Good, but much room for improvement

Rating: Null/10 (15 July 2000)

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and felt it worked on its own terms as a special-effects laden summer action movie, but it could have been so much more. The producers clearly didn't have much faith in its audience, keeping the film to 95 minutes and sacrificing story and character development in favor of action and visual effects, and doing everything short of flashing "Coming Soon: X-Men 2" in purple neon at the film's conclusion. The critics seem to think it is too overcrowded, but i actually felt there should have been more characters. It felt odd watching a team of essentially four X-Men (this isn't the Fantastic Four!) I hope they bring more in for the sequel. I'd especially like to see Gambit and Nightcrawler, or maybe more of Kitty Pryde and Iceman, who only make brief appearances in this film. Hopefully there will be more character development. If they just slow it down and actually tell a story, they could have something really great and meaningful on their hands. In other words, a real film, as opposed to a popcorn flick. The romance between Cyclops and Jean could obviously be expanded. They don't even so much as kiss in this movie! They seem oddly ill-suited, for she is obviously several years older than him. Still, i was pleasantly surprised with the casting choices, with all the actors surpassing my expectations. On the other hand, their performances make it all the more plain that they need a stronger script, one with more emotional and intellectual power. They can clearly handle it as actors, even Halle Berry, who is gorgeous but only occasionally gives good performances. She is just right as Storm, and Anna Paquin is terrific as Rogue. All i can say is, they got a good director in Bryan Singer, so please, PLEASE, get a top-notch writer to equal him for the sequel.