Nice start but hoping for better next time...

Rating: Null/10 (25 July 2000)

Unlike most people who are going to see this film, I actually collected X-Men comics back in the early 80s. Still have 'em. So I went to see X-Men the Movie with some trepidation and a lot of curiosity. In sum: The action was great but the character development needs work.
My biggest disappointment was the absence of Kitty Pryde, who has a ten-second-cameo. I can only hope she'll return in one of the sequels because she's always been my favorite. Writing dialogue for her would have livened up things considerably.
Top kudos go to Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Wolverine. He was dead on, in my opinion. You can put an actor in a costume (well, talons) and pray he'll growl with sufficient ferocity but Jackman takes this tortured character to new heights. Sardonic, mistrustful, fierce and under all that, hopeful of finding answers, Wolverine's character came to life in a way it couldn't in the comic book.
Paquin does an admirable job as Rogue, her mixture of fear and hope (somewhat like Wolverine's quest for the truth about his past) was very compelling. I'm looking forward to seeing her in the sequels.
The other X-Men did fine but when action leads over depth, you're going to miss out on the personalities and that's what makes this movie somewhat lacking. Why should we care about Cyclops, Jean Grey or Storm? We (the moviegoer not the comic book readers) know nothing about their history, unlike Wolverine and Rogue. Hopefully, we'll learn more about them in the sequels.
Patrick Stewart and McKellan, as someone else said, were underused. As Dr. Xavier, Stewart is a dead ringer for the X-Men's leader and does well. But he's absent for much of the last half of the film.
Any action movie lover will like this film, no doubt. And the seeds have been sown for a promising series of sequels. Maybe I'm asking for a lot, but let's hope we get to hear some more promising dialogue and character development.