Never read the comic book, love the movie

Rating: Null/10 (23 November 2000)

I've never read the X-Men comic books, and had very little knowledge of the characters before I saw it. I really enjoyed it! The acting was, for the most part, superb, and the special effects were amazing. The different characters were incredible - I was constantly looking forward to seeing what special powers the next one would have, and thinking, "Wow, I wish I could do that!". The Toad guy was a definite highlight. The biggest problem I had was that I wanted it to last longer - I wanted to know more about the characters, but there probably wasn't enough time for all of that. The plot was basically very interesting and even sort of deep. It really gave you a sense of internal struggle. Professor X was playing the X-Men version of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Magneto was playing Malcolm X! My suspicions of this were confirmed when I heard Magneto say "By any means necessary." It was that kind of conflict. The bad guys really weren't that bad, you could understand how their oppression made them feel the way they did. I found all of the mutants to be very likable.
There were some flaws - Wolverine's past was the most nagging one. They would show choppy flashbacks of his past and refer to it throughout the movie, but it never went anywhere and was never explained. What was the point? To show his angst visually, or to make us look forward to a sequel? Hmm. Also, Storm did say that really awful line "Do you know what happens to a toad when it's struck by lightening? The same thing that happens to everyone else." That was significantly lame. In a few places details were overlooked, like driving to a train on a motorcycle and taking the train home. Where did the motorcycle go? Eh?