X-Men - Movie Review
2"X-Men" (2002) directed by Bryan Singer is a nearly perfect superhero film which delivers on absolutely everything in every category and capacity. There is some simpler logic issues I have with it but don't get me wrong, it's one of the greatest in the superhero genre and it's a crime it took me this long to see it from start to finish.
The world has been changed forever due to some humans evolving and gaining powerful mutations. The normal population of humanity gravely fear mutants and have ostracized them from all normal society, but one man named Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) runs a school for mutants, teaching them how to control and fully utilize their abilities, using them for good. A powerful villain called Magneto (Ian McKellen) wants to kidnap a young mutant girl named Rogue (Anna Paquin) so that he can use her as a "battery" in his lethal machine which turns normal people into mutants, selfishly sparing his own life. The X-Men consisting of drifter claw wielding Logan / Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), telepathic Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), eye laser shooting Cyclops (James Marsden), and the powerful psionic master of the weather Storm (Halle Berry), form up to stop Magneto before he can begin an unnecessary reckless war against humanity.
I really enjoyed X-Men, like way more than anticipated. I knew it was good and iconic and everything but I had no idea it was this well done. Everything about it screams authenticity and there are so many memorable characters here. There are basically three protagonists in this, being Xavier, Logan & Rogue, and I really enjoyed getting to experience this world through each of their unique eyes, each having very different backgrounds despite all being mutants.
The villains were also excellent. Magneto is obviously great, due to his portraying actor and his believable plan, but it's also rare to see a superhero film do it's henchmen so well, Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) & Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) are pretty awesome, Toad (Ray Park) is unfortunately a little lame but I met Ray Park in real life and he was particularly kind to me so I won't go too hard on him. My only real big issues with this stellar movie is first of all how insanely fast Logan becomes invested in Rogue (It makes sense after he accidentally stabs her, but I'm specifically criticizing everything before that moment). The other flaw I could find was an illogical / impossible moment where Mystique has information that she should not be able to have, specifically when she morphs into that love interest boy at the school and convinces Rogue to leave the grounds because Xavier is mad at her and it would be better for everyone if she just left . . . This makes absolutely no sense because it's impossible for Mystique to know about the stabbing incident which happened the night before, I looked up her powers just to confirm, and yeah, she is only able to change her appearance and voice, she shouldn't be able to recollect the thoughts of her victims as far as I can learn from a quick wiki search.
X-Men has great characters, actors, costumes, and more. It's a genuinely really interesting world to watch it's events unfold and I really appreciated the cool location for the finale in the Statue of Liberty.