Effective Set Up for the Inevitable Sequels

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2005)

I have never read an X Men comic nor even heard them referred to in any medium until this "X Men" movie came out.
So I was really involved in the background exposition, which is most of the movie and is mostly a set up for the sequels. It was a bit much to start with the real environment of Nazi concentration camps in '44 and then somehow leap to the "near future" rather than making the whole thing futuristic, but I'm sure other folks know if that's based in the comics.
Hugh Jackman took over the whole movie in a star-making turn. Halle Berry surely won't be able to use this as an audition tape; I hope she at least made big bucks because she had zero to do. James Marsden fans will be similarly disappointed, though Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan get to sleepwalk and still emote.
The sibling-like relationship between Jackman's Wolverine and Anna Paquin's Rogue is surprisingly touching, marred by an unnecessary ending comment that now she has a thing for him that he has to condescendingly put down. Hey, what's the matter with familial affection these days as a motivator?
The fight scenes were a bit ho hum - - it was like a Sesame Street lesson in cooperation as each set of mutants gangs up on enemies to use their super mutant powers together. I kept thinking how much more intense and scary was the Statue of Liberty scene in Hitchock's "The Saboteur" compared to this climax.
The music was bombastic but effective. The only song really heard is Lucinda Williams in a bar jukebox.
(originally written 8/4/2000)