An excellent adaptation of one of the most important comics ever created.

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2000)

This movie was great. It had everything in the right place to keep the story moving. You learn early on the two edged sword of the mutations, the mutants are born with a curse as well as a blessing. The tagline, "Protecting Those Who Fear Them" explains the core of the movie. Everyone has been at a point in their life when they wonder who they are, what their destiny is, and where they fit in the big picture, this movie taps into those feelings perfectly and provides a great action story as well. My only disappointment is the obvious over-editing of the theatre cut. There was almost 45 minutes chopped out of the movie to slim it down to the 1 hr 44 minutes we see at the theatre. I have a hunch that the bosses at Fox were responsible for this, they wanted all that pesky character development thrown out so the action scenes would completely dominate the film. Those not familiar with the comic may feel overwhelmed as the different characters fly in and out of scene after scene. The powers that be at Fox should have pushed the movie over the 2 hour mark, I think that would have added enough dramatic content to bring more non-X-men fans into the fold. The critics are being very harsh on this film, pointing out the opening scene as too dark for a comic book movie and one even pointing out that the ability to controls the weather isn't a mutation it's a miracle. Well folks it's still a comic book, a fantasy, judging it as anything else is doing yourself and your readers a disservice. More films are sure to be made and will undoubtedly be as successful if not more so. They should stay with the same director and not pass the job to a Joel Schumacher type to turn it into an abomination like the last two Batman films.