Good stuff

Rating: 9/10 (28 April 2006)

Move over Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk. The X-Men are here. Based on the Marvel comic-book heroes created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the "X-Men" movie is mostly just that--comic-book material. But it's done with such remarkable visual style, you might not notice its want of substance. In fact, "X-Men" resembles a lot of today's action movies; it involves a boatload of good actors in state-of-the-art technical wizardry and at its core lacks heart. As Gertrude Stein is supposed to have said of Oakland, "There's no 'there' there." In typical comic-book fashion, both the premise and plot of "X-Men" are quite simple, but the filmmakers have done their best to muddle them up, making the first hour of patchwork developments a chore to piece together. Here's the idea: Mankind, according to evolutionary theory, has taken millions of years to mutate into the species we are today; but what if those mutations could be effected in only a few years? Would not the result be a race of beings with possibly extraordinary powers compared to mere Homo sapiens? Without explaining how these instant mutations could occur, the story line assumes such things have already happened, resulting in a world of the "not-too-distant future" being inhabited by growing numbers of mutant people with unusual capabilities. Actually, it just gives the writers a flimsy excuse to let loose a bevy of superheroes and super-villains on the world without having to explain how they got that way. Even still Its the great series brought to life. Love it. Wolverine is the best.