Comic book films are in my experience among the most entertaining on the market. You’ve got the 90s Gothic brilliance of Tim Burton’s Batman, the camped-up Superman of the 80s and those swinging Hulk movies from the 70s. Bringing us bang up to date comes the X-Men movie, the big-screen adaptation of the popular comic book series.
I have one friend in particular who is big on comics. He can reel of a long list of obscure names and references even after ten pints. He knows the entire family tree of Spiderman and his many relatives. And he’s even got a thing for comic book ladies now. So, I was hoping he’d be a good person to watch X-Men with.
I was not disappointed. Watching films with someone who has a vested interest in them brings a whole new perspective that I for one would normally miss out on. I’m not a huge film-watcher, but I do like watching something with friends. X-Men is a great film for this - it never takes itself all too seriously, and fans of the comic will have a field day spotting the references and pointing out the plot flaws.
The plot of the film is, to be precise, wholly unremarkable, and I would struggle to stretch out a hundred words to cover it. But then, I suspect a deep and meaningful plot was never top of the writer’s list - trying to explain a long-running series such as the X-Men in under two hours just can’t be done. The characters are never explored fully in the film, being only briefly introduced. Indeed, this is something of a problem as there are such a number of characters that each is only given a very brief period to acquaint themselves with the viewer, and this leads to a quite shallow plot. To fit even this large number of characters into the film came at the expense of some of the original (cooler) X-Men, such as Iceman, Colossus and Nightcrawler.
The story is a simple rehash of the old good versus evil line, in this case Professor Xavier against Magneto, two of the most powerful mutants in this Earth setting. Sat in the middle is Rogue, an inexperienced mutant fought over by both sides (as an aside, the film takes a very different approach to the comics and, for purposes of capturing the lusty male audience, casts Rogue much younger and played by Anna Paquin). Fleshing out the story are two sets of X-Men, one for each ’’side’’ - alongside the solid Patrick Stewart as Xavier are actors such as Halle Berry (who you may remember from such films as The Flintstones and Deep Thrust III), and the eye-catching Famke Janssen.
The actors, in general, hold their own, although to be fair even Booming Brian Blessed would struggle to bring much life to what is a very mediocre script. Stewart, probably cast on the strength of his dominant role as Picard in Star Trek: First Contact, can do much better than this, even if his appearances are strangely limited. Berry is a little wooden at the best of times, and her ’’performance’’ isn’t helped by the fact she is hidden beneath layers of make-up and costume for most of the film, effectively nullifying her main attributes. As with many films like the X-Men, though, the bad guy steals the show, with Ian McKellen producing probably the best performance of the entire cast. Despite the general weakness of the cast, it should be said that this does not really spoil the film as the action and special effects are far more central.
The below-par plot (which has several holes and curiosities even a newbie to the series such as myself noticed - for example, the recasting of Rogue as mentioned above) and uninspired script aside, X-Men is a fairly decent film. In my humble opinion, it would need at least a trilogy of X-Men films to even begin to explore the series, which isn’t covered in any depth here. This really is the major drawback to the film - you feel as if you are being led down a path that has been very obviously pre-determined, and there are absolutely no plot twists or turns to add a little interest to proceedings.
As the film progresses, you feel as if you are simply being pulled along and to be honest, you could probably sleep through ten minutes at a time and still grasp what is going on when you awake. The special effects are nothing special at all by today’s Hollywood standards, although there is nothing wrong with them either - they are simply bog standard and add little to the film. This is something of a disappointment and a little curious, as the film is billed as an action extravaganza - something which never really materialises.
Young children would, I imagine, find the action and effects entertaining, although the references to the comics would be above their heads. Likewise, most adults will find the plot very weak and the film in general a little tiresome. It is perhaps best suited for the 18-25 age group or, if you like, those most likely to be interested in the comics which really do add depth to the film.
While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with X-Men, it certainly would not rank above lettuce if it were a green vegetable (in fact, coming in somewhere between the mediocrity of brocolli and the squidgy nausea of aubergines). It is a mildly entertaining way to pass a couple of hours, but most viwers will leave a little disappointed with the weak plot and uninspired acting.