Great Effects, poor plot (X-Men (DVD))

Member Name: SimonCook

Product:	X-Men (DVD)
Date:	13/09/01 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Special Effects, Funny one liners at times

Disadvantages: Poor plot, Some wooden acting

As Hollywood searches for ideas we begin to see many comic book characters come to life. Batman and Spiderman have previously been done; it was therefore inevitable that some of the lesser-known super heroes would begin to hit the big screen.

With many films trying to predict a future, this movie can be seen as being slightly profetic; with the advances in medicine and robotics it is likely to be possible in the future to enhance our bodies.

<The Movie>

In the not to distant future human evolution has started to produce beings that are stronger than regular human beings and have special abilities that are far beyond the norm. Regular man, scared by the implications of this 'super-human' treat the 'mutants' with disdain often abusing them and making them unwanted society.

As governments come to grasp with the implications of the mutant, and politicians become scared of the potential for misuse of these special abilities (e.g. a girl who can walk through walls, could walk directly into a bank vault.), we see the mutant community split.

Part of the community stands for what is good a right and realizes that it will take time for regular man to understand and trusts the mutants. They vow to use their powers for the good of mankind. They are sill shunned by the public in general but accept this as a necessary part of the evolution of man.

The other part of the mutant community sees he regular human's reaction as a direct threat to their existence. They see the differences more as a war than a learning curve and it is their intent to 'infect' the world leaders with mutations, hoping this will allow the world to instantly accept mutants and ultimately give them power.

As the political wrangling continues, the United Nations is holding a conference in New York that most of the world leaders will attend. This gives the 'bad' mutants an opportunity to 'infect' a
ll the leaders quickly and easily.

The 'Good' mutants are intent on saving them.

The movie introduces all the main characters from the X-Men series. A young girl has a power that essentially draws the life from regular humans or the powers from mutants. The young girl, named Rogue (Anna Paquin) links up with a bad tempered mutant called Wolverine (Hugh Jackman); his abilities include retractable metallic claws and amazing healing abilities. They are attacked by the evil Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his followers. Luckily for the pair, Cyclops (James Marsden) a mutant with a powerful ray emitted from his eyes, and Storm (Halle Berry) a mutant that can control lightning, save them.

The pair is taken to a school for mutants run by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). As the mutants learn of Magnitos plans to alter regular humans they attempt to thwart Magneto's plans.

<My Opinion>

As a first movie I found this to be a little weak as it introduces some of the idiosyncrasies of the main characters. It helps to have read some of the comics or to have seen the cartoons.

The plot was a fairly standard Good v Evil plot with the bad guy being thwarted just in time (Ooooh I gave it away!). There were no twist in the plot, or complexities to make you think and this was a little disappointing.

The special effects were excellent, ranging from the frogman with his long tongue to the excellent effects f the main characters (particularly Storm and the lightening). I feel that the effects overshadowed the plot a little similar to Terminator 2; this is a shame as there is plenty of material to draw from.

The acting was generally adequate, as we didn't really see much emotion or effort. Perhaps the best performances were from Mckillan and Stewart. Patrick Stewart managed to make me forget that he used to be Picard and avoid the type casting.

The fight scenes and action scen
es are very good, combining 'Matrix' like fight scenes with special effects to produce some breathtaking fights.

Overall the movie was watch able and hopefully any sequels will improve on the plot while relying on the effects to compliment the script.

<Conclusion>

This movie will probably mostly appeal to fans of the comic books or the series. General movie go-ers may find the weak plot a deterrent. It is not the worst movie I have ever seen, but it is nowhere as good as it could have been.

Summary: