Would have made a great TV pilot

Rating: 9/10 (4 August 2000)

With any movie coming from a source this ingrained in its fans, there's always the danger that the result will be totally incomprehensible to the public at large. Miraculously, 'X-Men' almost completely avoids this pitfall, with the few forgivable (almost mandatory) exceptions of minor in-jokes that don't distract in any way. I have only a surface familiarity with the background comic, gleaned mostly from hearing other people talk, and had no trouble understanding and genuinely getting into the film right from the start.
I really liked this movie. It's got great characters, main and supporting, a great setup, a great general introduction to the concepts, a nice balance of special effects, a respectable plot that effectively sets up the main characters' relationships, and hints at what the next step in the story's development will be-- and then it just stops. Great, I can't wait for next week's thrilling second installment! Except in this case it'll be a year-plus before a sequel's out.
I had a few minor quibbles with this film, especially over the way the straightforward plot seems to have been severely edited for time, but the only real problem was that the film seems to lack a real effective climax and conclusion. It honestly feels more like a terrific TV pilot episode than a stand-alone movie, and I have the suspicion it would have benefited impressively from the extra running time it might have gained on television. Luckily the rest of the movie is well enough done-- especially in the way it manages to independently develop characters with decades of history behind them in a ridiculously short amount of time-- so that I'm willing to wait to see where the story's going next. With a setup this engaging it'll be a crying shame if the follow-up doesn't prove to be twice as good-- and that ought to be really impressive to see.