[.ca] X-Men: 1.5

Additional Features:
Ten minutes of X-Men deleted scenes (most of them superfluous) are viewable separately or integrated into the complete film, with an onscreen symbol to mark when a deleted scene has been inserted. "The Mutant Watch" is a 23-minute promotional featurette originally broadcast on Fox TV at the time of the film's release, and combines interview clips with a "mockumentary" news profile of Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) and his campaign to promote "mutant registration." Excerpts from Charlie Rose's interview with director Bryan Singer are worthwhile but too brief: the entire interview should have been included. Hugh Jackman's screen test (with costar Anna Paquin) provides an interesting glimpse of the casting process. The DVD's features are rounded out by a standard variety of production and costume sketches, two computer-generated "animatics" showing the preparation of action sequences, plus TV spots and theatrical trailers. --Jeff Shannon

Great movie--Absolutely Stunning Sound and Picture!:
I watched this movie for the first time without ever having read any of the X-Men comic books-in fact, I don't like comic books at all. So, needless to say, I was given the opportunity to watch this film from a purely objective standpoint: I had no expectations of what this movie should or should not entail. And, to my surprise, I was extremely delighted with this DVD for a few specific reasons. First and foremost, the Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracks are remarkable. Anybody who has a decent surround sound system-set up correctly!!!-will marvel at the amazing acoustical environments created by the sound team of X-Men; I suspect that THX played a large part in the success of mixing a soundtrack in which every sound effect is mixed with such careful attention to detail that one wonders how such perfection can be possible-I wish every movie's soundtrack would be so immaculate. As if the sound wasn't enough to sell me on X-Men, the picture quality is outstanding as well-far exceeding that of a typical DVD. Again, I'm sure THX played an important role in the video transfer process. And, technical aspects aside, the movie was written and executed very well. I think the X-Men team did an excellent job of taking a highly unrealistic story line and turning it into a movie in which the plot and characters evolve without the sense of corniness often associated with films of this nature. So, all in all, I appreciated X-Men and would recommend it to anyone who appreciates a well made movie-if not for the sound quality, alone (granted, this will not contribute to a viewer's satisfaction at all, if not played through a quality surround sound system). But there are few movies that I enjoy watching more than once, and this is definitely one of them. Enough said.

In Retrospect, the Father of Modern Comic Book Films:
The first X-Men film is not really perfect, but in terms of it's timing and what it meant might be coming down the pike with regards to cinematic interpretations of comic books (specifically Marvel comics) it is pretty darn close to perfect. Lets face it, this is the harbinger of the comic book movie age that has, like it or not, made some exciting and high-grossing films. I personally think the majority of comic book movies fail and could care less about how much money they make, but X-Men is a bit more than that. It's a very good movie too. I didn't get a chance to see this in theaters but that actually served the film well in terms of how I viewed the hype. I didn't care because so many did...that's the old punk in me in guess. So I waited and received the film as an early Christmas gift the following year. I actually watched it Christmas eve and found it to be incredibly refreshing and enjoyable. It begins by showing us a young boy being separated from his parents at a German concentration camp in Poland. His parents are going into the camp and will be killed. The boy is desperate to save them and as the German soldiers hold him down he reaches out and somehow begins to bend the metal gates that close in his parents before being struck down by the butt of one of the soldiers' guns. The boy is Eric Lehnsherr, one of the great all-time Marvel comic villains known as Magneto. In one fell swoop, Bryan Singer does something that I've always been glad X-Men writers did consistently, and that is allow us to sympathize with this villain. We are then introduced to the primary plot of a modern day Senator bent on the granting the government the ability to force registration of all mutants. Then it shows how telepathic and mind manipulating mutant Charles Xavier and his old friend and rival Magneto fundamentally disagree on how mutants as a race must react to this oncoming repression. This is followed by the introduction to our primary protagonists; Rogue, a young girl who drains the life of all people her skin makes contact with, and Wolverine, an enhanced mutant with the ability to heal himself enough that his body endured somking of skeletal replacement surgery. His skeleton is made of an indestructible metal and he also has claws made of this metal that break through his skin anytime he wants to kill someone. Great characters that Anna Paquin and Hugh Jackman are able to portray well here. Again, Singer introduces these characters with relatable depth. In short, Magneto wants to destroy humanity and the X-Men must stop him in an environment where they are not appreciated in the least by the public. Singer attempts to make sociological insights on those terms in addition to bringing great character depth. When you consider the number of characters and the length of the movie, these are not easy tasks to say the least. Then again, when watching the Usual Suspects it's quite obvious Singer has a knack for just this sort of thing. X-Men is a very good movie but I won't give it five stars because it also contains some fairly annoying dialogue that I absolutely refuse to forgive. For example, the character Storm asks the villain Toad what happens when a toad is hit by lightning and answers her own question by saying "the same as everything else." It's not funny or witty. It serves no purpose other than to make Storm look like a big cheese ball, and that isn't really fair. Not to mention, who really cares what happens to a toad when it gets electrocuted and why is that even a question to begin with? Let's just watch the lightning bolt strike and see toad explode. That is really just a nit-picking though, as X-Men is still a very good movie and it actually gets more and more important in terms of movie history with time.

In Retrospect, the Father of Modern Comic Book Films:
The first X-Men film is not really perfect, but in terms of it's timing and what it meant might be coming down the pike with regards to cinematic interpretations of comic books (specifically Marvel comics) it is pretty darn close to perfect. Lets face it, this is the harbinger of the comic book movie age that has, like it or not, made some exciting and high-grossing films. I personally think the majority of comic book movies fail and could care less about how much money they make, but X-Men is a bit more than that. It's a very good movie too. I didn't get a chance to see this in theaters but that actually served the film well in terms of how I viewed the hype. I didn't care because so many did...that's the old punk in me in guess. So I waited and received the film as an early Christmas gift the following year. I actually watched it Christmas eve and found it to be incredibly refreshing and enjoyable. It begins by showing us a young boy being separated from his parents at a German concentration camp in Poland. His parents are going into the camp and will be killed. The boy is desperate to save them and as the German soldiers hold him down he reaches out and somehow begins to bend the metal gates that close in his parents before being struck down by the \o...\c of one of the soldiers' guns. The boy is Eric Lehnsherr, one of the great all-time Marvel comic villains known as Magneto. In one fell swoop, Bryan Singer does something that I've always been glad X-Men writers did consistently, and that is allow us to sympathize with this villain. We are then introduced to the primary plot of a modern day Senator bent on the granting the government the ability to force registration of all mutants. Then it shows how telepathic and mind manipulating mutant Charles Xavier and his old friend and rival Magneto fundamentally disagree on how mutants as a race must react to this oncoming repression. This is followed by the introduction to our primary protagonists; Rogue, a young girl who drains the life of all people her skin makes contact with, and Wolverine, an enhanced mutant with the ability to heal himself enough that his body endured somking of skeletal replacement surgery. His skeleton is made of an indestructible metal and he also has claws made of this metal that break through his skin anytime he wants to kill someone. Great characters that Anna Paquin and Hugh Jackman are able to portray well here. Again, Singer introduces these characters with relatable depth. In short, Magneto wants to destroy humanity and the X-Men must stop him in an environment where they are not appreciated in the least by the public. Singer attempts to make sociological insights on those terms in addition to bringing great character depth. When you consider the number of characters and the length of the movie, these are not easy tasks to say the least. Then again, when watching the Usual Suspects it's quite obvious Singer has a knack for just this sort of thing. X-Men is a very good movie but I won't give it five stars because it also contains some fairly annoying dialogue that I absolutely refuse to forgive. For example, the character Storm asks the villain Toad what happens when a toad is hit by lightning and answers her own question by saying "the same as everything else." It's not funny or witty. It serves no purpose other than to make Storm look like a big cheese ball, and that isn't really fair. Not to mention, who really cares what happens to a toad when it gets electrocuted and why is that even a question to begin with? Let's just watch the lightning bolt strike and see toad explode. That is really just a nit-picking though, as X-Men is still a very good movie and it actually gets more and more important in terms of movie history with time.

An informative political allegory:
X Men, the youthful animation that divides love and evil, is a good film, incorporating great special effects, not to mention the childish violence. But X Men really is a grave political allegiry, highlighting how the governments of the world sometimes thing they are making changes for the best, whilst the silent minority, in this case the mutants, think otherwise. Taking it on one level, this film is an entertaining, action-packed thriller, but one should really consider how the undertone of this animation reflects on a democracy whereby everyone should be considered, and not just the elite. Three stars; that really is all I'm giving.

"Well, it certainly is a big, round room.":
This movie is decent, but hardly measures up to the great superhero movies Batamn and Batman Returns, or even either of the Spiderman movies. Givent the scope of the x-men universe, I understand that the movie can only include a certain number of characters and that the storylines have to be changed considerably. I was disappointed, however, that Rogue was shown as a teenager, before she gains Miss Marvel's powers. Rogue is a character that works better as an adult than a teen. Rogue seems to be a cross between herself and characters such a Jubilee (regarding her relationship with Wolverine). Her teenagerness also doesn't allow for Gambit to appear, with their uncomfortable relationship. Anna Paquin, however, is a wonderful actress, and Hugh Jackman is superb as Wolverine. Professor X and Magneto were also excellently cast, although I wish Magneto was a bit buffer. Halle Berry is a terrible Storm. She lacks a certain dignity intrinsic to the character. The special effects, action sequences, and makeup are all pretty cool. The main weakness of the movie is really its cheesy script. Perhaps if Joss Whedon's rewrite had been kept, it would have been better.