Hmmmm, not too disappointing...

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2000)

Well, I have waited, and it has come. And, in my opinion, it's somewhere in the middle of the road. Not the most amazing film of the new year, which I had hoped for, nor the phenomenal let-down that I had been expecting. Many of you will believe that I am grading the movie too harshly, but to all the hardcore fans out there, you will uderstand where I am coming from.
Wolverine was definitely good. Even though he did not have as much, shall I say, grittiness and general tough guy attitude as the comics portray him, I believe that Hugh Jackman did an impressive job filling in his role's big shoes. Patrick Stewart also did a great job, truly portraying Professor X. Magneto was a bit harder, as Ian McKellen did a good job of displaying the emotions and motivations behind Magneto, but he does lack the bit of muscle that the real Magneto possessed, making his costume make him appear as a somewhat frail old man in a rather unflattering suit. I mean, the real Magneto was pretty jacked, but that is one detail I can do without. Jean Grey, portrayed by Famke Janssen, was more or less nondescript, although she does look somewhat like what I would expect Jean Grey to appear as. Cyclops, on the other hand, was more or less cheesy. Storm was the same, although at times Halle Berry was able to make her a bit less disappointing. Toad was a hit, even though he is WAY too strong for the little shrimp that he is (anyone who has read the comics knows). I guess the choices of Sabertooth and Mystique were more or less based completely on looks, because the 2 didnt require any acting whatsoever. It makes me wonder why they picked Rebecca Romijn Stamos...
I feel that the biggest problem was definitely the shortness of plot and the lack of characters. To the Xmen newbie, this movie does seem great. However, it misses out on a lot of key characters. Where is Gambit, Nightcrawler, Beast, Colossus, and Angel? Rogue and Iceman are just teens, and will hopefully be able to appear in the coming sequel (if there is one...). And the real lack of supervillains was definitely a let-down. They could've thrown in some more, even if they weren't part of the original story (I mean, it already is somewhat distorted as it is). I don't think anyone would mind if the producers and writers tossed in Mr Sinister and his Nasty Boys, or the rest of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (Pyro (who is a kid in Prof X's school), Blob, Phantasm, etc). And this movie should've been made to be around 3 hours long. In fact, this could've rivaled Star Wars. But the shortness of the film, around an hour and a half, didn't go for the character development and taggled plot lines that were usually found in the comics. All that can be said is, pray for a sequel...
Even though I spent all this time lamenting about what this movie lacks, it is definitely a film to go see. Good effects that dont turn the movie into a cyberjunkie's euphoria and some better than decent acting make this film overall a good choice. For the fans, see it for the heck of it. For the newcomers, see it because you will like it.