X-men brand boosts up an ok Sci-Fi Action flick/Compared to comics

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2002)

This movie did get me out to the theatre simply because it was X-men. I rented it on DVD and enjoyed it, again because it was X-men. I bought it... well you get the picture. The X-men are simply cool. I collected them when I was a kid, so I have the origins of many of these characters.
As a fan of the comic book I was disappointed with how they handled intros, and rearranged history. Note the lack of Nightcrwaler and Colossus, Bobby Drake (Iceman) being younger and not in the X-men, while Rogue starts out completely different... this list goes on and on. I should have hated it, but I realize in a 2 hour film you can't pack in 200 + comic books. So, with that as a given, and I forgave director Bryan Singer a bit.
If you can get past that, you have incredible special effects -- except where Wolverine spins around the Statue of liberty spike (shown in the trailers) that was pathetically rendered. the Special Effects nailed Cyclops' Ruby red Optic blasts, Wolverine's regenerative ability and Storm's Elemental power. Even Kitty Pryde's ability, while a relatively simple effect, is pulled off just like an X-men fan would expect. They did screw up with Mystique, but that's because she can't imitate inanimate objects, apart from clothing -- we blame that on a lazy script writer.
The movie has some pretty good action scenes, but not the all out multi-mutant brawls in the same area we came to expect from the comic. The danger room is missing too... though, hopefully we'll find Nightcrawler in there practicing in X-men 2.
The plot is pretty simple. Evil Mutant A (Magneto) has a "Pinky and the Brain" type of scheme the the X-men find out about and must stop. The only character development and backgrounds that are explored are for Wolverine, Rogue, Magneto and Professor Xavier -- in that order. All the other characters come off as filler and window decoration that just happens to fight. (Again hopefully rectified in X-men #2.)
As far as the acting and casting goes: Halle Berry was a bad casting job. Storm SHOULD have been played by Angela Basset -- no one else. Berry just wasn't convincing as a strong willed very independent person. Though she didn't have much to do. A simple 20 second scene of Storm freaking out in the elevator (she's supposed to be clausterphobic) and have a flashback to being trapped inside a collapsed house would have done it for her character. Instead she comes off with 2 lines that even sound like a hack script writer wrote them. Famke Jannsen looks great as Jean Grey, but we didn't get to see enough of her acting to tell if she'd be any good as The Phoenix (let's hope for that in movie 3 or 4.) Cyclops, was ok, but also an underdeveloped character. The real acting is done by Patrick Stewart (Xavier), Hugh Jackman (Logan/Wolverine), Ian McKellen (Magneto), and Anna Paquin (Rogue). Stewart and McKellen deliver both great acting (as always) and play the characters in line with the comics. Their lines were idealistic morality plays but a bit interesting. Jackman and Paquin come off as the confused and messed up people that the comic characters are, so they both get nods as doing good jobs.
All in all, this is an enjoyable picture even to those new to the X-men. There's just enough action to keep it interesting with a bit of dialog here and there to keep it from being all flash. I gave it 8 (would have given it a 7.5 if available) out of 10 because of the lack of things in it, and the lack of polish on some of the scenes. The movie could have ran 2 hours and been much better (Singer could have developed the others with that time), but I suspect Singer was aiming it towards people who have a hard time sitting still for over 90 minutes (it weighs in at the compromise time of 104 minutes).
I'd recommend a rental before purchase for anything, this film is no exception. Watch it a few times, if you like it buy it.