X-MEN (2000)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*


The Bryan Singer X-MEN, though no more than a solid formula-film, remains noteworthy for launching a new age in superhero movies.

True, neither director/ co-writer Singer nor any of the talents on subsequent films were ever able to cope with the comic-series' principal appeal: that of the intense soap-opera developments in the lives of "young mutants in love (and sometimes hate)." But then, serial movie-franchises are simply not structured to follow many varied character-arcs over the course of time. Singer thus chose to favor certain characters over others, with the result that X-MEN devotes a lot of time to Wolverine, Magneto and Professor X, a moderate amount to Cyclops, Mystique and Jean Grey, and very little to Storm, Sabre-Tooth, and the Toad. But Singer is faithful to the perceived principal theme of the comics-series: that mutant superheroes provide a new form of alienation, based not in race or religion but in their trans-racial ability to display powers "far beyond those of ordinary mortals."

Almost twenty years later, the film's opening, in which Singer aligns the future sufferings of his fantasy-mutants with the Holocaust, still retains its power to impress all but the most doctrinaire superhero-haters. Thankfully, after that visceral evocation of humankind's penchant for bigotry, the script does not harangue viewers with its political agenda, as do many current superhero films. It's true that from first to last the script signals its appeal to American inclusiveness, referencing emigrants early in the story and winding up with a big battle at the Statue of Liberty, but all of this, though transparent, is far from strident. Like the 1960s comics-version of the X-franchise, Professor X and his students align with the politics of accomodation, while villain Magneto and his henchpersons followed the path of extremist rebellion. Magneto's master plan might be termed an inversion of the Nazi "final solution:" instead of seeking, like the Nazis, to slay everyone of a different ethnicity, Magneto seeks to make everyone the same, turning all normal humans-- the source of anti-mutant xenophobia-- into mutants.

Admittedly, the script does make some minor attempts to build up its less emphasized members. Cyclops (James Marsden), though given fewer strong lines than Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), does have an affecting moment when the eye-blasting hero swears to the Professor that he'll carry on the mutant-hero tradition if his mentor can't do so. Halle Berry's Storm gets the true short end of the stick, particularly given that she was one of the better developed regulars in the comics. Yet I must admit that Halle Berry, despite her popularity at the time, probably would not have been able to pull off Storm even with the best Storm-script conceivable. Nevertheless, every time Jackman or Ian McKellen get on screen, those actors suck away all the "air" in the room.

Given the current domination of CGI in modern superhero films, it's astonishing to see how little appears in this turning-point film. Six years later, Singer would show his regard for the 1978 SUPERMAN by directing the follow-up SUPERMAN RETURNS, but even in 2000, it would seem that Singer was seeking in X-MEN to duplicate the 1978 film's success, using mostly wirework and non-CGI visual effects to project the illusion of beings with fabulous super-powers. The fact that Richard Donner was an executive producer on this film (and one other X-film later) may have influenced Singer in this regard, though to be sure, later X-films made increasing use of CGI, and all of the X-films from 20th-Century Fox were under the aegis, not of Donner personally, but of the production company that Donner formed with his wife.