One the best comic-book adaptions to date!

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2000)

I was really counting down the days before X-Men was going to be released in Malaysia, downloaded all the trailers and even read every preview I could get my hands on.
When it finally got released, I went to watch it on the first day with my whole family.
And amazing as it would seem, it was better than I had ever anticipated! The pacing, the story, the special effects and most of all Hugh Jackman!
From its opening in World War II Poland to the climatic final fight on top the Statue of Liberty, this movie had me in its vice-like grip and just wouldn't let go!
Far from being an action film, director Bryan Singer has done a great job in recreating the world of the X-Men on the big screen.
Best of all, the movie wasn't just about some special effects thrill ride with unbelievable action scenes but rather an intelligent film which we can all relate to.
The world of X-Men is not entirely unlike our own. Prejudice towards mutants in the movie echoes the racial problems of our own world.
Mutants are made to feel like outcasts in the movie, something most people would be able to relate to since one time or another, we have all had the feeling of not fitting in.
The movie also excelled in its realistic portrayal of human relationship. Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan all gave superb performances as mutants with human feelings, frustrations and convictions.
The big brother-small sister relationship between Wolverine and Rogue was perhaps the emotional strongpoint of the movie. Great acting indeed.
The on-screen relationship between Magneto and Professor Xavier too was another high-point of the film. Here are two equally brilliant minds who could have had the strongest of friendships had it not been for their opposing views on humanity's prejudice towards mutantkind.
Magneto himself was not portrayed as your average I-wanna-rule-the-world villain, but rather a product of Nazi brutality towards Jewish people. Magneto is on a personal war to prevent what he sees is the beginnings of another Holocoust, this time not against Jews, but against mutants everywhere.
All in all, this movie is a must see, not for its special effects (though excellent) or action (very good), but rather for the human drama. And that is what X-Men succeeds in. In being a movie that is directed against racism, bigotry and prejudice. Highly recommended!