat. He and the Brotherhood will protect their brethren by any means necessary. Hope for conciliation is left to Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Divided from his former friend Magneto by ideology, he runs a school where mutants can learn to cope with their differences. Beneath the school is the headquarters for his graduates who seek to protects both mutants and humans from mutants, the X-Men. Our tour guides through the conflicts of this world are Logan (Hugh Jackman) and the teenage Rogue (Anna Paquin). Rogue learns of her powers after accidentally placing the first boy she kisses in a coma. Freaked, she hits the road where she eventually runs into the amnesiac, brooding Logan who sometimes goes by the name Wolverine. The pair then find themselves sucked into the battles amongst all the other parties.

Thankfully, this film is neither campy nor is it an action film. Singer and company have set out to explore this world and its inhabitants. They hold fealty to human nature before the original comics. The basic personalities and interpersonal relationships have been, for the most part, delicately preserved. Surprisingly, despite a total of ten mutant characters, all get the chance to at least distinguish themselves. The film wouldn't work, however, without the one guy who dominates the comic, Wolverine. In Jackman, we have a surprise star. His reaction to all this craziness defines the audience's as he's forced to pick sides in this super-powered struggle. Jackman's talent and presence are the driving force behind the whole movie.

One of the few problems with X-Men is that it's too short. Clocking in at under 100 minutes you're left wanting more. The biggest problem for me, being a fan of the comics, is the "bastardizing" of Rogue and Mystique. Mystique is slightly forgivable, although her look/design is still disturbing (in more ways than one). However, Rogue's character was completely destroyed...the only thing they got right with her was her accent. The back stories created in the comics are completely erased and unusable now, and her relationships with other characters and vice versa are totally screwed up. What happens if they decide to bring Gambit in for a future film? Or if Jubilee becomes a major character?

Thankfully I was distracted by other things to care too much. One of the fun things about comic book movies are the in-jokes that are frequently added. Look for Shawn Ashmore (Animorphs) as Iceman, Katrina Florece as Jubilee, Sumela Kay (Simon Birch) as Shadowcat, Donald Mackinnon as Colossus, Jon Davey as Cannonball, and Alex Burton as Pyro within the X-mansion scenes. Also, try and take on Singer's challenge of counting the number of X's in the movie.

The filmmaking team, which includes executive producer Richard Donner, the director of Superman: The Movie, have done their part by creating a world with a lot of stories left to tell. And after topping the box office with about $57 million, I'm hearing "sequel." (Note: Singer and crew have signed for three movies...so a trilogy is probably in the works.) And of course, with a box office success on their hands, Marvel has gone ahead and given green lights to a number of other movies based on their properties including: Spider-Man (in pre-production with director Sam Raimi), The Incredible Hulk (in pre-production), Ghost Rider (in production with Johnny Depp attached to star), Dr. Strange, The Fantastic Four, Iron Man (Tom Cruise wants to produce and star), and Black Panther (Wesley Snipes wants to produce and star).

-JoE-
©2000 JMR