Movie Review – X-Men (2000)

In anticipation of the upcoming Marvel film, X-Men: Days of Future Past, we’re going to be reviewing the previous X-Men films.

Since September of 1963, the X-Men characters have been fascinating comic book fans and leaving them craving for more.  Animated television shows have followed as well as video games.  But that transition to the big screen wouldn’t occur until the year 2000.

The 2000 film X-Men has a world where mutants live along side of regular humans, but most of them remain in hiding for fear of exposing their powers and being treated as freaks or threats to the human race.  The film follows along as the mutants Wolverine and Rogue are caught in the conflict between two mutant organizations:  Professor Xavier‘s X-Men, and Magneto‘s Brotherhood of Mutants.

Directed by Bryan Singer, X-Men stars Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine.  Co-starring in the film are Patrick Stewart as Charles Xavier / Professor X, Ian McKellen as Eric Lehnsherr / Magneto, Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe / Storm, Famke Janssen as Dr. Jean Grey, James Marsden as Scott Summers / Cyclops, and Anna Paquin as Marie D’Ancanto / Rogue.

X-Men begins in German-occupied Poland in 1944.

At a Nazi concentration camp, 13-year-old Eric Lehnsherr is forcefully separated from his parents.  He tries to fight back and get to his parents, but the prison guards hold him back.  He reaches out and tries to grab the metal gates, and the gates mysteriously bend back towards the boy, as if by magnetism.  It’s a pulling contest between several guards and Eric’s “grip” on the metal gates.  This suddenly ends when a guard hits the boy on the head, knocking him unconscious.

Fast forward to the near future.

In Meridian, Mississippi, 17-year-old Marie D’Ancanto (Anna Paquin) dreams of taking an adventure across Canada, starting at Niagara Falls and trekking west to Alaska.  She shares this dream with her boyfriend, David.  When Marie gives David a kiss, she’s shocked that he nearly dies and goes into a coma.  She learns that she can absorb the life force or mutant abilities of anyone who touches her.

Now knowing that she’s a mutant, Marie runs away from home and eventually works her way to northern Canada.

In a testimony before Congress, Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) warns members of Congress about seeing a new stage of human evolution.  These are mutations that manifest at puberty and are often triggered by heightened levels of emotional stress.  Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison) is more concerned if these “mutants” are, in fact, dangerous to the country.  He has heard about specific examples of mutants that pose threats to not only privacy but potentially national security as well.  Senator Kelly claims that rumors exist of some mutants being so powerful that they can enter a person’s mind and control his or her thoughts and actions.

Dr. Grey argues that mutants are not going to step forward and identify themselves out of fear and potential hostility, so it’s virtually impossible to know if all mutants are dangerous or not.  Any regulation by Congress is only going to send the mutants deeper into hiding.

Senator Kelly believes that the American people have a right to know if there are mutants living in the area, for not only their safety, but the safety of their children as well.

Sitting in the audience is Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a telepathic mutant, and Eric Lehnsherr (Ian McKellen).  After the testimony, Charles confronts Eric about the statements they just heard from Senator Kelly.  It’s obvious that both Charles and Eric have a history together that goes back a long way.  While Charles has hope that humanity will resolve this issue with mutants peacefully, Eric has other ideas.  He warns his old friend not to get in his way.

In northern Canada, Marie (now going by the name Rogue) ends up at a bar popular with truckers and tough guys.  The bar has a fight club where guys are challenged to fight a guy simply known as the “Wolverine” (Hugh Jackman).  The Wolverine easily wins all of the fights and never seems to suffer any damage or injuries.  Later, one of his opponents claims to know that Wolverine is a mutant, and he tries to stab him with a knife.  Wolverine strikes back and shows that he has razor sharp, retractable claws that emerge from his fists.  His entire skeleton is made of a nearly indestructible type of metal, and he has the power to regenerate himself and instantly heal any wounds.

When the Wolverine is kicked out of the bar, Rogue follows along.  She stows away in the back of his truck.  When Wolverine later discovers her, he allows her to sit in his cab and the two of them start to become friends.

Suddenly a tree falls across the road and Wolverine is thrown out of the truck.  The two of them are attacked by Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), one of Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants.  Two more mutants, Cyclops (James Marsden) and Storm (Halle Berry), also pop up out of nowhere, but they are there to help Wolverine and Rogue.  They fight off Sabretooth and rescue Rogue from the burning truck before it explodes.  They quickly flee the area before Sabretooth can strike again.

When Wolverine finally wakes from the fight in Canada, he finds himself being examined by Dr. Jean Grey in a place called the X-Mansion.  The facility is located in upstate New York, and it serves as both a school for runaway / mutant children as well as a home base and research facility for Charles Xavier’s organisation of mutants, a group called X-Men.

Wolverine is highly suspicious of everything, and he thinks that this is a joke after meeting Charles Xavier (also known as Professor X).  He’s introduced to Cyclops and Storm, but he doesn’t remember being rescued by them in Canada.  Wolverine wants to leave until Charles addresses Wolverine by his real name, Logan, and makes references to some of the events in his past, information that nobody should have known.

Wolverine’s attitude begins to change when Charles Xavier takes him on a tour through the X-Mansion.  He quickly sees that everybody there is a mutant in one way or another, and Wolverine is not alone.  And, like him, the other mutants prefer to hide their abilities from the outside world.  The X-Mansion is a home for them, it’s their refuge.

In one of the classroom, Rogue is impressed by some of the boys there.  One of them has the ability to control fire, while another one, Bobby Drake / Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), can create ice from the moisture in the air.  Bobby and Rogue become friends though Rogue is fearful of not being able to touch him and be in a physical relationship.

Further on the tour, Charles Xavier tells Wolverine about a guy named Eric Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto.  He has the ability to create magnetic fields and control metal.  Magneto knew that humanity would never accept the mutants, and he grew angry and violent.

Charles convinces Wolverine to stick around for 48 hours so that he could find out why Magneto wanted to kidnap him in Canada.  In exchange he’ll help Wolverine find what he’s looking for, whatever that may be.

In Washington, D.C, Senator Kelly is pushing for a vote in Congress for his “Mutant Registration Act.”  Suddenly it’s revealed that the companion in his helicopter is really a skin-changing mutant named Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos).  He is kidnapped and flown by Toad (Ray Park) to Magneto’s secret lair.

At his secret lair, Magneto uses Senator Kelly as a test subject for a machine that artificially induces mutation.  Nothing happens to the senator immediately after the experiment, so Magneto locks him in a prison cell.  The senator later discovers that he can squeeze his body between the metal bars and escape through the window.  When Magneto finds him dangling on the side of the cliff, Senator Kelly slips away and falls into the ocean.  Hours later, Senator Kelly makes it to shore and people see that his body has temporarily morphed into a large blob.

Back at the X-Mansion, Wolverine starts to bond with Jean Grey, but she tells him that she’s in a relationship with Cyclops.  That helps fuel the feud between Wolverine and Cyclops, though it’s clear that both men have feelings towards Jean Grey.

That night, Wolverine has a nightmare of the secret medical experiment that made him into the version that he is today.  When he wakes he accidentally stabs Rogue in the chest with his metal claws.  Rogue touches Wolverine and “borrows” his ability to regenerate to heal her wounds.  This process seriously wounds Wolverine and Rogue feels bad as it was just an accident.

A short while later Bobby finds Rogue and tells her that Professor X is furious at her for using her powers at the school.  He convinces her to quickly leave and run away before she gets into any more trouble.  As Rogue takes his advice and flees, we see that Bobby was really Mystique in disguise.

When it’s noticed that Rogue is missing, Charles Xavier uses a powerful machine called Cerebro to try to locate her.  Helped constructed by Magneto, Cerebro allows for telepathic mutants to locate any mutant in the world.  Charles is successful in locating Rogue at a nearby train station.  Storm and Cyclops are sent after Rogue.  When they get to the garage, they notice that Cyclops’s motorcycle is missing.  It means that Wolverine is also on his way to find Rogue.

While everybody is gone, Mystique infiltrates the X-Mansion in the disguise of Bobby, and she’s able to access Cerebro.  She then sabotages the machine and then flees.

Wolverine is the first one to reach Rogue.  He finds her sitting on a train, and convinces her to return to the X-Mansion to give Charles Xavier another chance.  Rogue sees the error of her ways and agrees to return to the X-Mansion.

When Storm and Cyclops are searching the train station for Rogue, suddenly they are attacked by Sabretooth and Frog.  Storm is grabbed by Sabretooth, but when a hole is blasted into the roof of the building, she’s able to create a storm and use lightning to escape from him.  Frog snatches Cyclops’s visor, preventing him from using his powerful optic blast.

Meanwhile, the train begins leaving the station when it suddenly comes to a stop.  Wolverine extends his claws when he sensing approaching danger.  Magneto has arrived, but he’s not there for Wolverine.  Magneto uses his magnetism power to easily disable Wolverine.  He then uses a dart to tranquilize Rogue and kidnap the girl.

When Magneto, Frog and Sabretooth try to leave the train station, the police department has arrived in full force.  They have the building surrounded.  It’s not really a challenge to Magneto as he simply uses his magnetism power to grab all of the policemen’s firearms.  Charles Xavier is also there and tries to reason with Magneto, but the villain holds the police at gunpoint until Charles agrees to stand down.  He does and Magneto and his men escape from the train station with Rogue.

Back at the X-Mansion, Charles Xavier and Storm are trying to convince Wolverine to stay and fight for them when Senator Kelly arrives seeking help.  When Jean Grey examines the senator, she’s shocked to see his condition and how badly he has mutated.  A few moments later he dies.

The team comes together to figure out Magneto’s mutation-induction machine and how he’s going to use it.  They realize that Magneto does not know that instead of simply making regular people into mutants, it’s also going to kill them after a short period of time.

They also know that the machine draws its power from Magneto, and Senator Kelly reported seeing it weaken him.  It reportedly weakened him so badly that Magneto nearly died during the testing on Senator Kelly.  They also know that Rogue has the ability to touch a person and assume their life force / mutant power.  Wolverine realizes that Magneto is going to transfer his mutant power to Rogue and have her run the machine, even if it kills her.

Charles Xavier goes to use Cerebro to try to locate Rogue and Magneto, but Mystique’s sabotage of the machine harms Charles and puts him into a coma.  Jean Grey fixes the machine and uses her telepathic ability with it.  She successfully locates Magneto and learns that he is going to use his mutation-inducing machine on Liberty Island.  The world’s leaders are having a summit on nearby Ellis Island.  However, if Magneto gives Rogue enough power, then everybody in New York City will be affected by the machine.

With Charles Xavier unconscious, it’s up to Cyclops, Storm, Jean Grey and Wolverine to create a plan to stop Magneto and save Rogue.  They form a quick plan, board the jet, and then fly to Liberty Island.

The four X-Men easily infiltrate Liberty Island without being detected by the harbor patrol or the Brotherhood of Mutants.  They know that Magneto’s machine is going to be mounted on the Statue of Liberty‘s torch, so they head inside of the famous statue.

Inside of the museum at the base of the Statue of Liberty, the gang is attacked by Toad and Mystique.  Jean Grey, Storm and Cyclops work together and eventually defeat Toad while Wolverine has a lengthy fight scene with Mystique, who makes herself look just like Wolverine.  The real Wolverine stabs Mystique and she falls to the floor, dying of her stab wounds to the chest.

The X-Men begin climbing up the statue when they’re suddenly attacked by Magneto.  He uses his magnetism power to bind everybody to the inside of the statue.  After everybody has been secured, Magneto flies up to the torch and begins the process of starting his mutation-induction machine.

Wolverine stabs himself through the chest in a desperate move to escape.  He frees himself, but Sabretooth is still in the room with them.  He and Wolverine have a battle inside and on top of the Statue of Liberty.  Sabretooth is finally defeated when Cyclops’s visor is positioned just right and he’s able to use his optic blast.

Magneto transfers his power to Rogue and has her start his machine.  It’s now or never for stopping him.

Storm creates a vortex of air and Jean Grey uses her telekinetic ability to life Wolverine and fly him to the torch of the Statue of Liberty.  Cyclops then uses his optic blast to knock down Magneto, allowing Wolverine to use his claws to destroy the machine.  He succeeds and the wave of mutation stops just before it reaches Ellis Island.

Using the machine has nearly killed Rogue, so Wolverine touches her skin and transfers his regeneration power into her body.  The trick works and both Wolverine and Rogue survive.

Back at the X-Mansion, Charles Xavier awakens from his coma, and Wolverine recovers from his injuries.

After they both recover, Charles tells Wolverine about an abandoned military compound at Alkali Lake in the Canadian Rockies.  He hints that Wolverine may want to investigate the compound to learn more about his past.

On TV, the gang learns that the Mutant Registration Act lost its steam when Senator Robert Kelly suddenly changed his mind about the legislation.  Senator Kelly holds a small press conference to announce that he feels that he was wrong about the issue, and that he may be forgiven.  When he leaves the stage, the X-Men see that it was really Mystique in the form of the dead senator.

X-Men ends with Charles Xavier visiting Eric Lehnsherr in a secure facility constructed entirely of plastic.  As the two of them play chess, Magneto warns Charles that he will continue his fight.  Charles responds by telling his old friend that the X-Men will always be there to stop him.

So is X-Men a good film?

As a whole, X-Men is a good action and comic book film.  The story is great and most of the characters are good.  Some of the scenes though are a bit hokey, and it’s pretty obvious when CGI effects are being used.  Then again this is a film from 2000 versus one made today.

I believe that one of  X-Men‘s biggest problems is that it places too much of an emphasis on Wolverine’s character.  That’s fine for some parts of the film, but in other segments it would have been nice to have seen more of the secondary characters in action, especially Storm and Cyclops.

There’s also the issue of Magneto just not looking or acting much like a villain.  Instead of being a super villain, Magneto seems more like an old man tired of the neighborhood kids running across his lawn.  There’s almost no drive in him, nor is there anything really intimidating or scary.  You have to know about his mutant power before being afraid of him.

And then there’s Toad.

Personally, I didn’t care for Toad.  His wall-climbing ability looked too fake and not natural, and that long tongue was just comically amusing, as if it was intentionally a joke.  It would have been better if he was more of a background character than one of the main villains in the Brotherhood of Mutants.

X-Men (2000) – movie trailer

X-Men was a huge hit in the movie theaters, and the film helped spawn a wave of Marvel and DC comic books made into full-length films.  The characters have continued on with five sequels & prequels, and a sixth one, X-Men: Days of Future Past, is scheduled to be released soon.  There’s no doubt that this original X-Men film has helped inspire many more comic book films, but it has also created an outstanding series of X-Men films.

Prof. Charles Francis Xavier – [narration] “Mutation: it is the key to our evolution.  It has enabled us to evolve from a single-celled organism into the dominant species on the planet.  This process is slow, and normally taking thousands and thousands of years.  But every few hundred millennia, evolution leaps forward.”

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[commenting on the X-Men uniforms]
Wolverine – “You actually go outside in these things?”
Cyclops – “Well, what would you prefer?  Yellow spandex?”

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[Cyclops doesn’t know if Logan’s an imposter]
Wolverine – “Hey! It’s me.”
Cyclops – “Prove it!”
Wolverine – “You’re a dick.”
Cyclops – “Okay.”