oung Eric Lehnsherr slogs through the mud of a Nazi death camp in 1944. When soldiers separate him from his mother and father, he screams in despair. The boy's agony causes the camp's iron gates to distort and crumble, to the astonishment of the guards.
Decades later, Congress is debating Senator Kelly's (Davison) Mutant Registration Act, which would identify the growing number of mutated humans in America. "We must know who they are, and above all, we must know what they can do," Kelly declaims.
Young Rogue (Paquin), meanwhile, has run away from her Mississippi home after nearly killing a boy with a simple kiss. In snowbound Canada, she befriends Wolverine (Jackman), otherwise known as Logan, a fearsome mutant with razor-sharp claws. When the two are attacked by Sabretooth (pro wrestler Tyler Mane), they are rescued by Storm (Halle Berry), who can control the weather, and Cyclops (James Marsden), who shoots lasers out of his eyes.
Wolverine awakes in a high-tech lab, treated by telekinetic Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen). Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart), a powerful psychic, explains that Wolverine and Rogue have been brought to his special school for "gifted youngsters," a haven for mutants where they can learn to control their powers.
Xavier offers to help Wolverine uncover his mysterious past if he joins the X-Men in battling Magneto (McKellen), whom we know as Eric Lehnsherr. The powerful mutant, who can control magnetic fields, and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants want to declare war on the humans who would control them. "By any means necessary," Magneto says.
Wolverine's not so sure. "There's a war coming," he tells Storm. "Are you sure you're on the right side?" But when Magneto orders the blue shape-shifting mutant Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) to abduct first Senator Kelly and then Rogue, Wolverine joins the X-Men to thwart Magneto's plan.
X hits the spot
X-Men, the much-anticipated feature film version of the venerable Marvel Comics series, announces from the start that it won't be the usual comic book adaptation. How many superhero movies dare to begin in the mud of a Nazi concentration camp?
Based in that harsh reality, director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) signals his intent to take the comics' allegory of racism and intolerance seriously. Singer succeeds for the most part in bringing gravity and depth to the otherwise action-packed X-Men. The world of X-Men may feature mutants and superpowers, but the characters' anxiety, alienation and fear seem very real indeed.
That's also a credit to writer Hayter (working from a story by Singer and executive producer Tom de Santo). Like Superman and Batman before it, X-Men captures the essence of its comic book source--including lots of smart humor--without slavishly aping it. Indeed, the film self-consciously deals with some of the sillier aspects of the comic series. "What kind of a name is Rogue?" Jackman asks Paquin at one point. At another, Wolverine tugs at the collar of his black leather costume and says, "You actually go outside in these things?" Cyclops replies, "What would you prefer, yellow spandex?"
In interviews, Singer has played down the action and SF elements of his film. So it comes as a pleasant surprise that the fights and special effects pay off well in the briskly paced action sequences. The fight choreography between Mystique and Wolverine, and between Wolverine and Sabretooth, rivals that seen in The Matrix. The computer effects are state of the art.
Much of the film's effectiveness is due to the performances of its superb cast, especially Paquin, Jackman, Davison and McKellen. Jackman--the Australian actor who came out of nowhere to take the role Dougray Scott had to turn down--seems like he was born to play Wolverine. He's certainly got the physique, and spends a lot of the film with his shirt off. Mainly, though, he captures Wolverine's coiled rage and snarky attitude, evident in pointed exchanges with Marsden's Cyclops. At the same time, he convincingly portrays Logan's awkward tenderness toward Rogue. He's a find.
