In 2000, If Comic Book films were a boxer, he would have been on the ropes. In 1978, Superman hit theaters and did big business, but after one successful sequel, the franchise was killed off by poor creative decisions and penny pinching producers. In 1989, Batman came to screen with a huge splash, but with each sequel, the series seemed to lose more and more fans. Finally, the series was given the knockout punch in 1997 with Joel Schumacher rubber-clad atrocity Batman & Robin. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Uma Thurman competed to see who’s career could take the bigger hit by hamming up their portrayals of popular DC Comics villains. George Clooney decided to make Batman a non-entity in a movie barring his name, and Chris O’Donnell took a few more steps toward obscurity in what has been voted in poll after poll the absolute worst film in this genre or any other.
Also not helping was Mark A.Z. Dippe’s 1997 adaptation of Todd McFarlane’s popular comic book Spawn. While John Leguizamo clowned around as the film’s main baddie, actor Michael Jai White proved he wasn’t ready to carry a big budget special effects movie. The film was another dud for the Comic Book movie.
Making things worse were adaptations for DC Comics’ Steel and Marvel Comics’ Nick Fury. When you’re selling your movies on stars such as Shaquille O’Neal and David Hasselhoff things could be in trouble. Even with Hasselhoff’s Fury being relegated to a TV movie, it was still awful by those standards. Amazingly enough Shaq’s best line from Steel, “Don’t tell Grandma” didn’t catch on like wildfire with fanboys. Steel attempted to take Batman & Robin’s championship for worst film of its genre, but with Schumacher’s “movie” taking in 11 Razzie Nominations, its reputation was already cemented.
A glimmer of hope came in 1997 with the release of Blade. Wesley Snipes’ vigilante vampire hunter did pretty decent business at the box office and showed that superheroes still had some power to pack in audiences. The film’s combination of horror and Hong Kong-style action showed that an R-rated Comic tale could still find success and gave Marvel Comic their first theatrical hit.
This was just the beginning of what was to come for Marvel Comics as a successful place for housing imaginative and entertaining films. With Blade nudging the door open, another Marvel franchise was about to kick it in. Marvel Comics were about to see their properties catch on fire and begin a new golden age for the Comic Book Movie.
X-Men Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, and Ian McKellan. Directed by Bryan Singer.
The first few moments of the film establish that the tone of the picture would be different from the last few pictures that came before it. Instead of beginning the movie in a secret fortress or the scene of a crime, the introduction to the film’s first character begins in a Nazi concentration camp. Eric Lensherr, aka Magneto, is shown being separated from his parents in the midst of the Holocaust. Nazi soldiers scramble to subdue the young man as his magnetic powers suddenly manifest, taking down a huge fence before the soldiers can stop him.
Flash forward to present day, mutants are a growing phenomenon as people everywhere discover latent abilities that make them outcasts. One to feel this is a young girl in New Orleans, sitting with her boyfriend. Rogue (Anna Paquin) screams in terror as she realizes her touch is deadly. Her parents look in horror as they realize their child has mutant abilities.
Her boyfriend lies in a coma as the action moves again, this time to Washington, D.C. Arguing for and against the rights of mutants are Dr. Jean Grey (the beautiful Famke Janssen) and Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison). Kelly proposes an act that would require mutants to register themselves. Watching the proceedings are Professor Charles Xavier, a powerful mutant with psychic powers, and a now grown Eric Lensherr (Ian McKellan). While the fate of mutants is argued on the Senate floor, Xavier and Magneto argue about the course of Humanity. Xavier knows Magneto plans to destroy the humans somehow, but can do nothing.
As the destiny for Humanity and mutants is decided, Rogue makes her way up north, trying to find a new future for herself. When arriving in a remote Alaskan town, Rogue witnesses a brawl between two men. The winner, a man known as Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is revealed to be a mutant too. After Rogue stows away in the man’s vehicle, Wolverine’s powers are revealed even further. Confronted by a huge beast of a man, Logan is revealed to have huge metal claws and regenerative powers. Rogue and Wolverine are incapacitated when they are rescued by two uniformed mutants.
When the two awaken they discover they’ve been taken to the compound of Charles Xavier and his X-Men. The public face of the facility is a school, which houses mutants and gives them a place to feel at home. While children are taught in classrooms upstairs, The X-Men are trained in an underground facility to fight for those that need it, whether it be mutants or humans. Wolverine is asked to join the team already consisting of Dr. Jean Grey, Scott Summers, aka Cyclops (James Marsden), and Ororo Munroe, aka Storm (Halle Berry). Initially declining, Wolverine reluctantly joins the group after Rogue is kidnapped by Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants.
Magneto plans to use a machine that will turn the members of the United Nations into mutants. By altering their DNA, Magneto plans to show the entire world that anyone can become a mutant, and an outcast. What he does not realize is that the process is unstable and will kill any people it mutates. The process will also destroy Rogue, who he plans on using to run the device.
Standing in the way of Magneto’s Brotherhood are Xavier’s X-Men. The two groups battle atop the Statue of Liberty for the fate of the United Nations and their new friend. With Wolverine at their side, the X-Men face off against the deadly trio of Toad (Ray Park), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), and Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), along with their leader, Magneto. If they are unable to stop the renegade mutants, many will die and people everywhere will turn against their kind.
X-Men was a huge smash upon its release in 2000, but its road to the big screen was a very rocky one. Originally attached to the project was Oscar winner James Cameron. Cameron was an avid fan of Marvel Comics, but left the project after getting the opportunity to do an adaptation of Spiderman. Studio bosses had to scramble to get maverick Director Bryan Singer for the project.
Singer had previously directed the Academy Award Winner The Usual Suspects, but had never directed a big budget special effects film before. While this is apparent at times in the film, his skills with getting good performances out of actors is what got him the job. Even with a budget of about $50 million (chicken feed for a summer blockbuster), Singer was able to bring an engaging thriller with very likable characters to theater screens. The film did not have the huge epic feel of other films in the genre like the first two Superman films, but still was enough to make fans of the Comic Book very happy.
Other obstacles for the film involved the writing process. Typically a film with several writers will end up a disaster, such as Armageddon’s fabled nine writers. While only one writer, David Hayter, was given credit for the film’s screenplay, the film had actually gone through six people before the product was finished. Screenwriters Ed Solomon, Christopher McQuarrie, Joss Whedon, James Schamus, and John Logan all had a hand in writing the film, but none took credit. Still the screenplay ended up with a very cohesive feel and stayed true to the spirit of the X-Men mythos.
A big reason that the film was successful was the work of Hugh Jackman. Fan favorite Wolverine bristles to life as Jackman becomes the Canadian brawler on screen. Jackman is so perfect that it’s hard to imagine anyone playing the mutton-chopped hero, but Jackman got the role by accident. Early candidates for the role included Mel Gibson, Russell Crowe, Edward Norton, Keanu Reeves, Viggo Mortensen, Aaron Eckhart and even Glenn Danzig, with the part eventually going to Scotsman Dougray Scott. Fortunately for Jackman, Scott had to pull out after shooting ran over with film Mission: Impossible II. Jackman, a relative unknown at the time, was then cast at the last minute and has now gone on to stardom.
Jackman did everything he could to immerse himself in the role and got great results. Reportedly the actor took many cold showers to try and show the character’s physical intensity. One stunt the actor was performing ended in trauma as the actor’s testicles were caught in a harness during a fight scene on the film’s Statue of Liberty set. Jackman’s perseverance paid off as Wolverine launched the actor’s career into one of Hollywood’s most sought after leading men.
It’s really amazing that the chemistry of the cast is so good considering most were not the first choice for their roles. For Anna Paquin’s Rogue, both Natalie Portman and Sarah Michelle Gellar were first considered. Halle Berry was cast as storm only after the role was turned down by Angela Basett. Kevin Nash was supposed to play the part of Sabretooth originally, but had to drop out of the picture with scheduling conflicts. This left the part open for Tyler Mane.
Not having to wait in line was the film’s first to be cast, Patrick Stewart. After the casting snafus of terrible adaptations in the past, fans rejoiced at the perfect Professor X. Stewart is indeed ideal for the role and is exactly what the film needed to be considered legitimate in the eyes of X-Men fanboys. His performance is so effortless that it seems no one else could have ever played the role.
The same goes for Ian McKellan, who brings the same class and style to Magneto that he brought to Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Magneto is perhaps the best villain that Marvel Comics has to offer and McKellan has a superlative portrayal of the tortured mutant. If only the rest of the villains were as good.
Tyler Mane and Ray Park do little to become very memorable here. Sabretooth is not nearly as good as he is in the Comics and Park shows little of the flare he has as Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I. Better is Rebecca Romijn-Stamos’ Mystique. While she is much better in the film’s sequel, she is very seductive here and a great addition to the cast.
Doing great justice to her role is Famke Janssen as Jean Grey. While James Marsden is little more than serviceable as her love interest Cyclops, Janssen is able to subtly hint at the love triangle to come with Jackman’s Wolverine. Marsden is also better in his scenes with the gruff Canadian as their rivalry for Grey’s affection seems genuine. None of the rest of the X-Men fair as well, but none make fools of themselves either. Each is actually much better in the sequel to come.
X-Men didn’t set any great standards for spinning a superhero yarn, but does its job admirably. It did well enough at the box-office to warrant a sequel which paid off in spades as X-2 was even more successful with fans and critics. More importantly the film set the tone for films to follow as Comic Book Films were treated with more respect and had more serious tones. Finally the days of low rent heroism was over and the real superheroes had shown up.
