X-men

X-men is considered one of the first movies in the new wave of "serious comic book adaptations". It has always been viewed with a candid lens and is much revered by me and others as a fine example of a comic book movie.
Now, 14 years later, X-men is on of the longest running comic book movie franchises and the latest installment is about to hit the theaters worldwide. So I decided to take a stroll down the nostalgia lane and refresh my memory, since it's been quite some time since i saw it. Now, a couple of hours later, I am deeply regretting my decision...

Everybody knows the story of the X-men right? Humans who have developed superhuman abilities and have to face a world ho either fear them or hate them. The movie chooses to tell the story from the perspective of two characters, mainly. James "Logan" Howlett and Anna "Rouge" Marie. Rouge discovers her "power" early on in the story and becomes the Avatar for the audience, or at least we are led to believe so. The focus quickly lands on Wolverine, who knows he has powers but doesn't realize he is just one of many.

There is the first problem of the movie. By not focusing on the character whom the audience connects with at first and instead gives us this uncaring oaf who doesn't really feel like leading man material. Don't get me wrong, Hugh Jackmans portrayal of Wolverine is stellar and has been throughout all of the movies, but he is not the kind of person we can latch on to.
They do try and "humanise" him and he does become more sympathetic towards the end of the movie, nut this is just a small problem with this movie.

When watching it again, it is like I am watching it for the first time but with a new set of eyes. Granted, I am at least 10 years older than the last time I watched it, and I have developed a more analytic taste in movies during this time. I realize that this movie that I have been putting up on a pedestal for all these years is actually kind of crappy.

The script is filled with incredibly tacky dialogue and nonsensical plot points. Allow me to spoil a little, Its been out´there for over a decade so I'll risk it. When Jean grey explains to Magneto that his machine won't turn the UN officials into mutants, but instead only kill them and make humans fear mutants even more. The movie cuts to the next scene where Magneto doesn't seem to have been in the last scene and promptly starts the machine thinking he will turn all the people into mutants. I mean...what the hell?

Another thing that I never noticed before now is how bad the acting is from most of the actors. Ian McKellen really chews the scenery whenever he is on screen. He really plays the maniacal super bad guy all the way. James Marsden must be one of the most boring actor throughout history, and add that to the already way too uptight Cyclops and you have successfully created a Zombie. He stumbles through the movie without much to do (like most of the other characters as well) and have no chance to express any feelings with his face since his eyes is constantly covered up.
Halle Berry as Storm is criminally underused. She has basically no reason for being in the movie, other than the fact that she is a prominent character in the comics.

Patrick Stewart as the prolific Dr. Charles Xavier is one of the few actors who does well, but the character of Xavier is so one dimensional that the only purpose he fills is to tell Wolverine (i.e the audience) about mutations and human mutant relations, and to answer any questions that might come up during the movie.

That is the main problem with the movie. Every character has a purpose, but after fulfilling that purpose early on in the script, they wander aimlessly through the rest only functioning as a plot device from time to time. the movie quickly becomes very empty and repetitive and never picks it self up. It doesn't even have any big setpieces to talk about. Sure, you have the train, the statue of liberty and the big scene on the lawn with all the police but they are all very brief and doesn't bring much action to the story.
When comparing it to the action spectacles of today, it feels really slow and pointless, But maybe that's just it. It has aged, we have set the standards so high and have become spoiled when it comes to action movies. If you don't blow up half a country and have world war three in space, we are just not interested.

Still, Die hard came out 12 years before X-men and is still one of the best action movies ever made. Maybe it's just that the feeling of this new and exciting genre that X-men kind of started has become saturated with to many sequels and spin-offs and copy cats that have consistently upped the ante and left its forefathers in the dust? Will I dislike X-men 2 just as much, even though I liked it better than the first one?

Only time will tell...