A decent superhero film that's not very deep or outstanding, but enjoyable nonetheless

Rating: 7/10 (27 August 2008)

Although I'm not a big fan of X-Men, I did enjoy the "X-Men: Evolution" animated series and am a fan of superhero films, so decided to get the DVD of this movie today. Read on to find out what I thought about "X-Men".
The story can get bumpy sometimes, but otherwise goes on smoothly and basically focuses on the relationship between Dr. Xavier's X-Men, Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, and humans' relationship with mutants. The movie sensibly doesn't go too deep in the origins of the characters, since there's a bevy of them in the movie and all have the same tale more or less  that they're mutants. The movie revolves mostly revolves around Wolverine, while most other characters - except for Wolverine, Rogue, Mr. Xavier and Magneto - get little development and serve mostly to accommodate the action sequences. Needless to say, X-Men's story or characters aren't very deep, but considering the highly collective nature of the X-Men and the movie's sequel-orientation, I guess that the latter is not that bad.
There is a lot of smashing action, although the climax on the Statue of Liberty could've been better defined, and the choreography is also very good. But the action is somewhat offset by the lengthy dialogue sequences delivered by Magneto and Mr. Xavier. The acting is mediocre from the entire cast; no one gives an outstandingly good or bad performance, and most cast didn't really have a choice due to the tepid character development. Aside, there's some good contextual humor here and there, thanks in no small part to Wolverine.
The production design is also top-notch, especially the sterilely high-tech X-Mansion; however, the X-Men's costumes (especially Wolverine's), which are redesigned for the movie, could have been closer to the comics and animated series while being realistic at the same time. The best character design IMO goes to Mystique; the scaly prosthetics motif on her otherwise nude body looks sexy, sinister and feels just right for a cunning shape-shifter like her. Among the villains, the character design on Sabretooth and Toad is also very impressive; the latter even has a cocky personality to complement his repulsive appearance. Unfortunately, both characters are reduced to disposable henchmen.
Although "X-Men" didn't get me very excited, calling it terrible would be a gross exaggeration. It's just a decent superhero film, up there with "Superman: The Movie" and "Spider-Man 3", and should not disappoint anyone into superhero films  but frankly, for someone who's not a die-hard X-Men fan, like me, there are much better superhero movies out there. RATING: 7.5/10