X-Men
Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Bruce Davison, Tyler Mane, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Ray Park, and Anna Paquin. Directed By Bryan Singer. 20th Century Fox. In the interest of saving time, yours and mine, let me get right to it: go see this movie right now. I don’t care if you’re at work, I don’t care if you’re in bed with a broken leg, I don’t care if you’re in bed with a beautiful woman, take her with you and go see this movie now! It's bound to be sold out, but go ahead and kung fu some fools to get in. If you have to ask "Why?" then you haven’t seen it yet, ’cause no one who’s seen this movie would ask such a stupid question. This is the best movie that's going to come along all summer, and if you don't start seeing it now you'll never get to come back a bunch of times before it's been replaced in the megaplex by, like, Legends of the Fall II: the Spring. The simple fact is: X-Men ranks alongside Blade as one of the only good movies based on a comic book, and alongside Die Hard and Lethal Weapon as one of the best action films of all time. Yeah, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos runs around in blue body paint. With Halle Berry looking absolutely intimidating as the gorgeous Storm, former Bond Girl Famke Janssen as superheroine Jean Grey, and even freshly-18 Anna Paquin (remember The Piano?) all sexed up, the hottie factor is scorching. Need more reasons to go? There's a bunch.
Director Bryan Singer did the impossible: made a smart comic book into a smart movie. Basically, it's a fantasy action movie about human rights. It's just that the rights in question happen to belong to really sexy mutants. As the man behind the also impressive film The Usual Suspects, Bryan made sure the script was intelligent and adult, then did a masterful job of bringing it to life. The best examples of this all revolve around the adamantine claws of Wolverine, which is exactly right, as his inner turmoil has always been the soul of the 37-year-old comic book series. Not only does Logan -- excuse me, Wolverine -- get a great introduction and some really cool fight scenes, but also has some of the best lines in the film (which, incredibly, are NOT the kind of clichéd puns often found in action films). The dialogue, in fact, is just as good as the shit blowing up in this movie. Those of you who are into comics will love your heroes even more after you see them as real people. So often it's the other way around. Especially good are the inter-X-Men tensions when Cyclops tells Wolverine to stay away from his woman, Jean Gray, or when Dr. X and Magneto exchange cake recipes (yeah right). It’s during moments such as these that you realize that Singer and crew were obviously fans of the comic books. The characters are fully developed and invested with the kind of humanity often lacking from the genre. Besides, the actors take to these roles as if they lived them. All that, and still the best thing about the movie is the story. From the opening scene that introduces Magneto to the underlying themes of racism and tolerance, the script here is a smart as, well, a good comic book. The script is full of small but clever touches that keep you on your toes (a swift Malcom X reference, an inside joke for fans of the comic), as well as a number of unexpected moments I won’t reveal since you haven’t seen the movie yet. Which reminds me: why are you still reading this? Didn't I say go to the movie right now? Trust me, you won’t regret it. Not for a minute. -- Paul Semel
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