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     I didn't want to see this.  Unlike some people, I did not grow up on this comic book.  In fact I never really read any comic books.   I was a deprived child, what can I tell you.  So I figured I would watch this just for the effects and possible good fight sequences but nothing more.  But I was happily surprised by this movie.  Not bad at all.  In fact, I liked it enough to see it a second time.  Now, it's not what I expected as far as what I expected to be bad and also what I expected to good.

    First, I expected some major girls kicking ass.  Something that is always good in movies.  However, it has to be said that Halle Berry was miscast.   As I said before, I didn't read this comic, but I do know some things about it and I've heard a lot about it from other people.  With all this in mind, Storm, the character that Halle Berry plays is supposed to be a bad ass.  Not someone who is dainty and carefully hops over a small wall and sits around while little Toad, played very well by Ray Park, whoops her rear end. From what I know about the comic strip, picking on Storm is a bad idea.  However, she seems to be real fragile in the movie.   But I suppose I can't blame it entirely on Halle Berry.   She was given some of the worst lines in the movie.  i.e. the lightning line, which if you've seen the movie kinda makes you go, "huh?".

    Something that I didn't expect to like was Anna Paquin. She's not one of my favorites, but I thought she did a good job as Rogue.  She was a good performance.  Ian McKellan as Magnito and Patrick Stewart as Professor X were magnificent as always.  Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique was very good, although she didn't have many lines.  Basically she was there to be cool.  Famke did a very good job as Jean Grey.  But the star of the show, hands down, was Hugh Jackman.   Not only did he steal the show, he saved it.  He plays Wolverine and did, for lack of better words, and AWESOME job.  He was cool, tough, funny, and smooth.   He was well rounded and made the movie worth watching (twice in my case).  He is a virtual new comer and I hope to see a lot more of him. 

    As far as the writing goes, let's summarize the movie.  The next stage in human evolution has begun.  People with special gifts, such as walking through walls, have immerged and have been called "mutants".  These "mutants" are either in hiding, rebelling against average humans (part of Magnito's gang) or trying to harness their powers and control them so that they can work with average humans (Professor X's gang known as X-men).  Magnito wants to basically turn all humans into mutants and Professor X wants to stop him because it doens't work.   The average human body rejects changes done to it.  To stop him he calls upon his X-Men (Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and soon to be X-Men, Rogue and Wolverine).   They fight Magnito's gang (Mystique, Toad, and Beast?).  What I complain about as a non-comic book reader is that virtually nothing is resolved at the end of the movie.   It starts off much better than it ends, which is kind of lame.  Complaints I've heard from reader's of the comic is that it doesn't stick to the story entirely.   Some changes have been made to the characters, i.e. Rogue and her firy-like behavior, and the fact that as far as age goes, the characters linear lives have been scewed up.  But these are minor complaints.  The movie IS entertaining but if you don't like comic book based movies...don't see it.  Think of movies like The Phantom.  If you didn't like that movie, don't see this one unless you want to hear some of Wolverine's great one-liners.  Not a bad movie at all.