movie poster

X-Men

2000

Director: Bryan Singer

Martial arts co-ordinator: Corey Yuen

Stars: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Tyler Mane, Ray Park

A live-action adaptation of the popular comic book; a group of genetically superior humans with special powers called "mutants" are being ostracized and a powerful mutant called Magneto (McKellan) wants to start a war. It's up to Professor X (Stewart) and his group of "X-Men" to stop him.

HK film fans excpecting Corey Yuen's trademark high-flying wire-fu may be disappointed. Even though director Singer watched many HK films as reference for the action scenes (including A Man Called Hero, which also has a climatic fight atop the Statue of Liberty), he decided to move away from the HK style. This is kind of a double-edged sword. If there were ever characters that would seem realistic doing wire-fu, it would be superheroes. But then on the other hand, the wave of US wire-fu inspired by the success of The Matrix has almost become too much, as witnessed by parodies in films like Scary Movie.

At any rate, X-Men is a solid action film and the best comic book adaptation since Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. The only big problem with the movie is that the script is a little underdeveloped and those not familiar with the comic may get a bit confused as to exactly who the characters are.

RATING: 7.5

A review of the DVD for this movie can be found here

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