Another Bryan Singer coup

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2000)

Singer is probably the best Hollywood director when it comes to films with lots of characters, as he proved with The Usual Suspects. Here again he weaves an exciting tapestry of character interaction, origin stories, plot points and allegories.
Viewers expecting to see a blockbuster action movie such as "Terminator 2" or "Die Hard" may be let down. The movie is more about character interaction and plot twists. Additionally, the budget for this film was something like 75 million (a fraction of what most big action movies cost these days), which was no doubt significantly doled out to the likes of Patrick Stewart and Ian McClellan. But it's a terrific film, the kind of movie that has the viewer remembering scenes and quotable lines long after seeing it.
I have talked to comic book fans and those who never read a comic book and everyone I polled (except many critics, go figure) thoroughly enjoyed the film.
The success of the movie should also be credited to Ian McClellan's masterful Magneto, and to a slightly lesser degree, Patrick Stewart's endearing Professor Xavier.
If you're like me, you'll wind up watching it 2 or 3 times.