X-Men

Bryan Singer (2000)

104min

12A Certificate

Review

Our Score

by Andrew Collins

Directed and co-written by Bryan Singer, this was the darkest superhero movie since Batman and featured the coolest special effects this side of The Matrix. Set in the not-too-distant future, the film follows the power struggle between two factions of a new breed of humans with assorted strange abilities - the good led by disabled professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the bad led by Magneto (Ian McKellen). The Marvel Comics characters - including metal-boned Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), climate controller Storm (Halle Berry) and telekinetic Dr Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) - are well realised, and Singer mixes the classic values of good storytelling with liberal amounts of digital magic. On the down side, this plays a little too much like the beginning of a franchise and - outside of the theatrically trained Stewart and McKellen - star quality is in rather short supply.

Summary

Super-powered outsiders Rogue and Wolverine find themselves at a school for mutants which is run by a benevolent psychic professor. While there, they agree to join others with similar gifts to take on a superhuman mutant terrorist faction intent on establishing dominance over mankind. Sci-fi comic-book adventure, starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin and Halle Berry.

Cast & Crew

Logan / Wolverine Hugh Jackman

Professor Charles Xavier / Professor X Patrick Stewart

Erik Magnus Lehnsherr / Magneto Ian McKellen

Jean Grey Famke Janssen

Scott Summers / Cyclops James Marsden

Ororo Munroe / Storm Halle Berry

Marie / Rogue Anna Paquin

Sabretooth Tyler Mane

Toad Ray Park

Mystique Rebecca Romijn-Stamos

Senator Robert Frank Kelly Bruce Davison

Bobby Drake / Iceman Shawn Ashmore

Hot dog vendor Stan Lee

Director Bryan Singer

Other Information

Language: EnglishColourTheatrical distributor: 20th Century FoxGuidance: Violence, swearing. Available on: video, DVD and Blu-rayReleased on: 18 Aug 2000

Drama

Full Episode Guide

Can you match the characters from X-Men: The Animated Series with their mutant powers?

Take the quiz to find out how well you know Magneto and co…