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The first scene in X-Men is set in a Polish concentration camp in 1944. Not the most cheerful way to start. It does, however, immediately establish one of the main reasons why the film has proven to be such a successful franchise opener: it takes the source material seriously. That doesn't mean that it copies the comics religiously (indeed, it takes a considerable number of departures) but it treats the comic book as a valid piece of literature, dealing with themes such as racism and xenophobia. Director Bryan Singer's realistic take on the story gives it a flavour slightly different from anything that had come before.
The casting is unusual, but mostly works. Although it is an ensemble film, Wolverine is given the most attention (as in the sequel), and Hugh Jackman is ideal. He may be a foot taller than the comic character but in every other respect - appearance, demeanour, attitude - he is exactly what the part calls for. Ironically, Jackman was a late replacement for Dougray Scott, but he absolutely owns the role; it is no surprise that the Australian actor is set to return for his own spin-off film. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen bring their trademark gravitas, even if the latter looks a little uncomfortable in a muscle suit. Anna Paquin as Rogue, another of the film's main characters, is completely different from her comics incarnation but her story of discovering her mutant powers and learning to accept them provides the thrust of the narrative and the point of identification for the audience. Halle Berry, however, struggles with a nondescript accent and unconvincing wig. The only particularly memorable villain other than McKellen's Magneto is the shape-shifting Mystique, played with appropriately seductive menace by Rebecca Romijn in head-to-toe blue make-up.
Key to the film is that the characters are very well defined, with Wolverine and Cyclops' argumentative relationship - based partly on Wolverine's attraction to Cyclops' girl, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) - leading to several funny moments. The film is surprisingly, but pleasingly, dark in places (as that prologue would suggest); when we first see Wolverine he's participating in a fairly brutal cage match, and the adamantium claws piercing the skin around his knuckles is shown in some detail. Later on, with a Statue of Liberty-set third act, the film becomes more of a conventional comic book adventure but that distinguishing raw edge is not lost.
Somehow, though, X-Men feels like it's little more than a teaser. Much of the action is rather unfulfilling and, at 100 minutes, it all seems to be over a little too quickly. However, these problems can be attributed to a relatively limited budget, and most importantly, the film provides an interesting, distinctive introduction to the X-Men universe and its characters. Due to its shortcomings, X-Men doesn't quite work as a satisfying standalone film, but as an introduction it does its job more than adequately.
The extras
The packaging boasts of the option to watch the film with deleted scenes spliced into the movie, but the transition isn't exactly seamless so I recommend just choosing to watch the deleted scenes separately. There's also a branching behind-the-scenes option. The audio commentary from Bryan Singer is pretty standard stuff, but is devoid of long pauses and provides a good amount of information.
There's a lot to see on Disc 2, but in some cases I found that the featurettes were a bit too long. The longest is the "Production Scrapbook", which is about an hour long but just consists of someone walking around with a video camera during various days of filming. As such the footage looks amateurish at best. Generally I find these "home video"-style features a bit boring, and watching this for an hour is a stretch. Fortunately the other featurettes are better, as they consist of interviews interspersed with behind-the-scenes footage. These featurettes look at aspects such as the look of the film and the special effects. The most interesting of all is "Reflections of X-Men", a retrospective look at the film from the time of X-Men 2's production. There are masses of menus to navigate through on the DVD, which gets a little confusing, but it's worth it to find some great little morsels, such as Hugh Jackman's first test as Wolverine. It's a substantial package, and Bryan Singer's apology for the double dip in the introduction is a nice touch.
The summary
Bryan Singer's X-Men is a good start to a franchise. As an action movie it is slightly lacking but it has an excellent script and great atmosphere, which go some way to make up for it.
