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X-Men
Marvel Hits It Uncanny Rich
by David Blalock
After ten years of production, you would expect X-MEN the movie to be something spectacular, and you would not be disappointed.
20th Century Fox has definitely got a hot property with X-MEN. Grossing well over $50 million the first weekend of release, X-MEN promises to bail out the ailing Marvel Enterprises and launch a new cash cow for the studio. I smell franchise.
But I digress. In the X-MEN, Magneto, determined to once and for all put an end to persecution of mutants, decides to use his powers to "enhance" all of humanity. His reasoning is that, if all people are mutants, there will then be no persecution. Problem is, the machine he uses to amplify his powers to broadcast them for this purpose nearly kills him when he first uses it. He must find another way to power the machine.
Rogue is a teenager who has a horrible problem. Whenever she touches anyone, she steals their lifeforce. The first boy she ever kissed went into a coma for three weeks. She runs away from home and ends up attached to an amnesiac bare-fisted fighter named Wolverine. Wolverine has problems of his own. He has an adamantine-enhanced skeleton, result of some mysterious experimentation by unknown parties, that produces ten-inch long claws that sprout from between his fingers on command. He begins to feel protective of the girl and finds himself becoming her surrogate father as they make their way through the story.
Professor Xavier runs a school for "gifted" children. He sends his three oldest (Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Storm) out to gather wayward souls. They deliver Wolverine and Rogue from the hands of Sabretooth, who was dispatched by Magneto to recover Rogue. Magneto wants to use Rogue as his proxy in the machine, "loaning" her his powers long enough to accomplish his plan.
The plot is a classic comic book story. The villains are bad, the heroes are good. The action is fast and furious, the twists and turns in the plot well thought out and executed. Anyone who has ever read an X-MEN comic will recognize and appreciate this movie.
It is more than worth the price of admission.
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Produced by: Richard Donner, Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter
Screenplay by: Christopher McQuarrie, Ed Solomon, Laeta Kalogridis,
Blanche McDermaid, Josh Whedon, David Hayt
Cast:
Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Francis Xavier/Professor X
Hugh Jackman as Logan/Wolverine
Ian McKellen as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr/Magneto
Halle Berry as Ororo Munroe/Storm
Famke Janssen as Dr. Jean Grey
James Marsden as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Bruce Davison as Senator Robert Jefferson Kelly
Tyler Mane as Victor Creed/Sabretooth
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Raven Darkholme/Mystique
Ray Park as Mortimer Toynbee/Toad
Anna Paquin as Rogue
Matthew Sharp as NSC Agent Henry Peter Gyrich
Shawn Ashmore as Robert 'Bobby' Drake/Iceman
Alex Burton as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Jon Davey as Samuel 'Sam' Guthrie/Cannonball
Katrina Florece as Jubilation Lee/Jubilee
Matthew Granger as Weapon X Surgeon
Sumela Kay as Katherine 'Kitty' Pryde/Shadowcat
Donald Mackinnon as Piotr 'Peter' Rasputin/Colossus
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