Film Review: The X-Men Last update: 20th August 2000

Despite its differences to the comic on which it is based, this film is rather enjoyable. The characters are far from being the camp superheroes of the later Batman films and personally I see this as a good thing. Okay, so they completely changed the costumes of the characters, discarding the gaudy colours of the comic for a more Batman/Matrix-esque black leather but this only adds to the believeability in my eyes and there's even a joke about the costumes too:

Wolverine: You guys don't actually go outside in these things, do you?
Cyclops: What would you prefer? Yellow spandex?

The Matrix has a lot to answer for in this film. The fight scenes from the Superman films were limp punchups and that really set the scene for all superhero films which followed, until now. The X-Men borrows the supercharged martial arts of The Matrix to produce fight scenes that wouldn't look out of place in the X-Men comic. People fly across the room when they're kicked by these super-powered people and this really does make it seI like they're stronger than the average person, some thing Superman never really achieved.

The only problem I have with this film is the ending. It's blatantly obvious that if the film sells well there's going to be a sequel - it's one of the rules of filmmaking - but do we really need the film to be left open for a sequel in this obvious, "I'll be back!", manner? No, we don't; but that's what we get.

Other than that there's not much to fault with this film. It's a fast-paced action fest that, for once, doesn't focus too much on the emotional inner conflict of the main character and instead on something greater. I won't spoil the film by telling you what that is, it's best you go and see it for yourself.