Good fun, and it shows respect to the comic book and its fans

Rating: 7/10 (26 September 2001)

It's always nice to see a superhero tale told with an amount of respect shown to the source material, rather than taking the easy route to campy humour and frivolity. The X-Men, one of Marvel Comics' most popular titles, if not THE most popular, concerns itself with a group of young mutants, using their powers to protect humankind.
The movie focuses on two of the more interesting characters as they discover their powers, come to terms with being ostracised from society, and eventually find a home at Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Children, from where the X-Men launch their missions to protect mankind.

Much of the casting is inspired. Patrick Stewart would have been a popular choice for Professor Xavier if it had gone to a vote anyway, but Shakespearian thesp Sir Ian McKellen turns up in the unlikely role of a costumed supervillain. He pulls it off in fine style.
As for the X-Men themselves, Hugh Jackman was a great choice for the pivotal Wolverine character, and Halle Berry's icy-cool Storm was perfect. As always, though, Berry seems to be underused. A shame, as she's a great actress. Anna Paquin's youthful Rogue was cute but didn't seem to have much to do except play a hapless captive. Hopefully she'll get her chance to kick some ass in the sequel. Janssen and Marsden were fine as Jean Grey and Cyclops, but they seemed to be secondary characters. Again, maybe there'll be more for them to do second time around?
As far as the sequel goes, hopefully we'll be getting more action, as the necessary exposition about the mutants and their world is now out of the way. It's slightly disappointing that we'll be seeing the same villains again, as apart from Magneto himself they were a little drab. For all her lithe sexiness, Romijn-Stamos's Mystique was little more than the dull old shapeshifting villain, and Mane's Sabretooth nothing but a bumbling musclehead. Ray Park seemed to be having fun as Toad, though, and it'll be worth seeing more of this particular villain.
One of the best movie adaptations of a comic book then, and we should be looking forward to an exciting sequel next year.