X-Men

Released 2000
Stars Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Ray Park
Directed by Bryan Singer

In the near future, wheelchair-bound telepath Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) is the founder of a school for gifted children. The Professor’s facility helps “mutants” (ordinary people given remarkable powers through DNA mutation) to harness and control their unique abilities, protecting both themselves and the surrounding world. Others, however, do not find mutual agreement in Xavier’s philosophy of a peaceful co-existence between mutants and the rest of humanity. Senator Kelly is the radical political leader who wants to pass a bill that requires all mutants to register with the government. The Professor’s arch-nemesis is Magneto, a powerful mutant who can create magnetic fields at random and manipulate metals to his liking. After surviving horrific concentration camps in Poland as a child, Magneto intends to avoid another Holocaust by uniting the human race. To do this, he plans to turn those attending an upcoming United Nations Senate meeting into mutants.

Summary by Jamie Hughton

I loved the X-Men comics while I was growing up. The comic was darker than most, and I liked the bigotry parable about the persecution of the mutants. I must say I was quite surprised by the movie, which is an excellent adaptation that's even darker than the comics. Character development is slim, but there's more than I expected. Overall it was quite entertaining and pretty true to the source.

Bill Alward