Comics don't make good movies (X-Men (DVD))

Member Name: ben_83

Product:	X-Men (DVD)
Date:	26/08/00 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stewart and McKellen are good, as are the special effects

Disadvantages: Takes too many cues from 'The Matrix', aimed at kids, predictable story, the ending is too sweet

From adverts for deodorant to music videos of bad cover versions (A1, I'm looking at you), everyone seems to be ripping off 'The Matrix'. 'X-Men', the movie of the Marvel comic of the same name, is no exception. The title sequence and the fight scenes all bear more than a passing resemblance to the Wachowski brothers' finest and the whole film has that same unreal, futuristic feel about it. Not surprisingly, knowing that so much of 'X-Men' has been plagiarised makes the film hard to enjoy. A shame really, because it could have been really good.

As we all know, evolution normally takes millions of years to occur. However, 'X-Men' turns all this on its head by telling us that Darwin was wrong and that, every few millennia, human evolution takes a leap forward. This is how the main characters of the film: Wolverine; Rogue; Storm; Cyclops; Magneto and Professor Xavier (annoyingly pronounced 'Ex-avier' when surely it should be 'Zavier') came to have their super powers.

The problem for these mutants is that normal humans won't except them and an evil US Senator (in Hollywood films, are politicians ever anything different?) is trying to introduce a bill into law that would mean that mutants would have to put their names on a register and be monitored by the authorities (how topical). Prof. Xavier, the head of crime-fighting mutant organisation X-Men, is not happy about this but his arch-enemy, Magneto, is positively fuming. Magneto decides that a war is inevitable if the bill is passed so takes matters into his own hands...

This really is a very average film. Apart from the excellent special effects (which shouldn't count for anything if the acting and script are no good), there's nothing noteworthy about 'X-Men'. The script is monotonous and predictable and ends in the most obvious set-up for a sequel that I've seen in a long time. The acting is average too. Whilst P
atrick Stewart plays Prof. Xavier with his characteristic touch of class and Ian McKellen is very sinister as Magneto, the rest of the cast don't really have much acting to do apart from the girl who plays Rogue but she just spends the whole film crying.

I probably would have loved this when I was twelve but, now I'm a little older and wiser, it just leaves me cold. Perhaps if it hadn't ripped off 'The Matrix' so obviously and had featured a more surprising ending I would have liked it more but, as it is, it's just an average film for kids on summer holiday.

Summary: