Hey folks, the Big Hairy Monster has once again contacted me with his second review, his first Review (which was THE PERFECT STORM> and this time out he decided to take a look at X-MEN. Here... the BHM is cheering about X-MEN... he acknowledges that there are problems, but overall he seems to really adore the thing... There are a few spoilers... but overall it's fairly spoiler free...
Greetings young Harold, it is the return of I, the Big Hairy Monster with a review of the much anticipated " X-Men". Believe me or believe me not but I saw this a number of days ago at a distributor screening, in fact it may even have been from the same one as those other guys.
My thoughts?
" X-Men " is like a pot of fine honey. It can be a bit messy, but overall is very sweet and satisfying. First, let me assure you, all the geek-lords will not be let down. There were parts of the movie that kicked ass so hard, I almost couldn't take it. And then there were parts which were kinda hot and cold. nothing too special.
The characters : Outright, the two best characters in the movie are Wolvie and Magneto. Mckellan delivers a storming performance as Magneto, a man driven on getting revenge on the society that outcasts mutants, but is also charming and extremely intelligent. The fact that Mckellan is quite old simply doesn't matter. Whenever he's on screen, his sheer prescence exudes from the screen. He delivers some lines that could've been majorly cheesy if said by other actors, but his on-screen power carries them through. His scene wit! h the police force at the train station is utterly uber-cool. Fanboys will discuss that for years to come I think. That part has a geek factor of 10, but I don't want to go into too much detail, believe me though , you'll totally understand when you see it.
Hugh Jackman now officialy RULES the world. He brings to the screen a wolverine that I never thought I'd see. It is so like the comic-book character, except he's not that pumped up, which really doesn't matter. When he said " bub " I felt like saluting, really awesome. ILM did some really good work on the claws, and yes, SNIKT is there whenever they pop out. Wolvie has some great scenes with Mystique, very matrix-y style fighting, back flips and all this kind of stuff.
Marsden is fine as Cyclops, nothing too amazing, but he is very nerdish just like in the comic books. Its funny to watch him and Wolverine talk, he try's not to be frustrated by wolverines taunts, and wolvie kinda has a wry grin because he knows that Cyclops is getting really wound up. The optic blasts are right on, although he doesn't use them that much, which was quite disappointing.
Patrick Stewart is excellent, as expected, as Xavier, but as Quint says, he kind of just there, he doesn't really do much. Still, when he does talk he IS Xavier.
Rogue?? Very cool, Paquin gives a tremendous performance, although the geek side of me was angry that the white streak and flight powers weren't there. Oh yeah, guys, forget about the " belle " Rogue in the cartoon show, she's not at all like this. Her scenes with Wolvie are some of the most emotional in the flick.
Mystique : Having seen the trailers I thought there would be more of her than there actually was. The morphing effects were really good, and the close ups of her face are quite freaky. Rebecca doesn't really have to " act " much, just fight and morph . Pretty cool, but could've been alot more.
Toad : Oh Yeahhhhhhhhhhh!! Ray Park kicks ass ! Admitteldly, the costumes sucked for Toad, but Ray is on top form, that tongue is soooo cool. Like Mystique, Park doesn't realy have to act, but man, his martial arts are awesome, his fighting is different from Maul, but just as cool. Geeks : be prepared.
Jean Grey was okay, but did basically squatt. Kinda wasted. Sabretooth was cool, but no different from the comics, he just rampages around the place, fighting and howling.
Storm, really disappointing. That wig and the accent blow completely! The lightning is cool, but her acting sucks!
The story, which everyone knows by now about Magneto's Mutant device is a bit weird but who cares, I thought the movie was really awesome! Its a bit like Blade, but not as much violence and 3 times cooler.
To put it bluntly, X-MEN rocks the house.
Geeks : July 14th is coming , YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
