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Winner Sept '00

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The X-Men Movie

Posted by: JoAnneMIPB
Recommended Site:Wienerville

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Overall I'd say the X-Men movie was a dud.

As I told my buddy Dawn, my short review is "I laughed, I cried, I kissed 4 bucks goodbye."

Disappointing and uneven. The first 2/3 of the movie was better than I expected -- good pacing, decent fight scenes, not bad scripting, but the air just went out of the movie during the final third. It seemed like they just wanted to hurry up and get it over with. The final BIG fight sequence on the Statue of Liberty =sucked=. Bad choreography, bad camera angles, and when Sabretooth tosses Wolvie about I swear I was looking for the wires.

Out in the lobby before the film, people were all jacked to see the film. And the place was completely full. On the way out there was dead silence, and a lot of muttering about 'it wasn't what I had hoped.'

Cyclops: The BEST characterization in the whole movie. Dead-on balls. This guy was so annoying and so anal it could only be Scott.

Jean Grey: Nothing more than a spear carrier. Doesn't really have an important part except as the prize of the Wolvie-Scott rivalry.

Storm: HORRIBLE. The only one worse was Sabretooth. Halle Berry did not have the presence to carry off Storm, and she had some kind of weird accent that kept coming and going.

Toad: One of the best surprises. Ray Park stole the scenes he was in just as he did as Darth Maul. When Park was on the screen you could clearly separate the pro from the amateurs.

Sabretooth: Dawn, DON'T go see this movie. Thank god Victor Creed died in the Sabretooth Special, because if not, seeing this would have done him in for sure. A total Neanderthal henchman. Two lines and the rest were the dubbed-in growl of some big cat. And it was the same big cat growl over and over. No change. Bad makeup job. The eyebrows looked like crepe hair and his boots looked like he had raided Herman Munster's locker. A total mort.

Rogue: Anna Pacquin is a good actress. Even though she was more like Jubilee than Rogue (in terms of her relationship with Wolvie), I really liked her. They also dropped her real first name, and we see how she gets the white streak.

Magneto: Ugh. McKellen is a very fine actor, but they needed to put a bag over his head. Too old, and too gay. The classic Magneto Etruscan helm was remade to look like a Romulan helmet from Star Trek. And the part of the Magneto character that is tragic angst wasn't very apparent and very disappointing after the opening concentration camp scene which was very effective.

Wolvie: *sigh* I will give Jackman credit that he is a good actor and he did do a good Wolverine grimace and he had the splash page comic book stance down pat, but he is NOT Wolverine. Too young, too tall, not nearly buffed enough. The characterization was also wrong. This was not Wolvie the loner. This was Wolvie the joiner. A kinder, gentler Wolverine I don't want. Too easy to get along with, not gruff enough, and too easily falls into step as a team player for a group he's met 5 minutes before. He does however have two GREAT moments in the Cylcops/Wolvie rivalry.

Wolvie's claws: They looked different nearly every time they were popped out. Pick a style and use it.

Overall, I'd say the effects weren't awful, but they weren't up to the standard of Star Wars®, which they should have been. The BlackBird was neat. Cerebro was neat. But Bryan Singer does not need to do another action-adventure movie. Nice try, but a TON of lost potential.

I found lots of fault with the flic both on a cinematic level and as on the comic continuity level. If you don't really know the XMen, you'll probably really like it. If you know the characters, there are just too many holes.

- JoAnneMIPB

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