X-Men

[cladmartin]

I'm surprised no one has posted any comments on "X-Men". I'll try to start things rolling in a positive way: I liked it.

The acting was the key to my enjoyment. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were, not unexpectedly, fantastic. They needed more scenes together, like the closing scene. The real treat was Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. He nailed the part: he was physically perfect and had the attitude down. The secondary characters were all good, with the exception of Halle Berry as Storm. She came off as wooden, and her character's effects weren't that impressive.

Most of the special effects were good - Cyclops' eye beams, Wolverine's claws, Toad's tongue.

The best part about the film was that it didn't slap longtime X-Men fans in the face with major departures from the lore. I'm thinking of "Batman", when we discover Joker killed Batman's parents. Didn't happen that way. Or in "Superman", when he reversed time. It's well established, that Superman cannot change time.

The movie wasn't perfect. Magneto's scheme didn't seem too sinister - giving world leader's superpowers. It wasn't properly tested either - he didn't try it out on anyone but the Senator. And why was Rogue going to be able to project the radiation all over New York City, when Magneto barely got it all over his testing cave? Finally, Magneto's level of evil was vague. Did he care that he was going to kill people? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of making them mutants?

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the next film.

[JBMoney]

I've seen it twice already and went out and bought some background material (Essential X-Men w/Giant Size #1, #94-#120 and Essential Wolverine #1-20). I think the movie departs quite a bit from the comics lore (for example, in comics, Wolverine is not a two-bit bum when Xavier recruits him into the Xmen, Storm is brought into Xmen at same time as Wolverine, Rogue isn't around at all at this time, no Colossus - Banshee - Nightcrawler).

I think the deviations are appropriate though to adapt something like X-Men to the big screen, and make it more palatable to a non-comics crowd. I liked the small touches they did keep, like Wolverine's thing for Grey, the Sabretooth vs. Wolverine rivalry (Marvel now firmly denies that Sabretooth is Wolverine's Father) and the Magneto/Xavier relationship.

I think there would be enough demand to develop this into not only a string of movies, but a TV series. There are so many side-stories that are already there to work with (just bring up the level of dialogue from what exists in comics). I imagine a super-hero soap opera would sell.

The movie left no doubt of a sequel, or continuation in a TV series. In fact, there could be some serious problems if they don't provide a sequel because they left so many things hanging: Wolverine/Grey, Wolverine/Rogue, Wolverine's Past, Magneto in Jail, Mystique in the Senate, etc.

I was a little dissappointed in the casting for Cyclops. After all, Cyclops is the leader of the X-Men, he seemed a little wimpy to me. Of course, compared to Wolverine who doesn't.

[cladmartin]

As sequel is already in the works. Bryan Singer, the director, has said the Beast and Gambit were the two X-Men most likely to appear in the sequel. Beast was removed from the original screenplay to lessen the number of characters.

[JBMoney]

When the new X-Men were formed, #94, Beast and Gambit were not members. So that would make sense.

I think Beast was an X-Man from the original line-up, before Storm & Wolverine came on, then he went to Avengers. Did he come back to the team later?

[cladmartin]

Stan Lee's original X-Men from 1963 were Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Marvel Girl (aka Jean Grey) and the Beast. Professor X was always in charge. The Beast wasn't all blue and furry then.

When Chris Claremont came on board to revamp the X-Men he kept Jean Grey (but dumped her dopey codename, she eventually becomes Phoenix) and Cyclops. He added Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. There were other secondary X-Men, but these guys were the main ones. Everyone eventually returns, particularly Beast. That's how I remember it anyway.

Other characters, such as Rogue, Gambit, and Jubilee were introduced after I stopped reading.

The problem with the comics is that there are twelve different titles to follow now. Marvel has never been really good at collected editions and graphic novels (at least not as good as DC). There is a collection called "The Essential X-Men", which reprints a dozen or so comics, but it is in black and white. Black and white comics, e.g. Frank Miller's "Sin City", need good shading, like black and white movies. Removing color is like uncolorizing a movie. There's no pizzazz to the pictures.

[JBMoney]

Keeping track is definitely a problem. Check out this document, and you can see most of the continuity, at least enough to make you want to hide under the bedcovers.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Rajiv_Mote/xmstory.txt

[This message has been edited by JBMoney (edited 08-07-2000).]

[JBMoney]

Doh, i missed something on the first read of one response.

Yes, Xavier was obviously in charge and the mastermind behind X-Men successes. However, when they were in the field, Cyclops was the operational commander. I think he should have been played in the movie by a much stronger actor. His bickering with Wolverine was certainly true to the comics though.

Don't forget Banshee, who joined at the same time as Wolverine, Colossus, Nightcrawler and Storm. I thought he was pretty cool, because of the constant Irish accent. He lasted #94-#129.

[C3POLaf]

Saw X-men when in Atlanta, three weeks ago. I'm not even into comics, more a manga/animee guy, but something struck at the heart here. The movie's good entertainment from start to finish. I quite liked the pace and buildup, and nothing pretentious about it either. I'll pick up on X-Men from now on, so thanks for tips on collected editions and such.

I found little time to post lately, but will try to improve on matters.

BTW, I also saw chicken run, which took some gags from W&G, watering down the end result, but still was a fun movie to watch. "What ever you do girls, don't panick", hilarious.

I'm old enough to have seen Stalag 17 (on TV, mind you), so the movie was the funnier for it. PS, is Ginger's voice the same as Wendolene's? I couldn't put my finger on it.

[shotglass]

So, anybody know the scoop on X-Men 2? When's it coming out?

BONUS: Pic of Wolvie and Rogue from X2.