Classy film that raises comic book movies to new heights

Rating: 8/10 (10 July 2000)

Minor spoilers.
I saw this film in Melbourne with about 850 other X-fans at a public preview. I'd estimate that about 800 of them had huge smiles on their faces at the end!
This is a very classy, very tight and wonderfully put together film. As a film on its own, it's right up there with the best of 2000. As a comic book film, it's the best I've ever seen.
I loved Batman, and I loved Superman, but X-Men has something these lacked, a special heart to it that stays with you and pulls you into its world. It has that rare quality in a fantasy movie: a soul. This is a film that you won't forget as soon as you leave the cinema.
The story deals with the rise of genetic mutations in our modern world, where children are born with special powers they realise when they reach puberty. Their inability to deal with their powers leads Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), himself a mutant with telepathic powers, to fund a special school where they can learn to integrate themselves into a fearful and prejudiced society which will not accept them.
One of Xavier's old friends, another mutant known as Magneto (Ian McKellen) because of his ability to bend metal, takes a different view. Magneto believes that society will never accept mutants and is out to declare war on those who have persecuted him. His plan is to sabotage the group of world leaders in New York who have gathered to formulate a global policy on mutants, and thereby force a showdown with those who fear his kind.

Into this world walks Rogue (Anna Paquin) a teenage mutant who discovers she can absorb other people's energies and thereby threaten their lives, just by touching them. Running away from home, she encounters Logan (Hugh Jackman) in a bar in the Canadian winter. Logan is also a mutant, a feral loner with vicious claws and super healing powers, but a mysterious past with a horrific secret. Eventually, without giving anything away, they join Xavier's team and are drawn into the battle against Magneto and his allies. Both Logan and Rogue play crucial roles as they try to stop Magneto before he succeeds.
The story is simply told but is never patronising nor tries to excuse itself with cheesy self-parody, a common trick in science fiction or comic films these days. Bryan Singer, director (The Usual Suspects), takes his film very seriously but is never pretentious. The film contains quite a few laughs and some very good lines, most of them from Logan/Wolverine.

X-Men is not like the Matrix. The team wear black leather costumes, but the resemblance ends there. X-Men is less hyperreal, more gritty and more relevant. The themes are those of prejudice, fear of what you don't understand, alienation and the courage it takes to be yourself if you are an outcast.
Hugh Jackman's performance is brilliant, almost worth the price of admission itself. He completely inhabits the inner skin of Logan. The character is superbly written for the screen. He's funny, he's angry, in your face, he's sarcastic, but he has integrity, honesty and his own set of rules which he lives by. Logan is the audience's eyes into the X-world, and Hugh has him down to a T. Characterisation raised to the level of an art form. For me, he's one of the best comic characters ever to make it to celluloid, and I don't remember a better performance by a lead character in this genre.
Ian McKellen (Magneto) is also magnificent. Great delivery, wonderfully imposing presence and not horribly overplayed or hyperevil. He just has a different agenda. Patrick Stewart is suave, controlled and a humanitarian, the perfect Prof X.
Anna Paquin's Rogue is sensitive, lost, so 'why is this happening to me?' Her scenes with Logan are beautifully crafted and the chemistry between them is very touching. Women will love it. Guys, well, you might too.

Famke Janssen is also very convincing as Jean Grey, an intelligent, sexy, and mature woman whom Cyclops is very lucky to have as his girl. James Marsden is fine as Cyclops, a young man trying to live up to the ideals of his mentor and finding leadership can be a burden at times. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is an eye-catching bad girl, shapeshifter Mystique, all blue with painted scales. The makeup is amazing.
The visual effects are very tight, well crafted and are absorbed into the story without detracting from it. Bryan Singer's touch is light and it works well.
The mix of humour and drama is cleverly balanced and never jars. There are also some very moving scenes, particularly at the beginning and the flashback sequences involving Logan's past, which are quite disturbing. Some countries will probably give X-Men a more restricted rating, not necessarily because of any gore or violence, but because of the overall impact of some of these scenes.
Overall, I give this an 8 out of 10. It's exciting, it's dramatic, it's funny. I'm going back Friday to see it again. And probably on the weekend as well. Bryan Singer, you're the man.