As I Expected

Rating: 5/10 (22 October 2003)

I`ve never been all that keen on comic strips , the only exception being the strips that appeared in the issues of the Doctor Who Weekly by Marvel comics from over 20 years ago that featured early work from legends like Dave Gibbons , Paul Nearey and Alan Moore , but apart from that I have no interest in what some people pretentiously describe as " Graphic novels " . Come to think of it shouldn`t books be called " literary comics " in that case ? No ? Well thank gawd for that
My knowledge of the X-Men strip exactly matches my interest ie zero , so I was surprised when the movie`s opening sequence takes place in a Nazi death camp which led me to think this topic didn`t belong in this movie , but as the story progresses this ties in with the subtext of the movie . Unfortunately this subtext of xenophobia is quickly forgotten about as the movie mutates ( Geddit ? ) into a yawn stifilling battle between good and evil , the only difference being that both the goodies and baddies have superhuman powers . It goes without saying that there`s a lot of make up and special effects involved and both are disappointing especially the CGI . It`s also obvious that before X-MEN was shot it was going to be a franchise movie which means we have a fair amount of exposition which holds up the story
X-MEN is just as I expected it to be for the most part , a Summer blockbuster heavy on FX and light on plotting and characterisation . It`s not the worst Summer blockbuster you`ll ever see but just like a comic strip it lacks substance