The first step in superhero movie evolution...

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2005)

X-Men is a very good, stylish, exciting comic-book movie. Which is a positive thing, considering the last "big" superhero flick released before this one was, uh, Batman & Robin. This first movie featuring Stan Lee's "Children of the Atom" is not based on a particular story (with the exception of the characters' origins), as director Bryan Singer uses a plot almost entirely made from scratch to introduce us to a new world: the mutant one.
The setting is the United States, in a soon-to-come future: mutants, people born with a genetic alteration (the so called "X-gene") which gives them superhuman abilities, are becoming more and more common. Unfortunately, the rest of humanity fears them and some even try to destroy them. This brings us to the current situation: Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his students, the X-Men, which include Storm (Halle Berry), Cyclops (James Marsden) and Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), think peace is possible; his old friend Magneto (Ian McKellen), on the other hand, is firmly convinced war is inevitable, since he already has witnessed genocide (he's Jewish and his parents were killed in Auschwitz). As such, he and his allies, the Brotherhood of Mutants, will not allow US Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison) to pass the Mutant Registration Act, and the only thing that can stop them is Xavier's students, plus two new mutants, the claw-wearing, virtually invincible Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and the power-stealing Rogue (Anna Paquin).
The X-Men comic books have always been an interesting sci-fi oriented reflection on such concepts as racism and alienation, a theme that emerges quite vividly throughout Singer's filmography (his previous movie, Apt Pupil, dealt with a lonely kid who forms a morbid bond with a former Nazi). In particular, Xavier and Magneto are seen as the mutant versions of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X - two people who respect each other, but choose to respectfully disagree on how to deal with specific problems. The movie takes this one step further by highlighting the philosophical and moral contradiction of Magneto, an Auschwitz survivor, trying to prevent a new extermination by causing another one himself (the role is made even more ironic by the fact that McKellen played the Nazi in Apt Pupil).
Alongside the thematic relevance, Singer also has to deliver in terms of action, and deliver he does, thanks to a spectacular third act which features the kind of iconic moments fans will love instantly. That being said, the film does have a defect, and that's the plot being structured as if it were the pilot episode of a TV show (in fairness, though, several first installments are written that way, but less directly) or, as Patrick Stewart put it, an extended trailer, in which all the main characters (except for a couple of villains) are thoroughly introduced so that the audience will understand who they are and what they do. Then again, such a move is justified by the solid cast the director has assembled: Stewart and McKellen were a quality guarantee from the get-go, and everyone else complies as well, particularly Jackman and Paquin, the outsiders who act as our guides in this new, exciting cinematic universe.
So, entirely satisfying it may not be, but the first X-Men is the film that effectively started the new wave of intelligent, above-average comic book movies. And that can only be considered a good thing.