An excellent comic book adaption

Rating: 8/10 (26 February 2003)

The X-Men is great motion picture entertainment. With its restrained pacing and devotion to character development, it also moves beyond mere entertainment and explores deeper issues such as tolerance. For the most part the special effects are convincing. An exception is a scene where a ship landing on water clearly appears to be a model. The cast is first rate but Jackman's Wolverine clearly steals the show. Now that Halle Berry has become a bigger star, her role in the sequel will no doubt be expended. My favorite scenes were the philsophical exchanges between Stewart's Xavier and MacKellan's Magneto. This movie was great on the big screen but the impressiveness of its panoramas and special effects diminish somewhat on DVD, even on a big screen TV. Still a terrific movie that provides more than escapist entertainment, 8/10.