Pass the Popcorn! review

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2014)

Undoubtedly, we live in the golden age of superhero movies – in the last several years, there have been more superhero movies than ever and the majority of them were big box office successes. And the movie which is almost solely responsible for this current situation – the movie because of which the superhero movie fad reemerged, after it nearly died in the 90s – is Bryan Singer's 'X-Men' (2000). In spite of being considered a low budget movie in the summer blockbuster season, 'X-Men' managed to earn almost $300 million world wide, thus spawning more movies in the franchise and making way for other superhero movies. In its own way, 'X-Men' played an important role in cinematic history.
Set in the near future, 'X-Men' follows mutants (extraordinary individuals with superhuman powers) in their plight to be accepted by the human race. There are two notable fractions among the mutants: The X-Men, led by the peaceful, intelligent Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the Brotherhood of Mutants, who operate as terrorists, and are led by the brilliant, but vengeful Magneto (Ian McKellen). Two mutants – Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a former military personnel who can't remember his past, and Rogue (Anna Paquin), a confused teenager – get caught up in the rivalry between the fractions.
'X-Men' works both as a decent action-drama movie and a superhero movie. What differentiates 'X-Men' from other superhero movies is how seriously it deals with its source materials and topics – the topics of homosexuality, racism and even America's fear of communism. In the hands of another director, 'X-Men' could have been nothing more than a generic mindless action movie, but in the hands of Bryan Singer (himself a homosexual), who also worked on the movie as a writer, 'X-Men' definitely stands out among other superhero movies/franchises. Although it deals with serious topics, 'X-Men' never comes off as preachy; it equally portrays two legitimate, opposing views – that of Charles Xavier and that of Magneto. In spite of Magneto being the movie's bad guy, he makes some interesting remarks about the nature of humans, and the audience can easily side with him morally (which is unquestionably a sign of a well written villain). Casting Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in their respective roles of Charles Xavier and Magneto was a genius move, since both of them give magnificent, memorable performances. The then actor newcomer, Hugh Jackman, doesn't fall behind in his most iconic role to date – that of Logan aka Wolverine.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the movie was on the same acting level as McKellen/Stewart. Especially not Halle Berry, whose acting was clingy and awkward, and created a very unnatural Storm. To her defense, she did have possibly the worst lines of dialogue in the movie (especially the infamous 'you know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning' line), but she still was the weakest link in the acting crew. And speaking of dialogue, it seemed like throughout the movie the dialogue slowly started deteriorating, with the dialogue in the movie's third act being sub par to the rest of the dialogue in the movie. In addition to that, 'X-Men' clearly could have benefited from a bigger budget since some of the action sequences in the movie were oddly executed. Luckily for the audience, the sequel, X2, learned from its predecessor's mistakes and was an even better movie.
Rating: 7/10 Read more reviews at http://passpopcorn.com/