Very fun movie for non-comic readers as well.

Rating: 8/10 (14 July 2000)

This was an excellent movie for the budget they were working with. The script did a great job of packing quite a bit of information into a short amount of time. By doing so, they did skip some more in-depth characterization, but that's understandable. There's still plenty there to get a sense of where the characters stand. The story had some very entertaining and impressive action sequences, as well as some occasional sarcastic humor which fit the characters nicely. I went to the movie with my wife and four others who had never touched any X-man comic (or other comic, most likely), and knew nothing about the heroes that they did not learn in the movie. They all enjoyed it. My wife wants to see it again, which surprises me. Even the person in the group who is non "action movie" oriented gave it a thumbs up (not a super-excited-wow thumbs up, but a thumbs up none-the-less). Having read the comics as a child, which I like to think wasn't too long ago, I caught a few inside jokes which were nice to see. There are some changes to some characters (for instance, the original comic had an Iceman character as a charter member...here he's a younger more minor character), but they do not seem like they would be detrimental to the story for long-time fans. I would venture a guess that there will be sequels, and that the budget will be much larger next time, and the running time will probably be extended. I'm sure that there will be more development of relationships throughout the series. This was a very good start with what they had to work with. If you talk to someone who has read the comic after you see the movie, they will probably fill you in on a couple things about the characters and their pasts that would be interesting in reflection and setup the next couple of films. Like I said, I was the only person who had any background knowledge of the X-men, and our whole party enjoyed it thoroughly. Job well done.
Have fun!