Decent superhero offering

Rating: 6/10 (16 February 2010)

X-Men is a pretty decent superhero action flick. It benefits from some good performances from stalwarts Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart – who both lend the necessary gravitas to their respective roles – while Hugh Jackman is charismatic as the central character Wolverine. The story itself is not all that good though. The origins of the X-Men aren't really detailed and maybe could have been, while Magneto's villainous plan at the centre of the story is quite mediocre at best. Like a great many action films X-Men gets bogged down in its final third; the big showdown being not terribly interesting. However, I admire the fact that the film was short. Many similar productions are overlong without any real excuse. A movie like X-Men benefits from this fast approach, and didn't as a result, wear this viewer's patience thin. Overall it was an enjoyable enough ride with decent acting and some welcome humour. Although admittedly I know nothing of the comic, so it's impossible for me to say how this compares; I guess that's a good thing. Superhero films aren't really my cup of tea but this one was alright.