I ended up watching to original X-Men movie today. Not sure how it crossed my desk, except that I’ve been watching a ton of video essays on film YouTube about the failings of modern superhero blockbusters — you know the ones.
I don’t think a lot about the MCU, except that all triple-A action movies are sort of caught in its orbit. X-Men wasn’t a scrappy production ($75 million USD). It does hail from a totally different period of superhero movie, particularly the superhero teamup movie, and that made it a really interesting watch.
Three things I loved (spoilers, I guess):
- A surprising amount of body horror. The premise, that mutants are a new and misunderstood phenomenon, is supported by how gross some of the mutations actually are.
- The end of the Wolverine/Mystique fight. Mystique pushes Wolverine away and escapes; Storm beats Toad (and says her iconic line, I don’t care what people say); Storm approaches Wolverine cautiously while he stands in the middle of the room, like he’s trying to sense something. What amazed me about this scene is how its dramatic tension exists purely for the viewer. A lot of movies in this position would have shown us where exactly the bomb is, then played the scene out. We, Dora the Explorer-like, point and yell, “She’s right there!” Those scenes can and do work. I liked being the benefactor of the suspense, though, rather than the characters on the screen.
- Wolverine (I love Hugh Jackman, can you tell) escaping from the metal restraints in the Statue of Liberty scene. Something X-Men movies are very good at is imposing psychological limitations, rather than physical limitations, onto their power system. We know Wolverine can survive stabbing himself through the chest, but he tells us earlier in the movie that he still feels pain like normal. At the climax, he endures that pain to save Rogue.
Anway, I liked it a whole bunch. Plan on watching X2 sometime, but I may or may not write about it. I’m interested in writing more review-y posts, though I realize they may only be useful to worldbuilders and Dungeon Masters like myself.
Tomorrow I’ll do some honest-to-goodness research. Scout’s honor.