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The start of the Fox X-Men franchise. Though, let's be honest, it's essentially a Wolverine movie, featuring the X-Men. He gets a lot of the focus, gets to do most of the action and gets to save the day. I'm willing to overlook the Wolverine focus with this one, to an extent. This was the introductionary movie, with the general audience going into a world that they might not familiar with. It makes sense to focus on one character, whom the audience gets to follow into this strange world of the X-Men. Especially as it's not an X-Men origin movie (where we get to see the members coming together and forming a team), the team have existed for years.
When I rewatched it, I felt that the movie still hold up, after 20 years and is a good starting point. Magneto's plan (mutating world leaders, to ensure the survival of the mutant race) wouldn't have worked, as most could easily be removed from office (as they've been democatically elected). However, they were clever enough to have Magneto's plan endanger everyone in New York City. Giving the movie massive stakes: if the heroes don't stop Magneto, millions of people could be killed.
I like that they involved the political aspect, something that would happen in real-life, if mutants existed. I also like the cameos by Kitty Pryde and Pyro, characters that will play a bigger role in X2 and The Last Stand. They're already establishing characters that will play a bigger role in the next two installments, rather than having them show up out of nowhere, when they'll play a bigger role. However, we're also not hit over the head with them being set up for bigger roles in future installments. It's not like today, when 50 different things get teased, for sequels that might not happen.
It's a minor detail, but I like that they scrapped "Marvel Girl" as a codename (pre-Phoenix) for Jean Grey (partly for a reason, that I'll address, while talking about X2). Prior to this movie, I think that the most recent superhero movie, with a female superhero character in it (in any capacity), was Batman & Robin (1997), which had Batgirl. However, I'm pretty sure that she's only called "Batgirl" once. A name that is instantly shot down by Batman, who suggests that she'd go by "Batperson" or "Batwoman" instead. They still called her "Batgirl", but called attention to how dated it is. Fastforward three years, and "girl" has been dropped entirely. When Lois Lane gained Clark's powers, on Lois & Clark, and became a superhero, Clark was about to name Lois "Ultra Girl", but stopped himself before completely saying the second word and called her "Ultra Woman".
In fact, since B&R, I can't think of many grown female superhero, in a live-action, that have gone by "girl" (Hit-Girl is 11, or something, so she doesn't count). So, by not having Jean go by "Marvel Girl", it not only helps the film to not feel too dated (as that type of naming convention have been retired... in the films (and to a large extent, television), anyway. The Arrowverse still does it. Some comics might still be doing it, I don't know; I don't read them), but it also makes it the start of not calling grown female superheroes (in live-action) "Something Girl"... Though, outside of Supergirl (in her 1984 movie) and Batgirl (in B&R), we didn't exactly have female superheroes live-action, before this. So, as far as live-action is concerned, that wasn't a major concept, that this movie retired.
My one real issue with the film is that the rest of the X-Men gets to play second fiddle to Wolverine. When they're talking to Magneto, inside of the head of the Statue of Liberty, Storm doesn't create a massive wind, to knock Magneto and/or Sabretooth out. Nor does Jean attempt to take over Magneto's mind (he's not wearing his helmet), to end it all. It has to be Wolverine who gets to save the day.
Other than that, I thought that this was a good start to a franchise.
When I rewatched it, I felt that the movie still hold up, after 20 years and is a good starting point. Magneto's plan (mutating world leaders, to ensure the survival of the mutant race) wouldn't have worked, as most could easily be removed from office (as they've been democatically elected). However, they were clever enough to have Magneto's plan endanger everyone in New York City. Giving the movie massive stakes: if the heroes don't stop Magneto, millions of people could be killed.
I like that they involved the political aspect, something that would happen in real-life, if mutants existed. I also like the cameos by Kitty Pryde and Pyro, characters that will play a bigger role in X2 and The Last Stand. They're already establishing characters that will play a bigger role in the next two installments, rather than having them show up out of nowhere, when they'll play a bigger role. However, we're also not hit over the head with them being set up for bigger roles in future installments. It's not like today, when 50 different things get teased, for sequels that might not happen.
It's a minor detail, but I like that they scrapped "Marvel Girl" as a codename (pre-Phoenix) for Jean Grey (partly for a reason, that I'll address, while talking about X2). Prior to this movie, I think that the most recent superhero movie, with a female superhero character in it (in any capacity), was Batman & Robin (1997), which had Batgirl. However, I'm pretty sure that she's only called "Batgirl" once. A name that is instantly shot down by Batman, who suggests that she'd go by "Batperson" or "Batwoman" instead. They still called her "Batgirl", but called attention to how dated it is. Fastforward three years, and "girl" has been dropped entirely. When Lois Lane gained Clark's powers, on Lois & Clark, and became a superhero, Clark was about to name Lois "Ultra Girl", but stopped himself before completely saying the second word and called her "Ultra Woman".
In fact, since B&R, I can't think of many grown female superhero, in a live-action, that have gone by "girl" (Hit-Girl is 11, or something, so she doesn't count). So, by not having Jean go by "Marvel Girl", it not only helps the film to not feel too dated (as that type of naming convention have been retired... in the films (and to a large extent, television), anyway. The Arrowverse still does it. Some comics might still be doing it, I don't know; I don't read them), but it also makes it the start of not calling grown female superheroes (in live-action) "Something Girl"... Though, outside of Supergirl (in her 1984 movie) and Batgirl (in B&R), we didn't exactly have female superheroes live-action, before this. So, as far as live-action is concerned, that wasn't a major concept, that this movie retired.
My one real issue with the film is that the rest of the X-Men gets to play second fiddle to Wolverine. When they're talking to Magneto, inside of the head of the Statue of Liberty, Storm doesn't create a massive wind, to knock Magneto and/or Sabretooth out. Nor does Jean attempt to take over Magneto's mind (he's not wearing his helmet), to end it all. It has to be Wolverine who gets to save the day.
Other than that, I thought that this was a good start to a franchise.
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