When I was a child, I watched several cartoons that featured superheroes from comic books. I really enjoyed those cartoons. I have seen several movies that have superheroes in them and I have enjoyed those as well. I enjoy those movies. I was a bit older when the X-Men cartoon started, but I still watched it. I really liked the cartoons and loved the characters. I had heard and read things about an X-Men movie being made for a long time. When I knew for sure that the movie was actually being made, I was very anxious to see it. In 2000, X-Men was released. I saw the movie in theaters on opening weekend and I now have the DVD.

In the near future, human evolution changed for some people causing them to have powers. The people with the powers were called mutants by other people. Many people were afraid of mutants. Senator Robert Kelly was calling for a law to be passed that would require all mutants to register with the government. Senator Kelly believed that all mutants were dangerous. Dr. Jean Grey spoke against mutant registration. She was a mutant that had telekinetic and some psychic powers.

Charles Xavier was a powerful psychic. He ran a school where young mutants learned how to use and control their powers. It wasn’t well known that Xavier’s school was for mutants. Jean had been one of his first students and she was now a teacher at the school. She was involved with Scott Summers, another mutant and teacher at the school. He was also known as Cyclops because he could shoot optic blasts from his eyes. He had to wear special glasses or a visor all the time. Storm, who could control the weather, was another teacher. Cyclops, Jean, and Storm had been working with Charles for a long time. They were known as the X-Men and they used their powers to help humans.

Eric Lehnsherr, Magneto, could control metal. Eric had been sent to a concentration camp with his parents when he was a child. That experience had a big impact on him. He and Charles had been friends many years ago. That changed when Eric decided that all humans were the enemies of mutants. Sabertooth, Toad, and Mystique worked with Eric. Mystique was a shape shifter. She could take on the form of anyone she had touched. She was also able to talk with their voice. Sabertooth was extremely strong. Toad was able to jump, climb walls, and he had a really long tongue. Eric wasn’t happy with Senator’s Kelly plans for mutant registration. Eric had his own plan.

A young girl, Marie, left home after a boy she kissed ended up in a coma. She was a mutant that absorbed energy from people who touched her skin. If she touched another mutant, she absorbed their powers for a while. She called herself Rogue and traveled to Alaska. There she met Logan, another mutant. He was very strong and was able to heal quickly when hurt. He also had a very strong sense of smell. Several years before, experiments had been done on him. Adamantium, a very strong metal, had been fused to his skeleton. Three metal claws came out of each of his hands. Logan couldn’t remember what had been done to him or who had done it. He was also called Wolverine. Logan and Rogue ended up traveling together and they encountered Sabertooth. The X-Men arrived and took Logan and Rogue to the school.

Rogue was around other young mutants and started to feel like she finally fit in somewhere. She made friends, especially with Bobby. He could generate ice. Logan wasn’t sure he wanted anything to do with Charles or the X-Men, but he was immediately attracted to Jean. Charles did say that he would help Logan discover what had happened to him. Eric put his plan into action. The X-Men worked to stop Eric. Logan and Rogue were involved in what happened.

CAST

Hugh Jackman - Logan/Wolverine
Patrick Stewart - Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X
Ian McKellan - Eric Lehnsherr/Magneto
Famke Jansen - Dr. Jean Grey
James Marsden - Scott Summers/Cyclops
Halle Berry - Ororo/Storm
Anna Paquin - Marie/Rogue
Tyler Mane - Sabertooth/Victor Creed
Ray Park - Toad
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos - Mystique
Bruce Davison - Senator Robert Kelly
Shawn Ashmore - Bobby/Iceman
Sumela Kay - Kitty Pride/Shadowcat

Brian Singer - Director

X-Men was released in theaters in 2000. The movie was rated PG-13 and 104 minutes long. The movie is now available on VHS and DVD. I have the DVD version. Another version of the movie, X-Men 1.5, was released on DVD and VHS shortly before X2: X-Men United was released in May of 2003. I have not seen that version, but I think there were some additional scenes added and new extras for the DVD. I don’t think that really young children should see this movie because there was some violence in it. It should be all right for older children. There were some different things going on throughout the movie, and it did jump around between a few subplots, but I was able to keep track of what was going on with no problem.

X-Men was based on a series of comic books that was created by Stan Lee in the 1960s. When the comics first started, there were only a few characters. Scott and Jean, along with Bobby, were in the original lineup. Beast and Angel, two characters that didn’t make it into the movie, were the other two original X-Men. I never read the original comics, but I think that all of them were around the same age. In the movie, Scott and Jean are teachers at the school, and Bobby is a student, so an age difference was added. After the comics became more popular, more characters were added. Storm, Wolverine, and Rogue were some of the characters added later. In the movie, Rogue was younger than I thought she would be. There have been some spin off comics that included even more characters. It would have been hard for all of the characters from the X-Men world to be in the movie. Some of the more popular characters have been in the movies. I was disappointed that Beast and Gambit weren’t in X-Men. Beast did turn up briefly in X2: X-Men United. Stan Lee also created other popular comics like Spider-Man and The Hulk. For his other superheroes, Lee came up with reasons to explain how they got their powers. For the X-Men, Lee decided to explain the powers because of evolution. He called the people who had powers mutants.

Since there were several characters in X-Men, some of them rather flat. Storm had very little to do. Scott and Jean had a little more to do, but not much. Rogue and Logan were more developed and received more attention throughout the movie. More focus was given to them than most of the other characters. They were important to what was ended up happening in the movie. Several characters were only briefly shown, like some of the students at the school. I did figure out who Kitty and Jubilee were, but I’m not sure who some of the other students were supposed to be. Most of the time there wasn’t enough shown of the students or their powers to show who they were supposed to be. I know who several of the X-Men are and what their powers are, but there are several mutants that I don’t know much, if anything about. I knew enough to know who the main characters were. People who don’t know anything about the X-Men may not enjoy the movie as much.

Since the main characters in X-Men were superheroes, there were a lot of things that happened that aren’t realistic. I expected that since the movie is based on a comic book. People need to keep in mind when seeing this type of movie that it will be unbelievable. The movie is meant to be watched for entertainment. I did think that the movie was very entertaining. There were some more serious things dealt within the movie in the form of the mutant registration act and what Eric experienced when he was taken to a concentration camp as a child. The subject of prejudice has always played a part in the X-Men. That was covered in the comics and the cartoon, so it was normal for it to be in the movie as well. I remember mutant registration being covered in the cartoon. Senator Kelly, and many other people, feared and hated mutants just because they were different. Eric had experienced that sort of prejudice before because of his religion. His plan was his way of dealing with being hated for being different.

There was a lot of action in X-Men. There were several fights between different characters throughout the movie. Mutants used their powers when fighting with each other. There was some violence in the movie, but it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t think this was a violent movie overall. Some people might feel differently. Logan was in several fights during the movie. When he was first shown, he was taking part in some kind of fight competition in a metal cage. He later fought with Sabertooth and even Mystique. When he and Mystique fought, she actually looked like him. I thought that made the fight interesting. There were a few explosions in the movie. There were a lot of characters introduced in the movie, so there wasn’t as much time for plot development. I wasn’t bored by anything that happened in the movie. Most of the beginning was focused on introducing the characters, so once Eric got his plan underway, it did seem a little rushed to get everything related to that finished.

There were some funny moments in X-Men as well. Logan and Scott didn’t get along well, mainly because of Logan’s instant attraction to Jean. Some of the interactions between Logan and Scott were funny. Logan said things that were funny at different times. At one point later in the movie, Scott said something that poked fun at the costume that Wolverine worn in the comics and cartoon. All of the costumes were different in the movie. The movie wasn’t crammed full of comedy, but there were things here and there that made me laugh and lighted the mood a bit. I do remember from the cartoon that there was a triangle involving Logan, Scott, and Jean. That was introduced in the movie, but there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to it. Logan’s feelings for Jean did affect his relationship with Scott, but Logan wasn’t overly friendly to Scott even before he knew that Scott and Jean were involved. Logan didn’t act on his feelings for Jean though. Once Rogue was at the school, she started to make friends, and there seemed to be a mutual attraction between her and Bobby.

There were special effects used throughout X-Men. Most of the characters were mutants with some kind of powers. Special effects were used for the powers. I thought that the effects were well done. For some things, like when Scott would shoot off one of his optic blasts, I knew it had to be an effect, but it fit in well with the movie. Some mutants had the ability to fly, but only Storm and Eric did any flying, and they didn’t do much. Effects had to be used when Mystique changed to look like another character. The changes from character to character looked good. When Mystique was in her natural form, she was blue, had what looked like scales in places, yellow eyes, and red hair. I have heard that it took hours in makeup for Rebecca Romijn-Stamos to look like Mystique. She was basically naked except for the blue paint and scales. Other characters required some makeup, but it wasn’t as extensive as what was required for Mystique.

I had only read a few X-Men comics before I saw X-Men. I was more familiar with the cartoon. I have gotten a few books about the X-Men since then. The books provided more background information on the characters and how they ended up in the X-Men. That was only explained for Rogue and Logan in the movie, and that was a bit different from how it happened in the comics. I do remember that the first boy Rogue kissed ended up in a coma from the cartoon. I had never heard that Rogue’s real name was Marie before this movie. I also remember Senator Kelly and his desire to get a law about mutant registration passed from the cartoon. That tied into prejudice against mutants that has been important to X-Men since the beginning of the comic. Eric led the Brotherhood of Evil and considered anyone who wasn’t a mutant his enemy in the cartoon. He came up with different plans, but I think that the plan from the movie was different from anything in the cartoons or comics. Bobby wasn’t in the cartoon, so there was no relationship between him and Rogue in that. From what I have read about the comics, I don’t think there was one between them there either. Rogue had a bit of a different history in the movie than she did in the comics and the cartoon. The triangle featuring Jean, Logan, and Scott has played a part in X-Men for a long time. In this movie, Logan and Sabertooth encountered each other for the first time. Those two had a history in the cartoons and even the comics.

I thought that the acting in X-Men was good. There was more focus on the action, but that didn’t mean that the acting was lousy. I really liked Hugh Jackman as Logan. I think he fit the role very well and looked like Logan. I can’t imagine anyone else in that part now. I have seen all of Hugh’s movies, and he looks very different from Logan in those other movies. Even before I knew for sure that there would be an X-Men movie, I thought that Patrick Stewart would be perfect for Charles. Nothing needed to be done to make him look like Charles. He was very good in the part. Halle Berry didn’t have too much to do as Storm. She did seem to have a strange accent that was totally gone in the second movie. Ian McKellan was wonderful as Eric. He is a very talented actor, and he added some sympathetic elements to what could have been a very unlikeable villain. I have also enjoyed his performance as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings movies. I think this was the first movie that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos was in. She only had one line in the movie. She didn’t spend too much time in her natural form, but I thought she was good in the part. Her face was very expressive even covered in all that blue makeup. Anna Paquin was fine as Rogue, though she was younger than I thought Rogue was. The other actors also did fine in their parts, but nothing really stood out about their performances for me.

CHARACTERS

Professor Charles Xavier/Professor X - He was a very powerful psychic mutant. He believed that mutants and people could live together peacefully. He believed in doing things to help people. He ran a school that taught young mutants how to control their powers.

Eric Lehnsherr/Magneto - Mutant that could control metal. Eric thought that Charles was a fool to want to want humans. Eric saw everyone who wasn’t a mutant as an enemy. He was tired of the prejudice mutants faced, and had plans to stop it. His plans were extreme. Eric had been sent to a concentration camp as a child, an experience that greatly influenced him later in life.

Logan/Wolverine - He was very strong, healed quickly, and had a very strong sense of smell. Adamantium had been fused to his skeleton during an experiment. Logan didn’t remember anything from before the experiment. He was a loaner, but he seemed to like Rogue and took her under his wing. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be with the X-Men, but he fell in love with Jean in no time. He could be sarcastic at times.

Scott Summers/Cyclops - He was one of the teacher’s at the school. He could shoot optic blasts from his eyes. He was involved with Jean and wasn’t happy that Logan also had feelings for Jean. Scott started off being more friendly to Logan, but once he realized how Logan felt about Jean, Scott changed his attitude.

Dr. Jean Grey - She was telekinetic and had some psychic powers. She was also a teacher at the school. She treated the X-Men that were injured. She was in love with Scott, but she had some sort of attraction to Logan once he turned up.

Rogue/Marie - She was a teenager that ran away from home after she caused a boy to end up in a coma. She was always very careful not to touch anyone with her bare skin. She wanted to fit in. She became close with Logan.

Storm/Ororo - She was able to control the weather. She was a teacher at the school and one of the X-Men.

Mystique - Mutant with the ability to take on the appearance of anyone she touched. She was still bitter about how she was treated for being different in her past. She worked with Magneto.

Sabertooth - He was a strong mutant that worked with Magneto. He rarely spoke and growled like some kind of wild animal.

Toad - He was another mutant that worked with Magneto. Toad had a long, strong tongue, and was able to jump and climb like a frog.

Senator Robert Kelly - He was the man pushing to pass a law to make mutants register with the government. He felt that all mutants were dangerous because of their powers.

DVD

I own the DVD version of X-Men, and my copy is the widescreen version. The picture and sound was very clear. The DVD is set up for surround sound for people who have that option at home. There were some special features on the DVD. There was something that was made to look like a news report about mutants that featured interviews with the director and different cast members. There was an interview just with director Brian Singer. There is the option to watch the movie with some additional scenes. Those scenes add ten minutes onto the length of the movie. You have to go into the special features to play the movie with the additional scenes. Hugh Jackman’s screen test was also included.

I have seen X-Men many times since it was first released and I still enjoy it when I re-watch it. The movie wasn’t exactly like the comic books, and that may bother some die-hard fans. People who keep in mind that things will be different may enjoy the movie. People who like movies that feature comic book characters or superheroes should enjoy this movie. X-Men is one of the best movies I have seen that is based on a comic book.

X-Men Reviews
X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ X-Men Origins: Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~ Wolverine: Inside the World of the Living Weapon ~

Other Superhero Reviews
Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman Begins ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight ~ Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ The Incredibles ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12