X-Men (2000)

X-Men (2000)


Plot Summary

In the near future, when children are being born with a special X-factor in their genes, giving them special powers and making them mutants, the seeds of a new Holocaust are being sown by Senator Robert Kelly. (Bruce Davison) The situation brings into opposition the fellow mutants and former friends, Erik Lehnsherr, a.k.a. Magneto, (Ian McKellen) and Professor Charles Xavier. (Patrick Stewart) While Xavier wants a peaceful means of stopping the hatred toward mutants, Magneto seeks to even things out with a machine that would speed up the mutation process in all humans, making everyone equal. To stop Magneto, Xavier brings together a special group of mutants called "X-Men" to stop him. In the meantime, two mysterious mutants emerge: Logan, (Hugh Jackman) a powerful and aggressive mutant with no past, no memories, and a young girl named Rogue. (Anna Paquin) Their quests for identities eventually land them in the sights of Xavier and Magneto, but for what purpose?

Modern Movie Monday starts off with my retrospective of the X-Men franchise on film. I figured this was a good way to get the ball rolling as I remember liking the first movie and seeing the 2nd one but I haven't seen the other films so it allows me to see them and take them into account heading into the much ballyhooed X-Men: Days of Future Past film to be released soon.

This movie has a couple great things going for it one, being the actors in the main roles and the 2nd and most important in light of the weaknesses of the film is atmosphere. This movie was made at a time when comic book adaptations weren't automatic money makers so 20th Century Fox was prudent enough to only give the film makers $75 Million to work with as opposed to the $100 Mil that summer blockbuster movies were budged for at the time. This forced the creative people behind the movie be more restrained in how they present the material and I think this was a blessing in disguise.

The thing I loved most about the movie is just how dark it is. Apart from the Nolan Batfilms of more recent years there weren't that many comic book movies that invoked a moodiness to it. The themes of alienation and mutants being viewed as evil are touched upon lightly but the movie itself makes up for that light touch on serious issues by a very dark look overall. There is nary a brightly lit scene. The only time there is a lot of brightness is when Prof. X is showing Logan the School for Gifted Youngsters and the scene where Senator Kelly escapes Magneto after he's been genetically mutated. The rest of the movie is bathed in dim or very sterile lighting which I think is a great visual key to the serious tone that X-Men has always had.

This serious tone both visually and mostly in how the characters interact (there's a couple humorous lines but all in all it's pretty serious stuff) helps to portray the seriousness of the threat of an impending Mutant registration and Magneto's master plan to genetically mutate the world's leaders via the help of a kidnapped Rogue in order to end said mutant registration. This however, leads to the one big fault that this movie has and that's the lack of character building.

This is basically the Wolverine, Prof. X, Rogue and Magneto show with everyone else being filler. Granted, it is an ensemble but you really don't get much in the way of characterization and a couple scenes are rendered meaningless due to that. The Wolverine/Rogue relationship is wonderfully developed as Singer and Co. incorporated elements of the comic book Wolverine/Jubilee and Jean Grey relationships into the movie portrayal of Wolvie and Rogue. The de-aging of Rogue for the purposes of the film is a masterstroke because through her we see the alienation, confusion and chaos of not only puberty but the devastating nature of her mutation.  Wolverine on the other hand wants to figure out who he is and what's happened to him as he's living his life without solid memory of who he is, yet he flashbacks to a military experiment on him that gave him his admantium (sp) claws. Rogue wants to be accepted and needs help to cope with what she's going through and while Wolvie isn't one to give her that, he knows that she's a good kid and that Prof. X can give her that help. Wolverine in essence becomes her protector throughout the film.

Prof. X and Magneto aren't developed nearly as well but they represent two sides of the coin in the ongoing struggle for mutantkind. It is a simplification to say that Prof. X is Martin Luther King to Magneto's Malcolm X but that's how they're portrayed here though the aspect of them being friends who had a split at some point in how to handle the situation gives it more oomph rather than being a simple Civil Rights analog.

Now the rest....As I said they're filler. Senator Kelly is basically a plot device and not a real character while the three other X-Men in Cyclops, Storm and Jean Grey are background. You don't really get to know them as people and the Wolverine/Cyclops dislike comes up nearly out of nowhere. In a lot of ways the lack of characterization for Cyclops undermines the movie. I know Scott Summers' can be a very emo type of character what with his alternating between being cold and overly dramatic about his eye beams. (they didn't even really exploit that even in the scene where he's without his visor and Jean tells him to open his eyes for a timed eye blast) Jean at least has a little more character to her but only in the sense of "the woman that cares for everyone and works in a medical capacity" etc etc way while Storm does show her compassion for people when she tells Magneto he can't do what he's doing because it'll kill untold amounts of people but again, we don't see the Ororo Monroe side to her.

Now I referred to some scenes being rendered meaningless and here's one, After Prof. X is stricken after being attacked by a tampered with Cerebro Cyclops extolls his virtues and says he'll carry on for him. This is just not believable after we've seen to this point that Cyclops is a cold fish who seems to have a dickish personality. That doesn't exactly warm the cockles of this viewer's heart to know that the legacy of Charles Xavier is going to live on with the movie iteration of Cyclops.

Oh, I didn't mention the brotherhood of mutants mainly because Toad is just there for SFX, Sabretooth is muscle and Mystique only utters one line of dialogue as herself rather than impersonating someone.

Lest you think I don't like the movie because I liked it a lot. The story such as it is was told in an adequate manner and like I said the Wolverine, Rogue and Prof. X characters were explored in good detail. The themes were explored upon more than the average comic book movie as the action was only really ramped up at the end at the Statue of Liberty. The fight between the X-Men and the Brotherhood was executed quite well. I especially liked the Wolverine/Mystique fight and I must say I quite enjoyed Ray Park's martial arts moves as Toad.

Overall I thought this movie was very good and lack of character building on the rest of the ensemble aside this is one of the stronger comic book to film adaptations. *** stars