The start of a new era of comic book movies.

Rating: 9/10 (9 August 2004)

In the year 2000, the comic book movie was all but dead; the but being the "Blade" movies. Director Joel Schumacher, in making the spectacular flop of "Batman and Robin", had seemingly doomed the genre. But a new champion arose, a Marvel champion, in the form of director Bryan Singer's "X-Men". Long had Marvel been bequeathed the short end of the stick, with DC Comics making all the successful movies. The box office success of "X-Men" opened the doors to sequels, adaptations of "Spider-Man", "The Hulk", "Daredevil", "The Fantastic Four", "Punisher", and spurred DC's efforts to revive its ailing "Batman" and "Superman" franchises. Singer, more of an arthouse filmmaker than a commercial one, had assembled an all but perfect cast to play his legendary comic book characters. Patrick Stewart (a personal favourite, since I count myself a diehard Trekker) as Professor Xavier, the mutant who sought cooperation; Ian McKellen (soon to play Gandalf) as his opposite number Magneto, who believed mutants must make their own way; breakout star Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, haunted by flashes of his unknown past; Anna Paquin as Rogue, the girl for whom physical interaction with others was impossible; Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Xavier's telekinetic right hand; James Marsden as Cyclops, the brave field commander of the X-Men; Bruce Davison as the misguided McCarthyite Senator Kelly, who saw the light before his end; Rebecca Romijn as Magneto's henchman, Mystique; and, perhaps the only fly in the ointment, Halle Berry as weather god Storm. And for all of this, X-Men is only an average film. It isn't nearly as action-heavy as most comic book movies, and it is burdened by introducing so many characters. I rate it a 7/10. But for all its flaws, it revolutionized the comic book movie genre, making the making of greater films (like its sequel, X2) possible.