Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn Stamos in "X-Men."

MOVIE INFORMATION

With 10 as a must-see, Jack gives this film a: Stars: Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart Director: Bryan Singer Rated: PG-13, with moderate action violence Length: 101 minutes

ROCHESTERCRITIQUE

Having seen this film, how would you rate it? 10 5 9 4 8 3 7 2 6 1

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(July 14, 2000) -- X-Men are the latest superpower heroes to leap from Marvel Comics to the big screen.

Good mutants -- the X-Men -- battle bad mutants for world dominance in director Bryan Singer's uneven but offbeat summer adventure.

Mutants is the key word in this special-effects saga, which blends aspects of the multitalented Fantastic Four with the darkness of the Batman series.

The film's various heroes and villains are humans who've mutated till they possess a specific superhuman power: Cyclops (James Marsden) has laser eyes that cut through anything. Storm (Halle Berry) can conjure up the weather. Toad (Ray Park) has a long tongue he employs like a whip. Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) can mutate into anyone. Rogue (Anna Paquin) can drain you of energy by simply touching you.

Heading the X-Men is Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a wheelchair-using telepath. Leading the opposition is another telepath, Magneto (Ian McKellen). Watching these classically trained Brits slumming in the comic book world is nearly worth the price of admission.

The tale is set in a cold, repressive, near-future world that offers none of the nostalgic warmth of early superheroes such as Superman.

In fact, X-Men dares to offer a Holocaust prologue, set in a World War II concentration camp in Poland.

A key character, the villain later played as an adult by McKellen, first displays his superhuman power as a boy, during the emotional upheaval of being torn away from his parents. He bends metal in an attempt to rip down camp fences.

As we move from the 1940s to the near future, we discover that human politicians plan to require mutants to register with the government, perhaps beginning a process of segregation.

X-Men, then, is a rather obvious allegory about prejudice. (Indeed, it was created by Marvel Comics czar Stan Lee in the mid-'60s, as a response to the day's volatile civil rights movement.)

But the metaphor is hammered home a bit heavily, especially when the film's key battle takes place on the Statue of Liberty.

Of course, modern special effects allow Singer's actors to demonstrate their superhuman powers.

However, after The Matrix, The Perfect Storm and Star Wars -- Episode One, none of the effects in this film will startle or amaze you.

I didn't once feel the rush I had when Christopher Reeve "flew" in his first Superman film. Perhaps special effects are no longer special.

Also, because the heroes and villains are so numerous, few characters get much opportunity to hold our attention.

An exception is Hugh Jackman, a charismatic Australian who plays Wolverine. He's a solitary latter-day Wolfman who's recruited by the X-Men to fight with the good guys.

A handsome, fiery-eyed man, he's the only character with a mysterious past. Unfortunately, if we're to discover fully what it is, it'll be in a sequel.

Wolverine's departure to search for his roots in northern Canada is just one of the ways X-Men sets up a presumed X-Men 2.