The #4 Superhero Movie of All Time

Rating: Null/10 (1 September 2000)

Allow me to introduce my inner geek. I own Spiderman #3 (first appearance of Doctor Octopus). I keep it in a mylar case, and I display it prominently in my home. I collect comic books. More specifically, when I was a kid I collected Marvel comic books. People who didn't collect might not understand the distinction, but let me explain: Marvel published Spiderman, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk and Daredeviland Marvel published the X-Men. And as long as I read X-Men comics, I dreamed of an X-Men movie. So, this past Sunday, it was not without considerable emotional baggage that I plunked down my $9.50 to watch the movie version of the X-Men.

Let's back up a second. Following are the top 10 comic book super-hero movies ever:
1. Superman (1978)
2. Batman (1966)
3. Superman II (1980)
And that's it. 4 through 10 are a no-show, because the rest of those super-hero movies rot-including (and especially) the recent Batman movies. But then there's X-Men'. Honestly? I think X-Men' is #4.

The tone of the X-Men movie is grim, but not humorless. It takes the outrageous comic book conventions seriously enough that we believe they believe. It's not burdened with the need to ironically joke about how stupid the very idea of superheroes is, and, as a consequence, the movie takes itself seriously enough to be fun. And the movie's themes, about bigotry and human rights, aren't profound, but they're there. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) is to Martin Luther King as Magneto (Ian McKellen) is to Malcolm X, if you can believe it. As directed by Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil), this comic book movie actually has some interesting ideas in it.
Okay. The set-up: for reasons nobody understands, some people are born with strange super-powers they're mutants. But, just like there are good lawyers and bad lawyers, there are good mutants and bad mutants. The X-Men are good. Magneto is bad.
Magneto is a powerful mutant with a dastardly plan: to expose all of the world's leaders to dangerous levels of radiation, turning them into the things they fear most: mutants. Once they've been mutated, it stands to reason they'll have to defend their own rights as mutants. It's actually a great plan, not the usual super-villain grab for power. As much as he can in a story like this, Singer takes conventional good-vs-evil stuff and twists it. Magneto isn't evilhe's a Holocaust survivor who sees mutants as the next persecuted minority. As my friend Jeff said, this may be the first movie ever where the Jew in the concentration camp is the bad guy.
We don't get to know most of the characters in this movie, but anybody who's allowed real screen time is engaging-which is why Wolverine and Rogue are the most interesting X-Men. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is, hands down, the best X-Man here. He was even sexy enough to elicit whistles from womenand maybe menin the theatre I was in. Wolverine is first seen making money in bar-fights and fighting off anti-mutant bigotry with his retractable claws. We're told his skeleton is made of metal, and we can hear his knuckles clang when he lands a punch. Wolverine takes runaway teen Rogue (Anna Paquin) under his wing, and here the movie wisely merges two comic book characters, Rogue and Kitty Pryde, giving Wolverine a powerful little sister to protect (I told you I was a comic book geek). Enough is hinted at about Wolverine's past to ensure he'll be back in X-Men 2: Electric Boogaloo'.
As for the rest, the X in Professor X's name apparently stands for xposition, because that's all he gets to do. Cyclops ought to be called Cypher, and Storm and Jean Grey just fade into the background. The villains -- besides Magneto and super-model super-villain Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), are pretty dull, but then the X-Men never had great villains besides Magneto. It doesn't matter muchMagneto and Wolverine provide enough kick to get this movie series off to a strong start.
Well, wait. Maybe there were some other good villains. The Sentinels? Arcade? Huh.
I'll have to get back to you after I check my collection.