X-Men
Year of release : 2000
Run time : 1h44m
Genre : Sci Fi / Action
Cast : Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn
The superhero movie is the first installment of the Marvel Comics of the same name, written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby, first released in 1963.
The movie opens in 1944, in the Nazi camp in Poland, when young Eric is separated from his parents, and bends metal trying to get to them.
In present day, in Meridian, Mississippi, Marie kisses her boyfriend, and he gets sick. So she runs away from home, to Laughlin City.
Jean Grey speaks in the US Congress about how the mutations are triggered by puberty. Senator Kelly wants mutant registration, for all mutants to be known and kept under control. Jean says that for that exact reason they don’t want to reveal who they are.
In Laughlin, Marie sees Wolverine fight. A few men come to see him after the fight, thinking he somehow won unfairly, and Marie warns him about their knife. He puts them in their place, and cuts the bartender’s rifle in half with his claws.
Driving away, Wolverine hears something, and finds Marie hiding in the car trailer. After throwing her off, he stops and offers her a ride. She tells him her name is Rogue.
As she tells him to wear his seat belt (they do this foreshadowing in all 3 movies) a tree falls and Wolverine is projected through the wind shield of the car.
Sabretooth appears and starts fighting him, as Rogue is stuck in the car which caught on fire.
A strong wind sets in, and Storm with Cyclops appear, rescuing them.
Wolverine wakes up in Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and the professor tells him about Magneto, thinking he wants him. Because Wolverine wants to leave, the professor tells him he can help him find out who he is, as Wolverine has no memory of who he was before 15 years ago.
Xavier shows him the school grounds, telling him the school is only the upper side of the facility, the underground being used for scientific research, and that he can control people’s minds.
Mystique, disguised as senator Kelly’s assistant kidnaps senator Kelly, and Magneto uses a machine powered by his abilities to turn the senator into a mutant.
Kelly manages to escape due to his new found abilities as a mutant, and goes to Xavier’s school. Unluckily they cannot save him as the radiation turned him into water.
Rogue hears Wolverine having a nightmare and goes into his room, and he unwillingly stabs her with his claws as he wakes up from his dream. Rogue uses her abilities to suck his energy to heal the wounds.
Mystique disguised as Iceman lies to Rogue about how the professor is angry with her and everybody hates her for using her powers on a mutant, and she leaves.
The professor looks for her, and Wolverine goes after her.
Mystique is not done, as she also messes with Cerebro, the device the professor uses to find mutants.
We find out Magneto wants Rogue, to use the device on humanity, so they can all become mutants.
I personally enjoyed the movie, I liked how it was filmed.
Eric, now known as Magneto, leaves in fear humans will turn against mutants, so he wants to make sure what had happened to him when he was a kid, being branded and held in a prison camp, will never happen again, so he’s always on the offense, anticipating the attack. He is helped by his right hand, Mystique, who can take the appearance of anything, sounding just like it, Toad, and Sabretooth.
Wolverine is protective of Rogue, I liked their dynamic. He is attracted to Jean, and hates Cyclops for it. It seems he likes everything Cyclops has, or have the same taste in everything (women, cars, motorcycles).
Jean is very smart, has telekinetic abilities, and is a doctor.
Storm can control the weather, while Cyclops can destroy everything with the energy beams held in his eyes, wearing special glasses.
The acting was good. I liked the fighting scenes.
The soundtrack was good.
The visual effects were good and stand the test of time.
The movie grossed a little over 296 million dollars at the box office, making it the 9th highest grossing movie of the year 2000, against a budget of 75 million dollars.
The movie has been in the works since 1984, with James Cameron attached to it as a producer and Kathryn Bigelow as the director. Before Hugh Jackman was cast as Wolverine the role was offered to Russell Crowe. Viggo Mortensen and Vincent D’Onofrio were considered but allegedly refused to play Wolverine. Michael Jackson apparently wanted to play Charles Xavier, while his sister ,Janet Jackson was offered the role of Storm! Jim Caviezel almost played Cyclops but had to give it up due to scheduling conflicts with another movie he was playing in. Charlize Theron refused to play Jean Gray, while Rachael Leigh Cook refused to play Rogue.
Cinema Score audiences graded the movie an A-. IMDB graded it a 7.3 out of 10.
You can find the full movie for free on the Ok.Ru platform, dubbed in Spanish or Russian.
Rating : Worth a watch !