MovieChat Forums > X-Men (2000) Discussion > 1/3 of a Great Movie

1/3 of a Great Movie

posted 10 years ago by ComicNerd
7 replies | jump to latest

Rewatching this movie the other day on tv it occurred to me that up until Wolverine wakes up in the school the movie is pretty great. Visually it looks good and is slowly introducing us to the X-men world. However once Xavier introduces the school to Logan it because a weirdly cheap. It was like Singer ran out of time and money to finish the movie at that point. The action scenes are small and poorly shot and choreographed. The production design and photography turn ugly. Everything is shot with these dull black skies on uninteresting locations or stagey looking sets. Contrast this to the opening bar scene and it looks like a completely different movie.

The Statue of Liberty finale has some terrible wirework and is pretty low scale. I don't know who approved the costumes, it's not the fact that they are leather but they are really big and bulky and don't look practical or easy to move in. Magneto's helmet also looks like it's made of plastic with the weird design. I don't know why they just didn't go with the Comic design.

As I said everything up until Wolverine's introduction to the X-men is great , great effects and photography, but everything after just doesn't even seem like it was made by the same people.

[–] asmodean00013 9 years ago

I agree. Singer was wrong person to develop xmen. Pretty much ruined it now.

[–] AndrewGS 9 years ago

I liked the photography, costumes (well, Cyclops' visor looked kind of overly big/silly) and action, I thought the photography looked very consistent (from the Senate and bar scene to much brighter school to intermediate train station and statue interior) and the action nicely escalated (although I wish Cyclops had played more of a role).

What made you think some sets looked stagey? And what films do you think avoided this problems?

[–] my_dad_hussles_mooses 9 years ago

A big blockbuster such as this relies on special fx to get noticed and shock and awe the audience and Xmen's do not disappoint.

As I Hustle In The City, For A Paper Stack, Lord Knows I Got The Devil On My Back

[–] brokendreams37 9 years ago

The movie had potential but you could see they lacked the budget for big mutant battles. instead with get a Mutant drama

[–] Cognoscente (2468) 2 years ago

It's ironic that the fights weren't all that good since the choreographer, Corey Yuen, is one of the world's best if you look at his Hong Kong work and later stuff like The Transporter. His wirework is so good that he was actually considered for The Matrix as a contingency plan.

After reading several magazine articles circa 2000, I've figured out what went on (or went wrong rather) with the fights. Bryan Singer was self-conscious about making a movie that could be dismissed as an action movie. He wanted to put more emphasis on character development to the point that the fights weren't allowed to have much breathing room.

If Robert Rodriguez hadn't turned down the movie then we might have got something better. At least there would have been no scandal involving minors.

More about Corey's involvement: https://popcultmaster.com/2018/02/26/coreys-glory/

[–] Dogiswhite (1114) 2 years ago

But Robert tends to go too over the top sometimes especially in kids movies. I'm not sure if would have thought of X-Men as a kids movie, but ya never know.

[–] Dogiswhite (1114) 2 years ago

I have to agree with you. The first 3rd is really good. Unfortunately the whole senator turned into some weird blob thing and the stupid plot of Magneto's to turn everyone into mutants kinda ruins it when rewatching. The best X-Men movies to me were X2 and Days of Future Past. The others were disappointing or downright awful.Yes, I'm talking about you Apocalypse and you Dark Phoenix.