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by: Annabelle Villanueva from cinescape on-line
When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the X-Men in 1963, the duo envisioned an allegorical saga about bigotry and prejudice seen from the perspective of mutants hated by the humans they strove to defend. And while those socio-political underpinnings remain intact in the long-awaited X-Men feature film, the movie ultimately owes its effectiveness to a far less lofty principle: Watching a bunch of superheroes using their mutant superpowers to kick ass is pretty freakin' cool. Granted, whether or not moviegoers new to X-Men lore would agree with that assessment remains to be seen--the uninitiated might be put off by some of the pulpier superhero trappings and the decided lack of action in the movie's first half--but hardcore X-Men fans should be more than pleased to see Hollywood's surprisingly respectful treatment of their beloved mutants.
The man most responsible for that reverence is Bryan Singer, a director who previously crafted the knotty thrillers The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil. It's clear Singer is neither an action director nor a visual stylist--X-Men features none of the baroque beauty of Tim Burton's Batman or the gee-whiz giddiness of Richard Donner's Superman, and the editing is almost free of the hack-and-slash cutting and over-the-top set pieces that have plagued post-MTV cinema. Instead, Singer opts for a more restrained, contemplative tone that turns the genre on its ear: How many other superhero movies begin with Jews being marched to their death in a Nazi concentration camp?
But the atrocities young Eric Lehnsherr experienced at that camp are elemental to X-Men history. Lehnsherr is a mutant, capable of manipulating metal at will, and as the film flashes forward several years we find him convinced that the intolerance he suffered from in his youth is now being repeated by humans fearful of mutantkind. Now known as Magneto (and played by the splendid Shakespearean Ian McKellan), Lehnsherr has tricked up a huge gizmo that will spontaneously alter human genes so that normal folk will be turned into mutants, too. He's helped by his mutant henchman Toad (Ray Park), the animalistic Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and shape-shifter Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos).
Meanwhile, trying to stop Magneto is the peacemongering Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a powerful, wheelchair-bound telepath who runs Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where adolescent mutants learn to harness their powers and work to help mutants and humans live in harmony. Xavier also leads an inner circle of older, powerful mutants who wear snazzy leather outfits and fight for truth and justice. The "X-Men" include the telekinetic Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), the weather-manipulating Storm (Halle Berry) and Cyclops (James Marsden), whose eyes emit a powerful laser.
Caught between the two groups are Wolverine and Rogue, the audience's guides through the fantastical X-world. The two first meet in snowy Canada, where teenage runaway Rogue (Anna Paquin) has fled after discovering her touch can kill people. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is a surly amnesiac with regenerative powers and sharp metal claws that have been mysteriously grafted to his skin. While their cinematic recruitment into the X-Men deviates from the comic book's backstory, Singer stays true to the characters, Wolverine in particular. Although most moviegoers scratched their heads and muttered, "Hugh who?" when Jackman nabbed the part after Dougray Scott dropped out to finish Mission: Impossible 2, the actor steals the movie with his feral intensity and cocksure attitude. Jackman may be a few inches taller than the funny book Logan, but otherwise, he nails the part. He's also refreshingly skeptical for a comic-book hero: When Xavier introduces the X-Men and explains Magneto's diabolical plot, Wolverine grumbles, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
The rest of the mutants are effective to varying degrees. With so many characters scrambling for room, some invariably get lost in the shuffle. Other than trading often-hilarious verbal barbs with Wolverine, Cyclops doesn't have much to do, while Storm mostly stays in the background. But the film's biggest disappointment is Patrick Stewart--although Xavier's confrontations with Magneto crackle with dramatic heft, his character virtually disappears in the last half of the movie. Considering X-Men clocks in at less than 96 minutes long, there was definite room for additional scenes showcasing such a fine actor. Meanwhile, the subplot involving McCarthyesque politician Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) and Congress' pending "Mutant Registration Act" legislation never really pays off.
But as long as all the mutants are fighting on screen, as they do in a couple of nifty action sequences and the movie's energetic finale, most X-Men fans will quickly forget any quibbles they may have with the plot. Although the special effects are hit-and-miss (Wolverine's claws and Mystique's transformations are pretty cool, Toad's long tongue and Storm's tempests less so), it's still neat to see all the mutants showcasing their powers even as we can see how they are vulnerable: Magneto can stop Wolverine in his tracks, Storm is powerless against Sabretooth's choke-hold, Cyclops wreaks havoc on civilians when his protective visor gets torn away and he shoots a laser into a train station ceiling. Even though Singer tries not to let the action get in the way of the characters, he knows when to let go of the introspection and get on with what really matters. The result is a flawed, but fun, comic-book adaptation that hopefully will pave the way for more X-flicks to come.
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