The X-Men
A typical superhero movie but with some nice surprises.
By Christopher Welch

When I first heard that Bryan Singer, the director of The Usual Suspects, and Apt Pupil, was going to direct the live action version of the best selling comic book, The X-Men, I was elated. I figured he would bring a nice practical sensibility to an often times silly genre, the comic book movie. Now having seen the final product, I think he has succeeded in some ways, but also failed in others.

First things first let me just say X-Men is a lot of fun. It has lots of really cool action sequences, great special effects, and some pretty good humor. You've got a guy with claws who can't get hurt. Another guy who shoots laser beams out of his eyes, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos wearing nothing, but a thin layer of blue paint, and a smile. How can you go wrong with that combination.

Unfortunately, aspects like these can be found in most comic book movies, and because of that most of these films rely solely on these two dimensional characters. X-Men kind of does as well. The plot is pretty basic. The bad guys do something to threaten a large number of people, and the good guys have to save the day. There's lots of posturing, and emotional distress over some past aspect of their lives, but they work through all this, and sure enough the good guys come in and royally whoop on the villains. WARNING SPOILER AHEAD: The same exact thing happens in this movie. The writer, basically just took a carbon copy of every comic book movie plot ever made, and just filled in the blanks. However some of those blanks are pretty cool.

I have to hand it to Bryan Singer for trying to go the extra mile. With a movie like this no one really expects it, so he didn't really have to even try, yet he does. The film actually attempts to humanize all the characters, and does a pretty decent job of it. Mind you they're still not as well developed as the characters in a lot of your better movies, but there's at least a little something there. The film does a pretty good job of letting you sympathize with these characters even though they've got these phenomenal powers. I don't know about you, but in most comic book movies I sit there and think "Guy in a funny suit, stop lamenting and go kick some more butt." In this film I actually was interested in what made these people tick.

Now mind you there's plenty of shallowness to go around as well. Magneto's henchmen barely speak, and are just there to look cool, and beat people up. Also while Wolverine, Rogue, and Xavier show some depth. Cyclops, Storm, and Jean Grey just kind of stand around and act as instruments to create special effects, but there is never really ever any insight as to why they are fighting for Xaviers cause. Also while the whole idea of a senator trying to control, and eradicate an entire race of people is cool, and serves as perfect fodder to feed Magneto's intentions, there is never any reason given for why he loathes mutants. I think the big thing this film suffers from is they tried to do too much in too little time. The film is less than two hours long, and we all know that special effects and action scenes put more butts in the seat than characterization and plot development. Bryan Singer hints at and touches on a lot of things, but he is never given the proper time to explore them in-depth.

This film reminds me a lot of Star Wars: Episode One. The people at Fox new this movie was going to make money, and have already signed everyone on to do two more films. Like Episode One, this film sets up a lot of stuff that will be explored more in the next couple of movies. Unfortunately because of this though you get cheated out of certain things, in the movie you're watching in the here and now. These were all things I was willing to over look however. Especially since I'm a fan of the comic book. I very pleasantly surprised as to how close to the comic book they kept the movie. Okay so Rogue isn't a twenty something southern belle like she was in the comic books, but almost all of the dynamics from the comic are in the film. The film masterfully portrays the Xavier / Magneto love hate relationship. The love triangle between Wolverine, Cyclops, and Jean Grey is hit upon, and each character stays almost completely true to form as they were in the comic books. One of the best scenes is when Cyclops is speaking to an incapacitated Xavier, promising him that he will take care of his family. That is the one thing I really have to give this film credit for is the fact that they didn't try to take to many artistic liberties with something that's cool enough as it is.

If you're a fan of the comic book you should love this movie. The entire film is done in a say to pay respect to all of us nerds out there. If you don't like the comic, or have never even read you should enjoy it as well. Mind you this film won't even come close to crossing Academy members minds when they vote, but it will take your mind off to a world where, seemingly every day people have extraordinary powers, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos walks around naked in blue paint. Given the choice between the two worlds I'll take the later. Mmmm...Blue paint.