Resolution Revue: X-Men

I am not a comic book geek by any stretch of the imagination. However, I love the Spider-Man films (well, loved the first 2; liked the third) and I'm a fan of superheroes in general. I added the X-Men movies to my resolution list for three basic reasons:
1. RandomGuy's videos feature a ton of X-Men characters and I'd like to be able to identify them all.
2. Hugh Jackman. Shirtless.
3. Patrick Stewart.

The first X-Men movie introduces us to some of the most important characters, including Wolverine, Rogue, Professor Xavier, Storm, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. On the bad guys' team, we have Magneto, Mystique, Toad, and Sabretooth. The movie revolves around Wolverine (Logan) and Rogue being found and taken to the Professor's school/high-tech undergound lab as Magneto plans to turn all of the world's leaders into mutants.

Overall, I really liked this movie. The acting was fantastic all around. When looking at the cast list on IMDB, I was surprised by (a) how many names I recognized and (b) that it had taken me so long to finally see this movie. Halle Berry is fantastic as Storm, if a bit underused. Though the scene where she comes out of the elevator, floating in midair, hair whipping around her, was almost cool enough to make up for her lack of screen time. Almost. Anna Paquin, whose name I recognize now because of her starring role on HBO's True Blood, does a fine job as Rogue. Johnny thought she spent all of her time whining. While I will concede that she's not the most calm and collected of the heroes, she is just a teenage girl who hasn't learned to control her powers yet. And her power is pretty freaky.

On the X-Men team, I liked everyone, but especially Storm and Professor Xavier (and not just because he's played by Patrick Stewart). Personality-wise, he reminds me a lot of Professor Dumbledore: always looking for the good in people, optimistic (to a fault?), and powerful enough that you REALLY don't want to be on his bad side.

Magneto is an interesting villain; if you look at his arguments the right way, you might almost agree with him. And Mystique is a good villainess, because you never know where she'll turn up or who she'll be. And she appears to be pretty unkillable, so I hope to see more of her (or her pretending to be someone else) in the next movies. I was glad to see Sabretooth and Toad go. Especially Toad. They were both just kind of gross, and not all that interesting.

Overall, I'd give X-Men 4.5 stars/5.