This movie was like a glass half full.

Rating: 6/10 (31 March 2001)

This movie was like a glass half full.
As much as I do not enjoy debating whether a glass of milk is half full or half empty, in this case, I have no choice but to join in and declare that this movie is like a glass half full as we were only able to catch glimpses of what this movie is fully capable of showing us.
Personally, I believe the decision to move the story along at a brisk pace with hardly any pause has cost us in that we are unable to get to know any of the mutant heroes in depth  and there were lots of them. They were therefore reduced to cardboard mock ups providing thrills and spills at the whim of puppet handlers and the movie suffered as a result since the story was now completely plot driven and relying on set pieces none of which were ingenuous or original.
There was great potential for characterisation in this movie as well as great potential for a much stronger theme.
Instead the theme appears to have been buried and forgotten much in favour of putting bums on seats and I mean twelve-year-old ones.
Take the case of Wolverine for example, a character begging to be explored in full. Instead we were teased a lot about his past but learnt nothing. . . .Or Professor Xavier, or Rogue. I am not impressed with the reason Magneto turned bad either. I understand his paranoia, but it is no justification for his subsequent actions. I expect the real reason is probably on the cutting room floor.
I have not read the comics and I hate it when comics are adapted for the movies as virtually no one would be fully happy with the final outcome. But even though I never heard of X-Men before the movie, what I saw here was great potential but suffering as a result of the commercialisation of Hollywood. I long for the old days of Hollywood when movies were work of Art that could entertain for generations. X-Men isn't one of these movies. I suspect a reworking of the movie and its underlying theme could benefit us but not the moneymen.