Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, what can go wrong.

Rating: 7/10 (26 January 2012)

I have never really liked comic book adaptations all that much because they have always seemed to be to be quite dull. With the exception of Tintin and Asterix I never really got into comic books as a kid, or even as an adult. In particular I never really liked Superman, but when one takes some of these comic books and step back and consider the world in which it is set it begins to take on a new life. Most comic book heroes tend to be incredibly wealthy, and in their spare time they are off saving the world for super villains.
While it can be suggested that this is the case with the X-men, it is actually quite a lot more complicated than that. The Marvel Universe has three types of people. There are the normal humans, like you and I. Then there are the heroes, normal people who during their life have gained some form of superpower (such as Spiderman when he was bitten by the radioactive spider) and finally there are the mutants, people born with superpowers. It is these mutants that this particular film explores.
The setup is complex. First of all you have the humans than fear the appearance of these mutants, and because of the powers that they possess, they are threatened, and as such are looking for ways to restrict and control these people that are appearing. Then there are the mutants themselves, divided into two opposing camps. There are the X-men, who are lead by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), and they seek to protect and defend humanity, only using their powers for good. Then there are the mutants who follow Magneto (Ian Mackellan) who believe that because of their powers they should rule humanity. There are mutants that do not follow either of these two philosophies, but in this film it is these three groups that are fighting against each other.
The movie opens with Rogue about to kiss her boyfriend, only to discover that when she does so she drains all of the life out of him, so she is forced to flee. Running to north Canada, she falls in with Logan (Hugh Jackman) otherwise known as Wolverine. After convincing him to let her travel with him (he is a loner), they are attacked by mutants who are loyal to Magneto, but the X-men arrive in time and take them back to the Xavier's School of the Gifted (the X-men's base). It is from there that we begin to learn of Magneto's plan to cripple humanity and pave the way for a mutant takeover.
The question with this film is the continuity. While this is the first film in the series, there are films that occur before hand, such as Wolverine. In that film we discover that Wolverine and Sabretooth are brothers, but that does not seem to come out in this film. However, Wolverine has lost him memory (we don't know how that happened at this stage), but when he is told about Sabretooth, it seems to jog his memory slightly. As for Sabretooth, at the end of Wolverine he cries out 'nobody kills Wolverine but me!'. In this film this is suggested, particularly when Sabretooth takes a particular interest in Wolverine's dogtags.
When one stands back a bit, and considers the movie as a whole, it really comes down to Magneto having a plan to make him more powerful and to rule over humanity, and the X-men going out to beat them. However, one thing that was a little disappointing was how easy it was to kill Sabretooth. He got blasted with a laser, and that was it. However, in Wolverine he was much harder to kill. He had claws, and like Wolverine, he could regenerate. We see none of that here, however one probably does have to consider the comics a bit more, something which I really do not have the time of inclination to do. However, while the plot may be a little dull, it is the background (as well as having some heaps cool actors) that attracts me to this film.
There is also the issue of discrimination, and I guess it is a thing that we all need to confront. Discrimination is something created by fear. We fear that we are going to lose our place in the world, and because of that we will discriminate against another race. I remember in the 80s in Australia when the target of discrimination were the Asians, and it is true that the Asians are much more populous than us. We fear that by letting a few in, they will then flood in, and we will lose our identity and power in our country. It is the same fear that rules humanity here. Despite the X-men seeking the best for humanity, humanity fears them, and this is because it is clear that the mutants are so much more powerful than us. Discrimination is actually a theme that seems to not only run through all of the movies, but through all of the comics as well (though Wolverine has a somewhat different theme running through it, as does First Class).