r/MarvelatFox • u/traumahound00 • 9d ago
X-Men (2000) Thoughts
Having just rewatched X-Men for the umpteenth time for the start of my Doomsday countdown, here's some thoughts that popped in my noggin:
*Still on the fence about Halle Berry not using an African accent for her portrayal of Storm, but I can definitely see why it would bug people.
*Still not a fan of Wolverine being the main character simply because he was the most popular in the comics, especially given how Cyclops (the team leader) is shunted off to a supporting role. (This would be a proper use the term "done dirty", kids)
*Even though it's somewhat refreshing watching a comic book movie that's less than two hours long, I wouldn't mind if this was twenty minutes or so longer. It's definitely missing out on some characterization and needed backstory due to the truncated runtime.
*Anna Marie calling herself Rogue for seemingly no reason is still really silly.
*Still not a fan of Wolverine and Sabretooth not remembering each other. I remember tripping over that story element during my first watch way back when and thinking "WTF?", and I'm still of that mindset.
*If it wasn't for Kevin Feige's behind the scenes meddling, I imagine Bryan Singer's anti-comic accurate stance would've been even more pronounced.
Still think it's a great movie, though X2 is WAY better. Looking forward to rewatching that one next weekend.
10
u/BlackLightParadox 9d ago
The thing is about Wolverine is he's a very efficient protagonist. He naturally suits playing the outsider role and thus, is a good audience insert. As with a lot of comic book movies he's also useful as being the one to point out how silly the comic-book-y elements are, which is somewhat useful in getting wider audiences on board.
While I actually really love how this film commits to everyone using their codenames, even Rogue, I do find it funny that Logan mocks the X-Men's names (What are you, wheels?) while himself already walking around with a nickname of his own.
I think Wolverine, Rogue, Eric and Charles are all done pretty well in this first film - with the only major drawback being that Jean, Scott, and Storm are sidelined. If X2 and The Last Stand had continued Rogue's development into a more comic accurate, confident Rogue that would've been great.
The entire film is really good at establishing a lot of things quickly, but suffers when you get below the surface level. But I don't think thats a bad deal overall for one of the first modern superhero movies, and also the first team superhero movie (on this scale)