Could have been great, but instead was OK.

Rating: 6/10 (15 July 2000)

As the movie began, I thought "oh good, they're keeping the more serious tone of the X-men instead of sinking to the just say a cool one-liner and then blow something up action flick." However, the intelligent villains and emotional depth of the characters quickly gave way to "Hasta la vista, Baby". The plot quickly started to rely on intelligent characters suddenly acting stupid. Imagine something on par with Mystery Men, only this wasn't a comedy. The action sequences had some brilliant moments (Wolverine vs. Mystique), but the bulk of them just didn't convey the pace and intensity of super-heros battling super-villains. The majority of the combat sequences were just how many times can someone get sent flying (obviously on a digitally removed wire) through a wall. You get hit by lightning... fly through a wall, you get blasted by cyclops' eye beams... fly through a wall. Maybe I've just seen too many good combat sequences in Kung-Fu movies, but I was left less than impressed by the directing during most of the fight sequences. On top of the statue of Liberty there's about 1-2 seconds in a fight sequence where Wolverine and Sabertooth are both obscured by Lady Liberty's crown! I left the theater feeling like this movie came so close, but fell short so many times. If you're going to theater, see something else and wait for this to come out on video.