Fox Home Video | Review by Dan Taylor
As
Friends of Old Marvel go, I was always much
more of a Daredevil, Spider-Man, Hulk kinda
guy. Maybe if I was in a radical mood I'd
go for The Falcon and Captain America, but
the latter's "goody-goody" persona
always offset the former's funky Black Pantherisms.
In other words, what I dug
about Marvel was their unwillingness to
take the superhero formula too seriously.
So when I heard that this
summer's big comic book adaptation was Marvel's
cerebral-leaning X-MEN, I was less than
enthused. Cohorts had described the book
as a "thinking man's comic," and
related that many geeks felt the book had
too little action and too many talking heads.
And I didn't think they meant
David Byrne.
With little knowledge of the
X-Men back story going in (I knew there
was a guy in a wheelchair and a guy with
claws in his hands) I was prepared for director
Bryan Singer to bore me to tears with a
tedious "origin" story. Remember,
this flick's got nearly a dozen main characters,
all with unique powers. Then there'd be
the unavoidable action climax and sequel
set-up.
So, what do I know?
Singer and the half-dozen
or so writers scrapped that concept in favor
of a much leaner vision. They decided to
offer us this challenge: "Hey, this
world and these people exist. Deal with
it."
X-MEN opens in SCHINDLER'S
LIST fashion as a young boy twists and turns
the gates of a Nazi concentration camp with
unseen force while guards haul his parents
to their deaths. Years later the boy is
Magneto (Ian MCKellan), head of the Brotherhood
of Mutants. It's a pretty rag-tag bunch
featuring the Bigfoot-like Sabertooth, the
hopping Toad (PHANTOM MENACE'S Ray Park),
and the morphing Mystique (Mrs. John Stamos).
In typical arch-villain fashion they've
got some crazy scheme up their sleeves (turn
all the world leaders into mutants, too),
but you know they won't be a match for the
X-MEN. After all, it ain't called THE BROTHERHOOD
OF MUTANTS!
Our eyes and ears into the
world of the X-Men come from Rogue (the
shyly sexy Anna Pacquin) and everyone's
favorite berserker, Wolverine. In fact,
the movie should probably have been called
WOLVERINE or WOLVERINE MEETS THE X-MEN.
Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine (a part originally
slated for MI:2 villain Dougray Scott) as
a cigar-chomping, whiskey-drinking, slow-burning
hardass that doesn't remember how or why
he got to be like he is.
Instead of dwelling on how
the oddly-haired Logan ended up with indestructible
steel claws embedded under his skin, we
get thrust straight into the action. Sure,
there's a grainy flashback every now and
then, but that just keeps things interesting
and gets us neophytes guessing about the
real story. Well done.
Frankly, the other X-MEN have
little to do as Wolverine goes about saving
Rogue and the world's leaders. Cyclops (James
Marsden of DISTURBING BEHAVIOR) is a dull,
smarmy counterpart to Wolverine's snarl,
and hardly a worthy adversary in the battle
for Jean Gray's affections (Famke Jannsen).
Oh yeah, and a Holly Beary is a pointless
addition as Storm... though it's kinda fun
to hear her "accent" ricochet
around like a Superball in a concrete cell!
Despite strong lead performances,
tight pacing and a camp-free script, there's
nothing in X-MEN that begs to be viewed
on the big screen. Wait for the luxury of
video where you can better appreciate Jackman's
star-making performance.
