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 Science Fantasy At last the X-Men fight The Brotherhood Of Evil on the big screen |
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The opening sequence to THE X-MEN was elating. My hopes were that the rest of the movie was
of this calibre. It was not but I enjoyed enough to see it twice. Unlike most of it's young audience
THE X-MEN and I go back to the very first issue in the 1960's. So as you can see these X-Men are
not all my X-Men. II was really disappointed that at a time when the special effects departments would be
able to accomplish the realization of the Angel and Iceman, they were not used except for Iceman in a brief
scene. Too bad. I think they woiuld have had a much more entertaining movie. Even then it could have been
longer but I could feel that the producers were trying to keep a tight reign on the budget. I do not expect it to
maintain high boxoffice figures. I figure to start big and dip quickly. Even so it deserves a sequel and I am
sure that it will do sufficient business to warrant a sequel. The characters are all well chosen from the new generation, especially Wolverine. My only complaint was The Toad. Yes he was in the very first issue of X-MEN but even then he was a joke character. Here they tried to make him a more serious character by using martial arts expert Ray Parks (Darth Maul). They just ruined it by giving him a supposed toad tongue that lashs out about 20 feet. It does look silly. While the Toad disappointed Mystique(Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) satisfied. unlike the comic book version they made her a lot more interesting when it comes to appearance. Rogue (Anna Paquin) though good is a disappointment as she has lost her saucy bite from the comic. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine walks away with the movie. He portrays Wolverine much like the comic book version. Even his weird hair style looks good on film. The producers lucked out in getting the Australian Jackman instead of the original choice of Dougray Scott. I learned along time ago that it was a waste of time to expect any movie based on a comic to be true to the paper versions. Sometimes it just will not translate well and other times the budget would be too prohibitive. They also have to try and please not only the comic fans but they obviously must be able to sell it to a general audience who may never have read about the characters. Of course it does seem silly at times to purchase the rights to a successful comic and then proceed to turn it into an entirely different product, that removes the reason the book was popular in the first place. THE X-MEN movie still manages to contain a prime ingredient that is important to the X-Men. The X-Men themsleves are a metaphor for our human condition of intolerance. The stories center the main idea that humanity wants progress but is afraid of what is different. They fear difference because they do not know where their place in the new order will be, so humanity through the generations has always fought changes in the world and in others around them. Race hatred is prevelant on this planet so why would people not hate Homo Superiour, the next evolutionary step when we can not even accept colour differences. This is what the X-Men is about and they movie does address the issue. of course this type of film goes all the way back to the silent D.W. Grifftith's films of Intolerance and Birth Of A Nation. Get the message. Good, because X-Men fans got it back in the 60's when it was more relevant. Stan Lee helped educate all us kid comic book readers that prejudice was wrong that we should respect our differences. The story starts off in a Nazi concentration camp in the 40's during World War II, where a young Erik Lehnsherr is separated from his parents in a brilliant scene. In the future he would go on to become Magneto, the leader of The Brotherhood Of Evil. The older Magneto is played by Ian McKellan. His counterpart is Professor Charles Xavier played by Patrick Stewart. Professor X believes that man has to be taught to accept Mutants where Magneto believs that men will try to destroy mutantkind and so he plans to destroy them before they can destroy his kind. Of course they eachhave their followers and students. The story is basically an introduction to the characters and a a battle to stop Magneto's plan. One of these important battles happens in downtown Hamilton, my home town. Those are the train station sequences. The film slowly slides downhill after they introduce to the characters. The film takes on a somewhat rushed appearance by the end. Most of the effects are excellent and the characters all have the feel of believeability about them, except for Toad. X-MEN is a good film to take the children to see. It teaches and entertains. Grab the bag of popcorn and a good drink, sit back and enjoy the excitement. Expect a sequel soon. The main mutant characters are... Hugh Jackman .... Logan/Wolverine Patrick Stewart .... Prof. Charles Francis Xavier/Professor X Ian McKellen .... Erik Magnus Lehnsherr/Magneto Famke Janssen .... Dr. Jean Grey, Marvel Girl James Marsden .... Scott Summers/Cyclops Halle Berry .... Ororo Munroe/Storm Tyler Mane .... Victor Creed/Sabretooth Ray Park .... Mortimer Toynbee/Toad Rebecca Romijn-Stamos .... Raven Darkholme/Mystique Anna Paquin .... Marie/Rogue |
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RATING CANADA... Rated PG for violence |
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vjm@metrocity.com