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Comment: When they come out... does it hurt?
Dusty: Every time.
Rating: PG-13
Director: Bryan Singer
Writers: Tom DeSanto, Bryan Singer, David Hayter
Stars: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn
Release Date: July 14, 2000
Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes
THE PLOT:
via wiki:
In 1944 Nazi-occupied Poland, 14-year-old Erik Lehnsherr is separated from his parents upon entering the Auschwitz concentration camp. While attempting to reach them, he causes a set of metal gates to bend toward him because of his mutant ability to generate magnetic fields, but is knocked out by guards.
In the present day, U.S. Senator Robert Kelly attempts to pass a "Mutant Registration Act" in Congress, which would force mutants to reveal their identities and abilities. Nearby, telepathic mutant Charles Xavier sees Lehnsherr, who now goes by the name "Magneto", in attendance and is concerned with how he will respond to the Registration Act.
In Meridian, Mississippi, 17-year-old Marie accidentally puts her boyfriend into a coma after kissing him, because of her mutant ability to absorb the power and life force of others. Adopting the name "Rogue", she flees to Alberta and meets Logan, also known as "Wolverine", a mutant with superhuman healing abilities and metal claws that protrude from between his knuckles. Sabretooth, a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, attacks them on the road, but two members of Xavier's X-Men, Cyclops and Storm, save them. Wolverine and Rogue are brought to Xavier's school for mutants in Westchester County, New York. Believing that Magneto is interested in capturing Logan, Xavier asks him to stay while he investigates the matter. Meanwhile, Rogue enrolls in the school as a new pupil and develops a crush on cryokinetic mutant Bobby Drake.
Brotherhood members Toad and Mystique abduct Senator Kelly, bringing him to their hideout on the uncharted island of Genosha. Magneto uses Kelly as a test subject for a machine powered by his magnetic abilities that generates a field of radiation, which induces mutations in normal humans. Taking advantage of his newfound mutation, Kelly later escapes. Rogue visits Wolverine during the night while he is having a nightmare. Startled, he accidentally stabs her, but she manages to absorb his healing ability and recover. Mystique, disguised as Drake, later convinces Rogue that Xavier is angry with her and that she must leave the school. Xavier uses his mutant-locating machine Cerebro to find Rogue at a train station, and the X-Men go to retrieve her. Meanwhile, Mystique enters Cerebro and sabotages it.
Having left ahead of Storm and Cyclops, Wolverine finds Rogue on a train and convinces her to return. Before they can leave, Magneto arrives, incapacitates Logan and subdues Rogue, revealing it was her whom he wants rather than Wolverine. Although Xavier attempts to stop him by mentally controlling Sabretooth, he is forced to release his hold when Magneto threatens the police who have converged on the station, allowing the Brotherhood to escape with Rogue.
Kelly arrives at the school, and Xavier reads his mind to learn about Magneto's machine. Realizing the strain of powering it nearly killed him, the X-Men deduce he intends to transfer his powers to Rogue and use her to power it at the cost of her life. Kelly's body rejects his mutation, and his body dissolves into liquid. Xavier attempts to locate Rogue using Cerebro, but Mystique's sabotage incapacitates him, and he falls into a coma. Fellow telekinetic and telepath Jean Grey fixes Cerebro and uses it, learning that the Brotherhood plans to place their machine on Liberty Island and use it to "mutate" the world leaders meeting at a summit on nearby Ellis Island. The X-Men scale the Statue of Liberty, battling and overpowering the Brotherhood while Magneto transfers his powers to Rogue and activates the machine. As Wolverine confronts and distracts Magneto, Cyclops blasts him away, allowing Logan to destroy the machine. He transfers his powers to Rogue, rejuvenating her while incapacitating himself.
Xavier and Wolverine recover from their comas. The group also learns that Mystique escaped the island battle and is impersonating Kelly. Xavier gives Wolverine a lead to his past at an abandoned military installation in Canada before visiting Magneto, now imprisoned in a complex constructed of plastic. Magneto warns him that he intends to escape one day and continue the fight; Xavier replies that he will always be there to stop him.
My Review
X-Men is an outstanding introduction to this franchise. I cannot say enough good things about the casting for this movie. Between Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman, the movie delivered some of the best comic book castings ever. Famke Jensen, Anna Paquin, and James Marsden were all also excellent. The roster of talented actors and actresses in this movie is so deep that it has award winning Halle Berry as an almost in-the-background character, just using her powers and delivering one-liners, without much to do except move the plot forward.
The excellence of this movie was not only in the casting and acting, though. Nearly all of its scenes were visually excellent and well-directed. Bryan Singer started the movie with a flashback to Magneto as a boy in a German concentration camp, and the moment not only provided gravity for the story, it provided motivation and emotion for the entire film. From there, it didn't let up. Rogue's near-killing of her boyfriend, and her panicked screams, set the stage for the argument about mutants that followed for the rest of the film.
Ultimately, X-Men is a moral debate. Should the super-powered mutants be registered for the safety of others, and if not, what should be done about it? Patrick Stewart's Professor Charles Xavier wanted to convince humanity not to take that step, whereas Ian McKellen's Magneto believes the time for convincing has passed, and that a war must be waged. As a non-mutant audience member, the film subtly made the cast to me that they are both wrong and that the registration is probably a good idea (a subtle case that sets up future sequels and further arguments quite well.)
The only real flaw in this movie, for me, is Magneto's big plan. He wants to use a machine to turn world leaders into mutants, so that they join the mutant cause. This felt like a plot that needed a longer setup and a better payoff. I think I would have preferred a plot to threaten, harm, imprison, or kill the world leaders as that would have been within the established scope of the mutant powers the film introduced. There was no build up to developing Magneto's weapon. It was defeated relatively easily. The non-mutant world ended the film none the wiser, without the moral discussion really being advanced from Magneto or Charles' respective sides.
That said, I enjoyed the movie's chess match between Magneto and Professor X, with each maneuvering his team against the other in enjoyable to watch ways. I particularly enjoyed the uncertainty the movie establishes of knowing whether the character is who we think it is, or whether it is the shape-shifting Mystique. That uncertainty gets a good laugh when Wolverine later proves his identity to Cyclops by insulting him. Wolverine ultimately played the role of wildcard that tipped the scales in the direction of the X-Men, which was a fun payoff for his slow thawing toward the group.
A quarter of a century later, Hugh Jackman is still playing this character. It is now funny to see him when he was only a normal person's level of muscular. Today he has veins popping out all over his body. I suppose that's a continuity issue. I'm sure it was mentioned at the time, but I really failed to notice when this movie came out just how much like Clint Eastwood that Jackman looks. That should have been more obvious to me in the years since, with everyone always bringing up Scott Eastwood as a potential successor to Jackman in the role.
It's hard to really pick my favorite dynamic in the film. In the larger picture, this whole movie was about the Charles and Magneto relationship, and their differing views of how to face a problem they largely agree upon. I could probably watch Stewart and McKellen do scenes together, even if it's only small talk, all day. Those are two men who can command a scene.
Below that surface though, Jackman carries the movie. His relationship with Anna Paquin's Rogue is the heart of the film, while his desire for Jean Grey sheds some light on his character's heart. The rivalry between Wolverine and Cyclops is teed up extremely well in this film, too, as is their (probable) eventual mutual respect. Singer had an excellent screenplay to do all of that in a span of 90 minutes.
The special effects were outstanding in 2000, and they still hold up well for today, too. The Senator pushing himself through his Magneto jail cell bars is particularly memorable, as is the scene wherein he dissolves and dies in a pool of water. All of the scenes of Mystique shapeshifting still look good, as do the scenes of Magneto using his powers in various ways.
Overall, this is a very good movie, with an unbelievably good cast, a strong screenplay, and special effects that continue to hold up well even today. The movie fell just short of being great due to over-reaching with the villain's big plan. Nevertheless, I absolutely recommend a rewatch if you haven't seen this one in a while.
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