An OK distraction

Rating: 5/10 (16 July 2000)

Let's get one thing straight. Patrick Stewart is WAY too talented to be doing this kind of thing. He is excellent as Xavior, but his talents are still wasted. In an age when style counts more than substance, X-Men fares better than most comic book adaptions. It ranks better than any of the Batman films, but that's not so tough since they haven't made a good one yet. But this film makes the typical Hollywood flaw, it lets its' visuals and volume level get in the way of story and character development. Sure it loud, fast paced, and visually impressive. It makes for a good summer movie, and it's technical achievements assure it good sales when it hits video. But is there anything really worthwhile here? Not really. There is nothing within the characters or the story that really get to you. You simply do not care about the characters and their situations. You are not given the chance to. Instead, you're beat over the head with more meaningless, albeit impressive, action sequences. Unfortunately, we live in an age when that equates good filmmaking to mass audiences. Hollywood has only gotten the comic book translation right two times. The most recent was The Crow. It, like X-Men, was visually stunning. But The Crow made room for character development. You cared about what was going on. It had real emotion and an incredible performance by Brandon Lee. But the greatest comic adaption in Hollywood history is Superman. The original and its' sequel stand head-and-shoulders above all the others. They had incredible visuals and epic action scenes. But most importantly, they had character dimension. They all served a purpose to the story. The action served the story. They also remained loyal to the characters. Even the lesser Supmerman sequels, while not very good movies, remained faithful to the characters. If you've ever read an X-Men comic, you'll see many changes to the characters. They are either flat background characters that are thrown in because the audience expects to see them (Storm, Cyclops), or they are completely changed to fit into a modern movie. The biggest example of that is Wolverine. First off, he doesn't have the same demeanor, or accent, as the comic character. He was just over 5' tall, now he's over 6'. And he wore a bright spandex costume, not leather. The leather may be more 90's but it's just not true to the vibrant nature of the comic. So, all in all, I was very disappointed. It's just another flash in the pan. It will make a load of money, but will not stand the test of time. No one will remember this movie 20 years from now, except the fanboys whose lives revolve around X-Men. Still, it looks good so I give it 5 out of 10.