It's good, but the second movie is much better!

Rating: 7/10 (7 April 2005)

*** out of ****
I first watched this movie on theaters in 2000, but only now I have rented it and I'm ready to make a review. I never was that fan of comic books or super heroes, never even read those books or watched the animated series. So this review is based on a writer who is making a review of the movie alone with no references at all to the comic books or animated series. Well, maybe, just a bit.
When X-Men came out to the theaters, I remember people were really excited. There was a boy who was almost dying in his chair before the movie even began, because of the excitement he was having and he even said: "This movie is gonna explode!" Well, the movie began. In the first movie, we see characters like Wolwerine, Cyclops, Storm, Prof. Xavier, Magneto and some others, just to name the most famous ones. I really liked the cast of the movie, Halle Berry is not that bad as Storm as she is in other movies, but even so, Storm was a very easy role she took. Special effects add a lot to her performance, as she stroked Toad (Ray Park) with a thunder while her face was built on glowing white eyes and wind blowing through her hair. In this movie, we may say that Berry is not that bad, but it's not that great. The others are much greater. Starting with Prof. Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellen), these two really perform seriously like they were the same characters from the novel. Magneto may not be looking physically the same way as in the comic books or the animated series, but still, the performance was what count the most. And the special effects and costumes a lot also. Oh, I almost forgot about Rogue (Anna Panquin). The screams she was known for to win the Oscar for best actress in a supporting role in The Piano (1993) are here in this movie too, in the beginning of it, when she first meet with her special powers. Wolwerine (Hugh Jackman) is great also, but I still think that his hair in the movie is horrible. It was a great hair for the animated series, but for the movie, it just seems a little weird and ugly. The only time his hair is actually good (or as we may say, natural) is when he wakes up from the bed in the scene where Jean Grey (Fanke Janssen) is about to give him a shot. She's also great in the movie and beautiful the same way she is in GoldenEye (1995).
Well, all performances were great, special effects and all too. So, what am I complaining about? Well, I liked the plot and the school introduction too, even so, the plot seems to have been a little simple and the action is not that great. Maybe it was, but I really guess that the second movie was much greater. There are many more action sequences, the movie is longer, and more characters are introduced. It was a nice start for a marvel movie. But you should really watch X-Men, maybe if you are an X-Men fan, or maybe if you just want to see the movie, but the main reason in my opinion is that you should watch it just to watch X2 later on.