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This first attempt at bringing the X-Men to the screen is a success, with more chapters likely to come.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 14, 2000
Filmmakers typically miss the point about comic books, focusing on the "pow" and "wham" panels for maximum eye-candy effect. Bryan Singer gets it right with X-Men, based on Marvel Comics' most popular series.
Singer does so many things differently from previous comic-book movies that viewers expecting pure dazzle may be disappointed. This type of fantasy is the last place anyone expects to find understatement, yet that is what Singer approaches.
X-Men has its share of artful special effects, but it's the characters that leave the best impressions.
Take the villain, Magneto, as a prime example. Singer doesn't begin his film in a secret lair or distant galaxy, but in the muddy terror of the Holocaust. Magneto was a boy named Erik Lehnscherr who watched Nazis drag away his father, discovering his mutant power of magnetism at the time of his worst memory.
Erik was among the first wave of ultra-evolved mutants, each with different capabilities. Humans watch them cautiously, their fears stoked by a U.S. senator pushing for mutant registration. Parallels between Jews in World War II and mutants in the not-too-distant future are subtle but unmistakable. Therefore, Magneto's vendetta against the human race has a sympathetic hook.
Pure evil -- or worse, silliness -- would be boring. Singer and his screenwriters understand that the best villains create conflicts in our own ideas of right and wrong. This is not a Joker, Riddler or Lex Luthor role for scene-stealers. Magneto is an uncommonly deep archenemy, played by Ian McKellen with elegant weariness rather than campy gestures.
Magneto's nemesis in his plan to mutate humans is Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), headmaster of a special school for mutant children. The brisk, clever ways Singer evokes the oddness of this academy are indicative of the film's wit. The school is a cover for Xavier's pet project, X-Men, a band of super-mutants protecting humanity.
Stewart is a great choice for the role, his Shakespearean tones once again making sci-fi believable as in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Xavier and Magneto aren't far apart in philosophy, just patience. The longing for equal rights continues in his scenes, kinder and gentler than Magneto's but still very effective.
Put it this way: Logic tells us that Xavier's telepathic powers could allow him to change the mind of that oppressive senator (Bruce Davison) and end mutant discrimination. Stewart makes it realistic that Xavier would prefer that humans learn the error of their ways on their own.
Singer's next smart move is stripping down the X-Men and Magneto's gang to more human levels. Nobody wears colorful spandex over dunes of muscle or masks concealing not-so-secret identities. They're ordinary people with powers that make them outcasts, the reason why some people retreat to comic books in the first place. There is plenty to learn about these characters, and sequels can be expected to offer it.
This first movie concentrates on Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin), the newest X-Men additions. Jackman has a fine brood for a thoughtful superhero, along with metal claws piercing through his knuckles when he gets mad. "Does it hurt when they come out?" Rogue asks. "Every time," Wolverine replies, and we know he means in his hands and his heart.
Jackman also handles most of the film's comic relief in a rivalry with Cyclops (James Marsden) for the affections of telekinetic Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). There is a good foundation here for the next X-Men chapters.
Rogue is a bit of a problem, with Paquin appearing too young and un-Southern. Her power of borrowing the life force of others is a device too handy for some occasions. At least her past is more developed than Storm's, a meteorological wonder mostly played in striking poses by Halle Berry.
Magneto could use better back-up. Toad (Ray Park) is a one-note baddie with his whiplash tongue. Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) is merely Chewbacca gone bad. Both are constantly upstaged by fashion model Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Mystique, a scaly, blue shape-shifter who is just fine the way she is. Mystique deserves a movie -- or at least a photo layout -- of her own.
Those kinds of adolescent fantasies are what comic books are all about. They only use four basic ink colors, so the garnishes of filmmaking can be overkill. Singer maintains such control over his hyper-reality that the big bangs and cybersettings seem possible, a remarkable display of restraint compared with past comic-book movies.
X-Men succeeds because it makes superheroes seem like you and me. That is, if we could conjure lightning or shoot laser beams from our eyes. Singer makes X-Men exciting, not just with explosions but by focusing on one simple, humane fact: It's not easy being a mutant. Don't we all feel that way sometimes?