X-Men, the movie that started it all (but that isn’t as good as you think)

Somewhere I posted about the fact that over the next seven days I am posting about the X-Men movies, and am doing so in chronological order rather than release order. Look for that, then read:

X-Men (aka the first one)

While there are arguably a few other contenders, I think it’s pretty safe to say that the 2000 film X-Men ushered in the modern era of superhero movies. Without it, we wouldn’t have flicks like the Avengers.

So from an historical perspective, it’s a noteworthy film in the genre. It’s a genuine LANDMARK for the genre, and for that it deserves credit and respect.

From an entertainment perspective, on the other hand, it’s looking a bit sluggish these days.

Though there are some excellent initial scenes — Magneto in the concentration camp, Wolverine doing cage fights, Rogue’s first kiss, Wolverine’s tour of the mansion — it takes a little bit for the story to develop a clear focus. The entire first act is gone before you have any inkling of what the conflict even is. Magneto is a bad guy with bad mutants working for him, and he wants Wolverine (or so we think). That’s about the extent of it.

Senator Kelly is kidnapped and turned into a mutant, but why should we care? He was painted as a villain in the early part of the film, so we have absolutely no concern for his well being. We’re not invested in him at all.

Then Magneto gets Rogue, and it’s a quick scramble to a lackluster finish at the Statue of Liberty. It’s not well staged or choreographed, lacking the big WOW you want from a team battle. Even in its day the finale was probably the most disappointing part of the film — all the character stuff and previous action setpieces were all superior — and today it looks like something made for TV. At the time it was cool because it was all we had, , so it deserves credit for being first, but that’s damning with faint praise, innit?

That’s not to say there isn’t still a lot to like here, because there is. The casting is largely strong. Touring around the mansion is super fun. Logan and Rogue’s relationship differs from the comics for the better. The acting is generally very good (except, oddly enough, by Ian McKellen. He’s usually brilliant, but he doesn’t come into his own in this role until X2). The sequence at the train station was really well done, as was Magneto’s fantastic confrontation with the police. The dialogue has a lot of information to get across, but manages to do so without being clunky. Even Professor X’s exposition to Logan is fairly seamless.

Plus, this movie isn’t shy about codenames. Even today, many superhero movies are scared to fully embrace the idea. This one is just like, “Oh, this is Scott Summers, but you can call him Cyclops.” That’s refreshing.

Ultimately, though, by today’s standards this is pretty middle of the road. Unlike some of the other X flicks, there is little reason to revisit this one. And yes, some people argue that you should judge it in the context of its time. That’s a fair argument, but talking about this film’s historical context is also another sort of discussion. What I’m interested in right now is how these films look NOW, compared to what we see TODAY, not their place in the grand scheme of things.

Historical context? We can do that another time. In that discussion, this movie fares much, much better.

CONTINUITY notes: There aren’t as many niggles as you’d imagine, and several are easy to explain away. Sabertooth, for instance? Eh, different guy than the Sabertooth from X-Men: Origins. Wonder why Scott didn’t remember the dude with frickin’ metal claws who rescued him from Three Mile Island? It actually fits fine: Scott’s eyes were covered the whole time he was in captivity, so he never saw Logan. The only “big” stuff is minor: the age Xavier says he and Erik met, and Xavier claiming to have built Cerebro with Magneto (which in theory could still happen – he didn’t say he developed it, he said he built it), both conflict with what we see in X-Men: First Class.