Would be better as a TV series.

Rating: 7/10 (6 September 2000)

X-Men was entertaining, yes. But the one thing that was claimed made it into more than the average comic adaptation was the character development that, in my opinion, doesn't exist. There are simply too many potentially interesting characters here to explore them all in 95 minutes. Hence, except for Hugh Jackman's and Anna Paquin's characters, all others get short shrift.
As opposed to many other (made from comic) movies, the characters here leave you stunningly detached. No wonder- with this little time, one might say. But that also seemed to be the case with the actors. None of them seems to take great interest in differentiating their roles through their portrayal. But how could they? The narrative squanders aimlessly, the dialogue is probably as bad as it gets, and a little irony towards the material (as displayed in the Superman features) would have gone a long way towards preventing "X-Men" from total cheesiness. Well, it's not cheesy throughout, mind you, but at least once too often.
Besides, as I expected, the film is nowhere near as clever or important as it has often been claimed: the message of tolerance is a good one as a concept, but because of the script (which is less than stellar, I might add. Couldn't Christopher McQuarrie have done it?) and foremost the sheer haste with which Bryan Singer sweeps through the story and past any REAL drama, the film ultimately sabotages its own point. The heroes are heroes. The villains are villains. Good is good. Bad is bad. But please, live together peacefully! Any shades of gray get lost somewhere between the ten or so main characters. Pity. This really could have had a point to make.
That said, I must, however, admit, that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. As popcorn entertainment, it's great, and certainly more worthwhile than any of the latest Bruckheimer action flicks. And I'd personally embrace any movie featuring Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Anna Paquin altogether. But somehow, it all left me a bit disappointed considering the hype about how different from other comic adaptations this was supposed to be. As a result, X-Men might have been a lot better as a TV series pilot. With that cast, those FX, and that huge pool of characters and story possibilities, don't you think it'd do great on a weekly basis? I sure do.