X-Men are heroes?

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2003)

***MILD SPOILERS*** I've read many of the old X-Men comics and watched the old X-Men animated TV show. I felt 1) the characters didn't really develop in this movie--it was just a shot-them-up show, 2) the X-Men didn't appear very heroic or stick with the basic values shown in the old comics, 3) there were too many characters, so some were vastly under-used and several cool X-Men were quickly introduced (ShadowCat, Colossus), then disappeared from the story, and 4) Nightcrawler was great and the main kid X-Men did very well.
Spoilers coming, so don't read if you haven't watched the movie and want to be surprised. In the comics, the X-Men _always_ save people, even at risk to themselves. If good guys fire at them, they get out without harming people. If it's bad guys, they (except for Wolverine) try to stop them without killing them and will even save their lives so that they can be put in jail. In this movie, Pyro (a boy) is verbally slapped down by the X-Men every time he uses his powers. X-Men are doing this?! Okay, they're only human, but... Anyway, due to a misunderstanding caused in part by Pyro, two fighter jets are set on their jet's tail. Storm uses her powers to make a bunch of tornadoes right in their path, destroying the fighters and should have (but didn't) kill the pilots. Um, why try to kill the good guys and not just use the wind, etc. on any missiles? Next, at the end, an old student of Prof. X is left behind to die. Wolverine leaves someone behind to die that holds the key to his past. Why? He was determined to learn the truth at the beginning, usually would save the idiot and interrogate him, but suddenly decides (no real development) that he doesn't need to know. Finally, an X-Man supposedly dies (a set-up for return in X3 all over it), preventing all rescue (even though it could have easily been done). Why? No real reason is given. Oh, well.