X-Men (movie)
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X-Men is a United States action movie, first released in Australia on 13 July, 2000. The film features a group of comic book superheroes called the X-Men. It formed a major part of the current revival in comic-book adaptation movies.
The movie was directed by Bryan Singer and explores the ideas of prejudice and discrimination in the United States. The screenplay was co-written by David Hayter.
It wasn't until 1998 when young director Bryan Singer, infamous for his outstanding job in the thriller The Usual Suspects, signed to direct the movie. In 2000, 20th Century Fox released X-Men, a $75 million film adaptation of the comic book, directed by the innovative young director. The film featured Cyclops (James Marsden), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Storm (Halle Berry) as leather-clad X-Men who also serve as teachers of Professor Xavier's (Patrick Stewart) School for the Gifted. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) were two mutant wanderers who crossed their path. The team battles Magneto (Ian McKellen), who created a machine that turned humans into mutants and planned to affect a congregation of world leaders. His Brotherhood of Mutants included Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Toad (Ray Park) The film gathered good reviews, approval from fans, and earned $157.3 million at the box office, helping usher in a new era of Marvel movies including 2002's Spider-Man and 2003's Daredevil and Hulk.
A sequel, X2, was released in 2003, and a third film is planned for release in 2006.
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Plot
Mutants (Homo superior) are the next evolutionary step in the chain of humanity. Some children are born with an X-Factor (a unique genetic mutation). These usually manifest themselves at puberty and grant individuals special powers. Mutants are feared and loathed by rest of mankind.
Professor Charles Xavier (the world's most powerful telepath) takes "gifted" individuals and teaches them to control their powers for the good of mankind in his school for gifted youngsters. Opposition to them include United States Senator Robert Kelly (Bruce Davison), a McCarthyesque politician trying to pass legislation crafted to expose the dangers of mutants, and Erik Lehnsherr, who blames humanity for the death of his family at the hands of the Nazis.
The former friends, Erik Lehnsherr and Professor Charles Xavier, have different aims. Xavier is trying to get humanity to accept mutants and peacefully put an end to humanity's prejudices. Lehnsherr, believing that homo sapiens and homo superior can never coexist, aims to teach humanity that mutants are the heirs to the future. Toward this end, Lehnsherr builds and tests a machine that develops mutations in un-mutated humans.
Marie d'Ancanto, a teenage girl, almost kills her boyfriend when her life-draining powers emerge. She runs, taking the nickname Rogue, away and meets mysterious brawler Logan, who makes a living out of cagefighting. When the two drive away in Logan's trailer, they are ambushed by Sabretooth, but saved by Storm and Cyclops and taken to the Xavier Institute.
In the meanwhile, Senator Kelly gets abducted by Mystique and Toad. Lensherr uses his machine on Kelly and turns him into an aquatic mutant. Kelly, dying from this unnatural mutation, can just drag himself to the Xavier Institute (hospitals are taboo, because they shun mutants) and tell Xavier of Lensherr's machine before dying.
Marie comes into Logan's bedroom at the Xavier Institute one night while he is having nightmares, flashbacks to the implanting of his adamantium skeleton. In a blind rage when woken up, he accidentally impales Marie on his claws. She touches him, using her power to collect his healing ability and save herself.
Mystique, posing as a fellow mutant, infiltrates the Institute. She poisons Xavier's Cerebro machine and tricks Marie into thinking that Xavier is angry at her, causing her to run away. Logan goes after her and catches her train, but then Magneto appears and abducts Marie. The X-Men and the Brotherhood have an all-out fight, but the villains escape.
The X-Men find out that Lensherr wants to transfer his power to Marie (using her life-draining power), hook her to his mutation machine, and burn her out. A UN summit is taking place in the nearby Ellis Island, and by turning the world's leaders into mutants, Lensherr reckons to solve the mutant problems by force.
In order to find Marie, Xavier uses the tampered Cerebro and is knocked out. Jean Grey restores Cerebro and uses it herself, nearly killing herself in the process, but finding out that Marie is kept on Liberty Island. Again, the X-Men fight the Brotherhood, and just when Lensherr's machine (with Marie in it) would have fired its deadly rays upon the UN summit, Cyclops manages to destroy it with an optic blast. Logan saves Marie her by touching her, thus using her life-draining powers to transfer his healing powers to her.
At the end, there is a mysterious reappearance of a strangely mutant-friendly "Senator Kelly", who is exposed as Mystique posing as him. The film ends with Xavier playing chess with Lensherr in a plastic jail cell. Lensherr tells his old friend that he will continue fighting, and Xavier replies that he will always be there to stop him.
Featured mutants
Brotherhood
Erik Lehnsherr has formed the mutant terrorist group "The Brotherhood of Mutants". Their members are:
- Victor "Sabretooth" Creed, immense physical strength and cat-like agility
- Mortimer "Toad" Toynbee, with a harpoon-like tongue, toxic saliva and superior leaping power
- Raven "Mystique" Darkholme, a shapechanger and supreme martial arts fighter
X-Men
Charles Xavier has summoned a group of individuals (the X-Men) possessing great abilities that protect a mankind which fears and hates them, hoping for peace in the future. The X-Men roster includes
- Scott "Cyclops" Summers, whose eyes constantly emit beams of concussive force
- Dr. Jean Grey, who has telekinetic and telepathic abilities
- Ororo "Storm" Munroe, who can manipulate the weather
Later, Xavier also recruits two other individuals, Logan (a mutant who cannot recall his past, who possesses amazing healing powers and an admantium skeleton with retractable claws) and Marie D'Ancanto (a young female mutant with the power to drain one's lifeforce).
Other mutants
Other appearances include
- St. John "Pyro" Allerdyce, who can control fire
- Robert "Iceman" Drake, who can freeze his environment
- Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde, who can walk through walls
Cast
- Patrick Stewart - Professor X (Professor Charles Francis Xavier)
- Hugh Jackman - Wolverine (James Logan Howlett)
- Ian McKellen - Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr)
- Halle Berry - Storm (Ororo Munroe)
- Famke Janssen - Doctor Jean Grey
- James Marsden - Cyclops (Scott Summers)
- Bruce Davison - Senator Robert Kelly
- Rebecca Romijn-Stamos - Mystique (Raven Darkholme)
- Ray Park - Toad (Mortimer Toynbee)
- Tyler Mane - Sabretooth (Victor Creed)
- Anna Paquin - Rogue (Marie D'Ancanto)
External links
- X-Men @ hollywood.com (http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/182883)
- Apple - Trailers - X-Men (http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x-men/)
- X-Men Movies (http://www.x-men-movies.com/)
- A-list X-men (http://www.the-alist.org/Movies/X-men/)de:X-Men#X-Men