But that was all DC based. There was little for Marvel to shout about except on TV with their terrific animated series of their various franchises, including the X-Men.
I remember being hugely excited for the release of this as I loved the X-Men animated series, that I feel still holds up today and is much better then any of the other superhero animated series around right now.
The opening certainly hits the ground running in terms of what ideas it is covering. It is certainly the most ideal plot to cover to see mutants and humans can co-exist and make it feel a war on racism.
The rest of the first half is introducing us to the mutant world really nicely and fans of the animated series like me are certainly having a nice moment of nostalgia.
The second half does have its exciting action set-pieces. However, the story is a bit generic and sort out forgets the ideas it had in the first half. It still remains a solid action film and don't forget it has been a while since we have seen a good superhero film.
The cast was pretty big and had that great mix of old and new talent. Anna Paquin was really good as Rogue. She has shown great promise with her supporting role in The Piano and I felt she was perfect to play this troublesome character. Having Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan as Charles Xavier and Magneto was a stroke of genius. They play the roles so effortlessly.
This is also the film that gave birth of Hugh Jackman as a major film star. Before this role, he was more known for his work on the stage whilst also doing a small amount of TV roles. But as soon as you see him, he looks like Wolverine and fits the characters personality so well it's as if Logan himself has jumped out of a comic book.
Rebecca Romijn was most definitely the scene stealer as Mystique. Her characters power was put to good to use and the action scenes she was involved with were crowd-pleasing and then some. As for other minor roles, James Marsden was the right choice for Cyclops. His banter with Jackman's character definitely caused the biggest laughs. Halle Berry and Famke Janssen were pretty solid as Storm and Jean Grey also. It was nice to see Ray Park play an actual character (Toad) instead of doing stunt-work which is most well known for.
It was great to see Shawn Ashmore play a minor role as Iceman as I remember him well from the TV series Animorphs. If you remember Animorphs, then you were brought up in the right era.
I think the only major negative is the story. It does feel weak, especially when you look back on it and can now compare it to the many other superhero films that go more complex.
This was a pretty good adaptation of the X-Men, especially in an era where CGI was still not being totally invested by film-makers. But you can tell that there is more that can be done. I really liked the tone Bryan Singer and his team were going for. You can tell that he is a fan of the source material and wants to make the best movie adaptation possible. The story was solid, the performances were pretty on the whole and you can feel that this can go to some really interesting places.
For many people, this was the beginning of the Marvel films even though it properly began with Blade a couple of year earlier. As we all know, the rest is history and the birth of the modern superhero genre has now begun.
Rating: 7/10
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