Force Fed Films: "X-men" (2000)

Jim got me to watch “X-Men” today, which is a slight surprise to me that I have never seen this before. I’ve always been interested to watch the movie, mainly because my interest grew from the early 90’s cartoon series. I guess I was always scared of how live action superhero movies can turn out. And up until recent years, live action superhero movies can easily go 50/50. Just an example, look at the late 80’s/90’s Batman series, they really can be toss ups. And before I start jumping into Mr. Freeze one liners let me get into “X-men”.

Coming from the perspective of knowing bits and pieces of the X-men series already, I thought the movie really did a good job introducing all the characters. The movie starts off with Rogue running away and searching for Logan. After the two meet, they get disturbed by Sabertooth, who was sent by Magneto. Even though Sabertooth’s plan of abducting Rogue failed, Magneto needs to get his hands on her to follow up on his plan, his evil plan of the annihilation of humans. Of course Professor Xavier will have none of this; he and his fellow students at the school for mutants plan to stop Magneto’s evils.

Oh Hugh Jackman, you stud.

The coolest part of this movie is easily the fact that I love seeing a lot of the cartoon X-men hero’s in real life. I guess I was wrong to assume that live action movies can be bad, and I’ll take some blame for it. Especially after the introduction of “Thor”, “Captain America” and Nolan’s Batman series, there is no reason not to see a superhero movie. Well, almost no reason. I’m looking at you “Green Lantern”. But coming back to X-men, I loved seeing Xavier and his gang as actual people. And they couldn’t cast a better Storm, Halle Berry was stunning as Storm. But I couldn’t ignore my first real crush, and I think I am not the only person in the world that has a crush on Rogue. And Anna Paquin, you found yourself a new stalker, err I mean admirer.

Coming back to recapturing the nostalgia, I thought the movie did a great job portraying the tension between humans and mutants. And this all can be accredited to the amazing acting from all the actors. They really capture the characters and suck you into the atmosphere of being hated by almost every human alive.

Halle Berry's performance was electrifying it. Yeah, I went there.

But I can’t go any further before I talk to you about the most important part of any movie. The action and fight scenes, and the short answer is they’re amazing. The long answer is they are frickin’ amazing. All the way from Wolverines hand to claw combat, to Storm’s weather brewing powers and of course the awesomeness that is Toad. Not entirely sure why I liked him so much as a I did, but the things he could do with that tongue was impressive. And for the most part the special effects just added to the brilliance that was the fight scenes.

And that handy transition leads me to the special effects. For the most part they were eye candy; I especially liked Mystiques cool chameleon effects and her cool combat stunts. Though one thing sort of stood out as feeling a bit outdated, and yes I know this movie is only 11 years old. But when Magneto’s magnetic powers are being shown with thunder-like effects. I just found they looked real budget and out of place. Just a minor complaint but just something that stood out.

Probably the one of the coolest mutant was Mystique.

I sadly have to say, I regret not seeing this movie sooner. With the Avengers movie coming out soon and the recent flow of great superhero movies. Catching up with some of the older superhero movies is a great treat. I’d like to get some of the other movies I’ve missed out on. Obviously the other 2 X-men movies, Spawn, Hellboy and maybe even Ultraman, if I can get my hands on that. God I loved Ultraman TV series when I was young. But until my next entry, stay cool birdboy. Sorry couldn’t help it with the Mr. Freeze.