Year:
2000
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Feature:
4/5
DVD:
5/5
The history of super-hero movies based on Marvel properties have been
kind of dismal. Spider-Man, Captain America, and Thor among others have
suffered from both bad writing and primitive special effects. Even
"tech-friendly" heroes like The Punisher have not done well at the box
office. Super-hero powers have been hard to believably portray on film
because the technology just wasn't capable of doing it.
On the other hand, DC Comics heroes have fared better on the big
screen, notably with Superman and Batman. It wasn't until this film
that Marvel finally had a successful super-hero movie. And then the
bigger success of Spider-Man
has reinvigorated Marvel's movie franchises, a view that hasn't changed
even with the disappointments of the recently released Daredevil and The Punisher.
The X-Men have not always the mainstay Marvel property that you see
today. In the beginning was already set the core concept of a group of
mutant kids protecting a humanity that loathes and fears them. The
writing and art were not significantly different than other Marvel
titles. The problem was that it just didn't sell. There was a period of
a few years when the X-Men continued to be released bi-monthly strictly
as reprints with no new stories (from issues numbering in the late 60's
to issue 92).
The X-Men special and then issue 93 saw Chris Claremont take over the
reign as writer for the comic book. He introduced a whole new set of
heroes, more racially and culturally diverse than the original group. A
new group with more foibles and more internal conflict than the rather
WASP-ish original five. Along with the original group, these are the
heroes that Claremont made into the successful icons that they are
today.
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Now, X-Men, the movie has 30+ years of
history to choose from. It doesn't go back all the way to the beginning
because that was when the X-Men were boring. It doesn't even go back to
the start of the Claremont era because there are just too many
characters. Instead it starts off a whole new history, borrowing
appropriate elements from the rich history of the X-Men comic books.
Rogue (Anna Paquin) is a new mutant, running away from home and
wandering the Canadian boondocks. She meets up with another vagabond,
Login (neé Wolverine, Hugh Jackman). Before they can even
properly introduce themselves they are attacked by Sabertooth (Tyler
Mane) and saved by the timely intervention of Cyclops (James Marsden)
and Storm (Halle Berry).
Rogue and Wolverine are soon swept up into the X-Men, headed by
Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Xavier explains that
Sabertooth is a henchman of Magneto (Ian McKellen) who is up to some
diabolical plot that the X-Men are sworn to protect. Though it isn't
their fight, Rogue and Wolverine are nevertheless find themselves in
the thick of a battle with the free world at stake.
X-Men is a fast
movie at less than 100 minutes. And yet it's a complete story and is
well paced. It's focused, economical of time, with good special effects
and a good story. It is not just the comic books translated to screen,
but properly adapted to a new medium and a different audience.
The DVD set has the movie on the first DVD, along with commentary by
director Brian Singer and some deleted scenes and behind the scenes
footage. The extra material is buried in the movie as special links
which I hate because I miss a good third of the links. The second DVD
has over two hours of main material (not counting little asides and
extra material in special links, although at least this time you can
also get to the extras separately). It's packed with behind the scenes,
interviews, art and commercial trailers.
Overall, X-Men the movie is a
good super-hero action film. The DVD set has lots of interesting
material. The whole package is well worth buying.
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