The original
X-Men (2000) still remains one of my Top 3 favourite X-Men films.
Things I liked/loved:
The opening really established what sort of 'tone' this film was going to have. That they were going to 'ground' this universe that had fantastical elements. It goes without saying that Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen brought real 'weight' to their roles and the movie as a whole, ensuring people didn't just dismiss 'a movie about mutants' as some silly thing.
As the article mentions, Hugh Jackman was the third 'stand-out' in this film. From his very first scene he impressed and made this role his own (differences from the comics be damned!). One of the most positives cases of an actor getting a role thanks to another not being able to play it (in this case Dougray Scott). Fortune was definitely smiling on Hugh Jackman the day he was cast. Now I can't imagine anyone else having played the role and anyone they do cast in the future will have extremely big shoes to fill/a lot to live up to.
I still remember when I saw it at the theatre and was impressed with the close-up of Logan's middle claw slowly coming out. That practical effect for that one shot went a long way, I thought (especially considering later on they went with CGI claws a lot of the time, it seemed). I also liked how they handled the squishy Senator Kelly effects. The slowly pushing through the bars was well done, and his blobbiness later on showed just how crazy things could/would get. Meanwhile, Mystique was awesome with her look and the effects of her shape-changing. Rebecca Romijn deserves more credit, as she really made her character feel 'otherworldly' (it's just a shame she was only given a single line in the first film).
I thought the whole Wolverine/Rogue 'relationship' (with him starting out not seeming to care much about her, but then becoming the protective 'older brother'/'father figure' to her by the end) was well done...even if it was totally different to how they are in the comics. For all the crap Anna Paquin gets for her Rogue, she and Hugh Jackman made their dynamic
work onscreen. I also liked how she just casually called herself Rogue when she introduced herself to Logan and they commented on each other's names they'd given themselves. It was a way of introducing these 'superhero' names in a casual fashion (Logan later snorting at the names Sabertooth, Storm and Cyclops also helped, as it acknowledged the 'silliness' without disrespecting the characters' names since he had his own one - Wolverine - and had already gotten used to Rogue's. It also gave us the amusing "What do they call you? Wheels?" line). It was the same deal with the uniforms and Cyclops referencing yellow spandex - it was an acknowledgement of the comic costumes without deriding them.
I actually had no problem with Famke Janssen and James Marsden as Jean Grey and Scott Summers/Cyclops. In X-Men: The Animated Series I always thought Jean looked quite 'nondescript'. Like, every other character's appearance stood out, but the only thing I ever remembered about Jean was she had red hair. I thought Famke looked 'right' for this part. James Marsden (so unlucky in films) had the whole 'boy scout' thing working for him as Cyclops and I thought his anatagonistic relationship with Logan brought some 'fun' to proceedings. Obviously Marsden got pretty screwed as far as screentime and character development was concerned, but the 'problem' was never him as an actor (also...thank good they got rid of those earmuffs on his visor from the first film in the second one).
I never had a problem with Halle Berry's wig. It mightn't have been the 'greatest', but I thought she made it work for her (it was the best-looking I found her in the movies). Nor did I get fixated on the "Do you know what happens to a toad" line. I think people in my audience were confused about the
point of it, but that was about it. I read somewhere that Joss Whedon intended that line to be delivered in a completely different way to how Halle did it. She said it all super serious-like, whereas he'd intended the line to just be a casual sort of dismissive type of thing. A clear case of those who used his dialogue not 'getting' it at all. Still, whenever anyone cites that line as 'proof' of Joss being crap at dialogue, I just think of the exchange between Wolverine and Cyclops which everyone seemed to love.
And considering they basically ripped off a line from
Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the second film, whatever 'hate' Joss got for the toad line should've been forgiven since he also provided some of the film's best lines.
Although I had some issues with the climax, I really appreciated them explaining how Rogue got her white streak in her hair (and also towards the start of the film when we heard her real name, as I'd never known it prior to watching the film).
Things I didn't like so much:
There aren't many. It's mainly that the Brotherhood of Mutants felt underdeveloped. Magneto and Mystique were the only ones who really 'stood out'. Sabertooth and Toad were barely more than mutes. I also didn't like Toad's spewing green gunk onto Jean's face. I know his character has that move, but it would've been slightly less vomit-like if he'd just produced it in his had instead of basically throwing up on her.
As a fan of Rogue from the comics and animated series, I probably
should've been royally ticked off with what the movies did to her character. However, I was more just 'disappointed' than anything. But I don't hold Anna Paquin responsible. She did the best she could with the material she was given (even if she only sounded like she had Rogue's accent once or twice and the rest of the time it seemed like she didn't. I still recall her first scene together with Logan where she sounded very much like the Kiwi she was at the time. She's a 'New Zealand-Canadian' actress now, I believe). I can separate the film version from the comics/animated series version and think of them as two very different interpretations of the character, but I long to see a comics-accurate live-action version.
There's only really one effect that stands out to me now as pretty 'bad' and that's after Sabertooth tosses Wolverine over the side of the Statue of Liberty. His flipping around it and landing on top after he's cut off a piece of the statue - you can telling when he's going around that it's a CGI version of him. It's quite obvious (though I don't really remember noticing it when I first saw the film at the theatre).
There are probably many more things to say about the film that I'm forgetting, but it remains one of the 'best' superhero movies in my book.
Happy anniversary,
X-Men (2000)!