A pretty teen, nicknamed Rogue (Anna Paquin), has the conflicting desire to leave her Mississippi home and hitchhike to Alaska. A bedroom good-bye to her boyfriend leads to a clumsy kiss. It's all sweet and innocent until her screams fill the room and her would-be lover's unconscious body begins to shake violently.
"I just touched him," Rogue yells to her parents. "I didn't mean to."
Teen angst reaches a fever pitch when a girl's first kiss violently thrusts her boyfriend into a coma. It's director Bryan Singer's ambitious way of making X-Men more than the typical superhero actioner. Heroism is confused and insecure in a teen-age wasteland that goes beyond the Pows! and Bams! Basically, life for a teen-ager is intense enough without attacks by mutant baddies and super-powered mayhem. It's a lot of stress for a girl who doesn't even have her first job yet.
A group of mutant superheroes -- Cyclops (James Marsden), whose eyes release a powerful energy beam; Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), a powerful telepath and telekinetic; Storm (Halle Berry), who can control all forms of weather; and their leader, the powerful telepath Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) -- battle Xavier's former friend, Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Ian McKellen), a powerful mutant who can control the forces of magnetism. Magneto has assembled an evil mutant squad -- the mammoth Sabretooth (former wrestler Tyler Mane), the far-jumping Toad (Ray Park) and the shape-changing Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) -- to seize control of the world from humanity. Xavier's heroic X-Men are helped by two newcomers, Rogue, a teen-age girl with the ability to absorb the powers and memories of anyone she touches, and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a furious fighter with incredible healing powers and retractable, razor-sharp claws. Soon, the X-Men are in a war to save mankind.
Much of the plot mimics racial problems and anti-immigrant fears today. Conservative U.S. Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison) and his subcommittee on Mutant Activities argue for mandatory mutant registration.
"Mutants are very real, and they are among us," Kelly tells his senate colleagues. "We must know who they are, and we must know what they can do!"
At its core, X-Men's storytelling is comic-book silly. Magneto wants to use an elaborate contraption to convert world leaders into mutants. He believes it's the only way to get politicians to see the mutant side of things. Its costumed silliness prevents X-Men from being entirely successful. But X-Men is ambitious enough to put its troubled heroes inside some black leather fighting togs and still allow some serious emotions to emerge.
Movies have shot comic books before: Superman and Batman, Judge Dredd and The Shadow, Blade and Spawn, Swamp Thing and The Rocketeer, Barb Wire, Howard the Duck and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The moviemade track record of adapting comics is spotty at best. Now, three years after Batman last fought his foes in 1997's critically panned Batman & Robin, Singer's X-Men steps away from the pulp tradition of superheroics for a tale focused on the adolescent fear of one's changing body and the everyday drama of being an outcast.
Like most movie ensembles, some characters are tossed aside by the film's storytelling. Xavier spends much of the movie incapacitated despite being the good guys' leader. Toad's leapfrogging stunt work is kept brief. Storm and her weather wizardry remain on the sidelines. The movie screen gets crowded during climactic battles when all the heroes and villains are tossed together. You can't watch X-Men without a scorecard. But after the rubble clears and the explosions fade, it's clear that the spotlight belongs to the X-Women.
Girl Power
A token sidekick like Batgirl is nowhere to be found. Neither is a busty babe like Sheena Queen of the Jungle. X-Men keeps its action sexually balanced with an impressive collection of heroines and villainesses. I can't think of another action movie that has this much girl power. Supermodel Romijn-Stamos makes the most of her blue, scaly, naked appearance as the shape-shifting Mystique. She's the source of many of the film's best martial-arts moments. Janssen brings a steady intelligence to Jean Grey, keeping her from becoming simply Cyclops' telekinetic girlfriend. But there is too much of the clichéd comic-book cleavage to declare X-Men as politically correct. It's laughable how only the X-Women seem to walk around with the front zippers pulled open on their leather jumpsuits. The film, however, finds its emotional footing by keeping its dramatic spotlight rooted to the teen-age Rogue. Her struggles to come to terms with her growing powers provide X-Men with much-needed heart.
"The first boy I ever kissed ended up in a coma for three weeks," Rogue tells a sympathetic Wolverine. "I can still feel him inside my head."
The drawback to any ensemble story is that there is not enough time for everyone. But X-Men is savvy enough to recognize the complex Rogue as its core hero. More importantly, X-Men knows that a good actioner is only as good as its villain. Luckily, that's where McKellen enters the picture.
Mean Mr. Magneto
Maybe it's his booming voice, honed by years performing at Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal National Theatre. Then again, it could be something as simple as the way he arches his eyebrow. Either way, it's impossible not to smile while watching McKellen's gruff impatience as the menacing Magneto. His noble presence and white hair bring an authority to what normally would be an outlandish costume of oversized cape and clunky metal helmet.
"We are the future, Charles, not them," Magneto tells Xavier, confirming his plans to wage a war against mankind. "They no longer matter."
A gritty prologue explained Magneto's origin in a Polish prison camp in 1944 at the height of World War II. It's here that X-Men defines Magneto's distrust for mankind. Shakespeare buffs and art-cinema fans might wonder what McKellen is doing in a film like X-Men. After all, he is an actor best-known for Richard III and his role as legendary Hollywood director James Whale in Gods and Monsters. But McKellen is a seething update on the comic-book hysterics of Jack Nicholson's Joker, the costumed kinkiness of Danny DeVito's Penguin and Michelle Pfeiffer's slinky schizo take on Catwoman. In a summer that has already paid homage to the movie villain with Gladiator, Mission: Impossible 2 and The Patriot, McKellen's Magneto is a welcome addition.
Confrontational action that might take three pages in a comic book transpires quickly on the big screen. Magneto and his evil band wreak havoc on a Westchester, N.Y., train station in an attempt to kidnap Rogue. Train cars are twisted open like sardine cans. The station itself is reduced to rubble. Confronted by the city's police, Magneto tosses their cars into the air and pulls the revolvers and shotguns out of their hands, turning their weapons back on themselves. Xavier's attempts to stop Magneto prove futile. The evil mutant has fired a handgun and holds the spinning bullet an inch from a cop's sweating forehead. It's an act that he quickly repeats.
"I don't think I can stop them all," Magneto yells out to Xavier. A smart movie villain knows that placing innocent lives in jeopardy is the best route for escape.
Comic Book Confidential
The mythology is immense, a growing pile of mutant heroes and villains that spans some 37 years. The challenge for Singer was to adapt these two-dimensional characters in a way that would satisfy loyal fans while creating a story to appeal to wider audiences. Comic book geeks take their beloved X-Men very seriously, and despite Hollywood's continued love affair with comics, these same fans are afraid of getting screwed.
The Average Joe doesn't know X-Men lore the way people know the stories behind Batman or Superman. But X-Fans will tell you that part of the appeal of X-Men is that they are more human and more fallible than the typical costumed superhero. Capturing this fallibility proves to be the key behind Singer's successful adaptation.
In a local comic book shop, rows of the latest issues line the walls. Many of the heroes are familiar: Superman, Batman and Spiderman. Much of the display space is reserved for X-Men. There are trading cards, posters and action figures. There are also over a dozen separate books chronicling the X-Men's various adventures.
I haven't bought an X-Men comic in nine years, but I'm sympathetic to the endless barrage of hype that has fueled the X-Fan's emotions. TV ads portray a faux political campaign: Beware the Mutant Menace! There are Internet trailers, online mutant training, TV interviews and auctions of Wolverine's battle uniform.
Internet Gossip has reported on every step of the film's troubled production, on-set rumors and test screening feedback. Prior to X-Men's release, Internet gossip was entirely negative. Of course, all this commentary came from people who had not seen the movie. Devoted X-Fans were upset when they discovered that the comic's skintight costumes would be replaced with black leather jumpsuits.
"What do you expect, yellow spandex?" Cyclops asks Wolverine, in one of the film's best gags. Then again, Batman devotees were initially furious over the casting of Michael Keaton and his rubbery costume in the original Batman movie. The relentless Internet buzz makes one nostalgic for the days when a Hollywood movie still had the ability to surprise. Internet criticisms about how the moviemade X-Men look quickly grow tiring. But such costume changes are proof of the difficulties a movie has in fully capturing the unrealistic magic that appears on the pages of a comic book.
Of course, it sounds silly to say a movie can add insult to a comic book. It's not like we're talking about an adaptation of Portrait of a Lady, Jane Eyre, The Scarlet Letter or Jude the Obscure. Then again, college professors have assigned the revisionist Batman saga, The Dark Knight Returns, for courses on the art of narrative. I personally don't agree, but I understand how, for many fans, comic books are a serious visionary enterprise requiring delicate care.
An Action Movie Whose Best Attribute Isn't Action
There was a time when the crafty director had a knack for close-ups. He knew how to re-create depth and build narrative. Basically, the most technical challenges of filmmaking were creating the color, texture, light and shadow that expressed the film's emotional make-up. Today special effects have created a new arena for the action filmmaker. Suddenly, to make a movie blockbuster, a director has to be skilled with digital effects.
In X-Men, a beam of light bursts from Cyclops' visor, an elastic tongue shoots out of Toad's slimy mouth and metal blades explode from Wolverine's hands. And that's just a taste of the approximately 400 special effects that fill the movie. But Singer (The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil) never seems to fully control the action. His hero-vs.-villain battles contain plenty of eye-popping content. It's hard not to be wowed by a fight atop the Statue of Liberty. Still, Singer directs the stunts in clumsy fashion. The action unfolds in spurts. X-Men possesses none of the slickness of Tim Burton's Batman films or Richard Donner's Superman. Despite Jackman's macho bravado as the rebellious Wolverine, X-Men becomes that ironic action movie whose best attributes aren't action. Singer's strength lies in creating human characters beneath the superhero garb. The film's best moments revolve around Rogue and her runaway mentality. X-Men is a special-effects-laden actioner that succeeds for reasons other than action.
Geeks Rule
The renaissance of the high school intellectual is upon us. Microsoft's Bill Gates and his army of cybergeeks have made science cool. The age of the geek in horn-rimmed glasses and plastic pocket protectors tucked inside a plaid short-sleeved shirt is over. Suddenly, the smart and gifted have become cool, reckless thrill-seekers. That's certainly the case at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the mutant high school where other teens like Rogue come together to harness their special powers. Here, some kids magically create balls of fire and walk through walls. They are an impressive collection of freaks and geeks.
Into this newfound trend arrive comic's favorite outcasts, the X-Men. Sharing the teen-age anxieties of TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the so-called lives of the X-Men deliver the message that it's OK to be different. It's cool to be gifted. And most importantly, intellectuals can also be athletic heroes.
Inside a Westchester train station, a young boy looks up at the smiling face of Cyclops. The boy is drawn to Cyclops' funky visor. It's clear he's never seen anything like it before. But his innocent fascination ceases with a tug from his mother. A child might accept difference, but rest assured, a nearby adult will burst his innocence. In a world of increasing diversity, the X-Men are costume-clad proof of the possibilities of difference.
I Want To Be Like Superman
It's hard to remember the last time I tied a towel around my neck and pretended to fly. Then again, I barely remember the times I would spend drawing my own comic book adventures. The pictures were horrible, the result of a teen with little artistic talent. Still, I remember how much fun it was creating make-believe adventures.
In the X-Men, when the leather-clad heroes prepare to fly off in their sleek X-Jet, the young students of Mutant High gather around a dorm window and watch the departing jet with wide-eyed wonder. Like powerless teen-agers who imagine themselves as superheroes fighting back against playground bullies, these mutant teens also dream of heroic deeds filled with cool gadgets and gizmos.
Back in the real world, at puberty, when the body is quickly changing, most boys often feel like a hairy Wolverine and, I imagine, there are many girls who feel like Rogue.
X-Men is ultimately a story about kids and their desire to be accepted. Adolescent angst and superhero fascination is what drives this surprising costume actioner.
CityBeat grade: B.
