Two mutants, Rogue and Wolverine, come to a private academy for their kind whose resident superhero team, the X-Men, must oppose a terrorist organization with similar powers.
30 Sep X-Men (2000)
Missed a Chance
One nice thing about this is the casting of McKellan and Stewart. Despite the latter’s adventures with the stupid StarTrek, he is an intelligent actor, as is McKellan. They tower over the amateurs in this film as their characters should. About bad acting, can we be spared from Ms. Berry in the future?
The photography is overloaded on face supercloseups, and the tone is suitably dark. None of the sets thrill.
What’s awkward about this attempt is how muddled all the conspiracies are. Thrown into the same blender are Nazi mass murder, Nazi experimentation, radioactive fallout, mind control, US war-time mutant experiments (to come more explicitly when we find out about Wolverine), religious righteousness in the Senate, one-world governments, the hidden x-men, and the evil mutants-who-are-sometimes-merely-mistaken. Are there supposed to be bad guys? What’s the central struggle? There’s not enough intelligence here to put shades on the real driver. It’s paranoia in the comix, which are far more intelligent and nuanced than this film. How can that be?
The ultimate Marvel film should come from Dr Strange. Give it to Ridley Scott to direct, Kenneth Branagh as the Doctor. dark, intelligent, spooky, Kafkaesque.
Posted in 2000
This is an update a quarter of a century later. Gosh how context can change a movie! Of course we can criticise the inept colouring, and the by now wan effects. But the bigger shift is that we’ve been through Trump, and half the country has been convinced to hunt and eradicate non-binary souls, and independently to demonise immigrants. Immigrants for chrissakes! We’re pulling books from libraries and allowing pregnant women to die, while the superrich get more super.
This film at least has two very good actors in the lead. I forget how the story line develops, but the idea of turning smarmy republicans into mutants has some appeal today that it did not have in 1997 when this was written.
Posted in 2024
Ted’s Evaluation — 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.
No Comments