This movie is the best at what it does...

Rating: 10/10 (15 July 2000)

A lot can be said for movies adapted from comics, most of it bad. Occasionally though, a gem will appear on the screen that will cause you to completely rethink your opinion of comic book adaptations.
The X-Men is one such movie.
Thankfully, 20th Century Fox has done away with long opening credits which allows the move to get right into the action. A Godsend in my opinion.
The movie opens hauntingly at Nazi internment camp, and the rollercoaster ride continues on to the deep south, Washington DC, Alaska and finally to New York.
I have to admit, when I first saw who had been cast in which roles, I had my doubts. Patrick Stewart is excellent in his role as Professor X, but it's Hugh Jackman who steals the show with his insightful interpretation of Wolverine. Astoundingly believable, Jackman takes the role of Wolverine seriously, putting every ounce of his acting ability into it, and delivers the goods in spades. Obviously Jackman found the character of Wolverine appealing, as he seemed to have a ball playing what in my mind would have been a very difficult role.
An addition that I found both fun and charming was the number of cameo appearances that Brian Singer added to this flick, especially at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. I found myself trying to pick which particular mutant was which. I managed to spot Shadowcat, Karma, Jubilee, Pyro and Blob, though I'm sure I missed as many as I spotted. Added to this was a school with a large number of students, leading to greater plausibility to the cover of a school for "gifted youngsters"
The script writing was without flaw, easily bringing the X-Men into the "Naughties" and giving them an air of modern, streetwise heroes that the comic has lacked for some time. The script holds nothing back, confidently reinforcing the relationships the characters share time and time again.
Ultimately though it was the the combat scenes that, in my opinion, were to make or break this movie, and I'm happy to say that once again I was not disappointed. Too many times, a good movie has been destroyed by badly choreographed combat. The X-Men movie not only shows that a comic book fighting style can be successfully brought to the big screen, but makes it breathtakingly believable. Coupled with special effects that were used only so far as to enhance the story, and not make the movie a circus of pyrotechnics had me feeling satisfied, but wanting more at the story's conclusion.
That having been said, there were one or two aspects of the film that I found slightly disappointing. Firstly I felt that the heroes were rather underpowered and lacked skill in the use of their powers. In particular I found Jean Grey and Storm's power levels were seriously curtailed, and I can't help but feel that this was done so that they wouldn't outshine their males counterparts. One one hand, Storm and Jean felt as if they were drawn from early in their comic careers, whereas Cyclops and Wolverine seemed drawn from much later one, with far more control of thier unique abilities. Granted, this does leave the characters somewhere to go in future sequels, I feel it could have been handled better.
Secondly, I found the relationship that the young Rogue and Wolverine shared was too much like the relationship Wolverine shared with young Shadowcat in the comics. This was disconcerting, as I was expecting Rogue and Wolverine to have quite an antagonistic relationship as opposed to the almost father/daughter relationship that was portrayed. To me this felt wrong, and I couldn't help but feel disgruntled at the reworked character dynamics.
Of course the good news is that I loved the movie, regardless of it's minor faults. I feel for the average viewer who has no real experience with the X-Men this movie is going to be a resounding hit. For X-fans though, I feel it may not be quite the same success.