What I learned from this movie: be kind to people with glowing eyes.

Rating: 8/10 (5 March 2006)

A wonderful movie about exclusion and alienation. With kick ass fight scenes.
I'm a sucker for superheroes, and this move is crammed with them. And some of the best actors out there: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen . . . man, I believed.
The kick ass fight scenes did not hurt.
The thing that is so marvelous about the X-Men is how redemptive it is. Many of us who were ever bullied as a child, all of us who have ever been oppressed and exploited want to rise up; want them to crawl at our feet.
But it's not just about revenge fantasies, though the revenge fantasy was a major, major, component of this story. It's surprising subtle story about the line between revenge fantasies and building a just society.
There was a whole lot of stuff going on. I'm no X-Men fangirl, but I've read a comic book now and again (at least the ones written by Joss Whedon) (everyone should read every thing ever written by Joss Whedon, btw) and I'm not sure I would have tracked what happened but for that.
I work for a politician, and I love him. But man, I bought the venality of these political men.
The metaphor of the dam finally breaking . . . wonderful. Cathartic, but also frighteningly Brechtian. The dam has broken, the long leashed waters unloosed, and we all have to live after the flood. Innocent or not. We still have to live in the world created by our ancestors.
One of the best popular major motion pictures ever. Go see it. See it again. Go build a better world afterward.