X Men (2000)

X Men (2000)

Release date: July 14, 2000

Last time, I discussed how Blade proved to be reasonably successful at the box office, but with the failure of Batman and Robin still being fresh in the public consciousness, the film seemed to disassociate itself from its comic book origins. The relative obscurity of Blade as a character made this disassociation a viable strategy for that film, but the X Men were much better known to the general public, having had a popular cartoon series in the 1990s, so this film could not do the same. Instead, it had the task of restoring the credibility of superhero films. Given the superhero film boom we’ve had since then, I reckon it’s fair to say that it succeeded.

Right from the start, the film introduces its key theme of prejudice with a highly effective prologue set in a concentration camp, which involves a young Jewish boy being separated from his hysterical mother as she is sent to the gas chamber. A mutant’s powers manifest during puberty, with traumatic experiences having the capability to act as a trigger. As I’m sure you can imagine, few situations are more traumatic than the Holocaust, and the young Magneto demonstrates this by using his emerging powers to destroy the metal gates in a vain attempt at rescuing his mother. This prologue establishes the film as being a world away from the garish excesses that turned audiences off Batman and Robin.

Moving forward to the present day, we meet a young woman named Marie, who learns that she has the mutant ability to absorb other people’s life force by touching them. Unfortunately, she learns this while having her first kiss, almost killing her boyfriend as a result. When it comes to worrying about first kisses, almost killing the other person is pretty high up there on the list of bad outcomes, even coming above the other person vomiting in your mouth. The frightened Marie names herself Rogue and runs away to Canada.

The next scene introduces the film’s human antagonist, Senator Kelly. Kelly is a bigoted man who hates mutants and plays on people’s fears of what is different to win support for his mutant registration bill. Magneto is present at the meeting and considers this to be ammunition for his view of mutants as being superior to ordinary people.

The film then cuts to Canada, where Rogue meets Wolverine and tags along with him after learning that he is a mutant like her. Wolverine is sent flying through the windscreen of his van when a tree falls into the road, which would have killed him if not for his handy healing ability. Sabretooth then takes the opportunity to attack the weakened Wolverine, knocking him unconscious, but Cyclops and Storm arrive to drive him off and rescue Wolverine and Rogue.

Wolverine wakes up to find himself on an operating table. After the initial panic induced escape attempt, Professor Xavier calms Wolverine down and tells him that he means no harm before giving some exposition on the characters and setting, which Wolverine pokes fun at. (“What do they call you? Wheels?”)  He also takes an immediate dislike to Cyclops, even going as far as flirting with his girlfriend, Jean Grey. How ungrateful of him.

After one of his rallies, Senator Kelly is abducted by the shapeshifter Mystique and Toad, who take him to Magneto. Magneto introduces himself and his minions to the senator as the Brotherhood of Mutants, before Magneto uses a strange machine on the senator with the explanation that “God works too slowly.” As an aside, it’s amusing that the Brotherhood here match up to the stock set of Dragonball Z villains. Magneto’s the boss, Mystique is the pretty one, Sabretooth is the big tough one and Toad is the one with the weird powers.

While trapped in prison, Senator Kelly discovers that Magneto’s machine turned him into a mutant and uses his new power to squeeze through the bars of the cell window and escape, but Magneto catches him climbing out and orders Sabretooth to drag him back in. When Sabretooth holds the senator’s hand, his clothes come off… in the sense that the senator used his powers to escape Sabretooth and fall into the sea, not that he has a forbidden love for hairy feral men with powerful man hands.

That night, Rogue can’t go to sleep because she can hear Wolverine in the next room having a nightmare. Rogue tries to wake Wolverine up, only to be accidentally stabbed for her trouble. Between this and the operating table from earlier, you’d think people would learn by now that surprising Wolverine is a bad idea. Rogue touches Wolverine and learns that she can absorb mutant powers when she touches them, which allows her to borrow Wolverine’s healing factor and save her life. An upset Rogue is convinced to run away by her friend Bobby, or rather Mystique in disguise as Bobby. Mystique then goes on to put poison in Cerebro, the machine Xavier uses to find mutants.

Wolverine finds Rogue at the train station and convinces her to return to the X Mansion, but the Brotherhood attack the train station. Magneto takes advantage of Wolverine’s adamantium skeleton to defeat him easily and captures Rogue. The police arrive to arrest Magneto and tell him to put his hands in the air, a bad move when doing so allows Magneto to lift their police cars and drop them on top of each other. He then threatens to kill the policemen with their own guns if Xavier refuses to let him take Rogue. Xavier reluctantly allows him, while Magneto admonishes Xavier for refusing to make sacrifices to get what he wants.

Upon returning home, the X Men find an unexpected guest: a seriously ill Senator Kelly. The X Men learn that Magneto’s mutant maker machine is unstable and that its victims try to reject the mutation, which results in Senator Kelly’s death shortly afterwards. Before he dies, the X Men learn from him that Magneto almost died after using the machine, and they figure out Magneto’s plan: A meeting of world leaders is about to take place on Ellis Island, and Magneto plans to take his machine to the Statue of Liberty to turn all the leaders into mutants, as well as everyone in New York, but because he almost died after using the machine on one person, he’s going to touch Rogue and transfer his powers to her, so that she can operate the machine instead. It’s a bit like what Deacon Frost wanted to do in Blade, except Magneto thought his plan through a bit more. He can be forgiven for the whole dying thing, because he didn’t know about that.

The X Men (sans Xavier, who had since been poisoned by Mystique) head to Ellis Island to stop Magneto and save Rogue. Naturally, the Brotherhood are waiting for them. Wolverine is eventually able to defeat Mystique after she disguises herself as Storm to trick him, while Toad wipes the floor with Cyclops and Jean before Storm fries him, complete with bad one-liner.

Maybe Storm should leave the one-liners to Blade next time.

Magneto puts a stop to the X Men and pins then to the walls with pieces of metal before leaving Sabretooth in charge of them and starting his machine. Wolverine is able to break himself free and defeat Sabretooth with the help of Cyclops and Jean Grey. Storm and Jean combine their powers to get Wolverine up to Magneto’s machine and Cyclops uses his lasers to incapacitate Magneto, allowing Wolverine to destroy the machine and rescue Rogue, as well as everyone in New York. The film ends with Xavier telling Wolverine to go to Alkali Lake to learn more about himself, the revelation that Mystique survived her battle with Wolverine and disguised herself as Senator Kelly to withdraw his proposed mutant registration bill, and Magneto in a plastic prison. Even before the sequels happened, we knew he wouldn’t be staying there for long…

The early X Men comics were known for being a fictional stand-in for the civil rights movement, with the peaceful Professor Xavier who preaches co-existence representing Martin Luther King Jr, and the more militant Magneto representing Malcolm X. This is a theme carried over to the film, which does a good job of showing the hardships mutants face from prejudiced people like Senator Kelly. It also serves to make Magneto a sympathetic and likeable villain. For all the bad things he does, he does genuinely believe in his cause, with the opening scene showing very well why he feels the way he does. It’s not just a cover so that he can take over the world.

The characters in general are strong. Rogue is another character who is easy to sympathise with, as she learns of her powers and their drawbacks, which are crueller than most as she can never touch someone without hurting them. Her growing friendship with Wolverine as the two get to know each other is endearing. The animosity between Wolverine and Cyclops results in some great banter and some of the film’s funniest lines. 

(Wolverine: It’s me. 

Cyclops: Prove it. 

Wolverine: You’re a dick.) 

The effects are also well done, with Magneto’s mastery of magnetism being particularly impressive.

Most importantly, the characters are perfectly cast. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine may have raised some eyebrows initially, due to Wolverine being a traditionally short character and Hugh Jackman being 6'2", but he owns the role of Wolverine, and has since become the record holder for the actor who has played a superhero the most, having played the role of Wolverine in seven films so far. Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier had been a dream fan casting for years, so to see that dream come true was certainly welcome. Ian McKellen as Magneto is also excellent, lending dignity and gravitas to a role that could have easily been over the top. Toad in particular is upgraded from the snivelling yes-man of the comics to an acrobatic and agile fighter who takes advantage of his long tongue.

As a hammier, more over the top Magneto once said, "Welcome to die!"

While there are no shortage of cool effects and fight scenes, the secret to X Men’s success is the cast of characters. They’re easy to like, even the villains, and they show us that there is more to them than just their powers.

Stan Lee Spotter: In this film, Stan Lee appears as one of the beachgoers when Senator Kelly comes to shore after escaping the Brotherhood. Other cameos include George Buza, the voice of Beast in the 1990s X Men cartoon, as the trucker who gives Rogue a lift, and David Hayter, the film's scriptwriter, as well as the voice of Metal Gear protagonist Solid Snake, as a security guard. 

Next Time: We'll be looking at our first sequel.