Marvel Rewatch: X-Men (2000)

 X-Men (2000)

Directed: Bryan Singer

Written by: David Hayter

Cast: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden

Budget: $75m       Box Office: $296.334m 

Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 82% 

Everything has a beginning. And so does my rewatch list. 58 films to watch between now and Spider-Man: Brand New Day which is currently the last MCU film before Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026. 

Summary:

Set in a not so distant future, mutants with powers coexist alongside humans though many are afraid to show themselves. One mutant, Magneto, wants mutantkind to take over the world. It falls to Professor Xavier and his team of X-Men, along with a less than enthusiastic Wolverine, to save the humans and stop an all out conflict between mutants and humans. 

Plot & Script = 8

I was very surprised when I went back to this film to see that it had a run time of less than two hours. Weirdly, a lot happens in this film and also not a lot happens in this film but the script is tight and zips you from scene to scene - a little too quickly perhaps at the start. 

One real perk of the writing here is that the film doesn’t spend too long trying to spend a lot of time trying to explain things that don’t need to be explained. I know that this will become a recurring theme throughout this review, but this film deserves a lot of credit for what it fostered in after it. You can see some of the lessons that a young Kevin Feige would have learnt here on his first film and how he’s taken that forward to future ensemble pieces with Marvel Studios. 

The plot here is something that when you rewatch it in today’s modern context, it still holds up. People treated differently by others for what they are not necessarily who they are underneath. An eerie time capsule perhaps.

Characters = 8

Where to start with this? If you stopped anyone in the street and asked them to name you some X-Men characters and they would be able to likely tell you several pretty quickly - ‘Wolverine’, ‘Magneto’, ‘Cyclops’, ‘Storm’, ‘Professor X’ would likely all come up pretty quickly. And these all feature in this film and have stood the test of time and have been seen in many other films since.

One slight criticism of this film is that not many characters see much character progression over the course of the film but that’s hardly a surprise when so many characters are introduced to a largely unaware audience whilst trying to still progress the plot. Also, for a film that has pre-existing relationships between some characters, you don’t feel that in the film and everyone could be new to each other. 

This film does just about a good enough job of helping fresh audiences get up to speed with everyone without confusing them too much.

Acting = 8.5

How could the acting in this film not be great? Sir Ian McKellen, Sir Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry and James Marsden are all household names and they can all be found in this film. The casting director deserves a huge amount of credit for absolutely nailing this. 

There are strong performances throughout. The weight that McKellen and Stewart bring to this film through their performance and rivalry helps elevate this to the next level. Hugh Jackman broke out in this role and so many of his future character traits can be traced back to this film. But for me though, the performance of the film goes to Anna Paquin and her portrayal of ‘Rogue’. The innocence and emotional weight she brings to her scenes were a real standout. She was criminally underused in later films. 

Pacing = 7.5

For the majority of the film, the pacing zips by with the film keen to arm you with enough of a background to the characters and allowing you to feel like you had a good grasp of the plot - mutant kind cannot be trusted. At times, you wish that the film would allow you to stay in certain scenes a little longer - but off we go desperate to get you to the big battle at Liberty Island. In its defence, the battle is worth getting to especially when this film came out. But when the battle is over there is an almost awkward 8-10 minutes where the film doesn’t quite know what to do and it slows itself right down and it feels jarring in comparison to the majority of the film. Small gripes, but it does have a slight impact on the score.

Action Sequences = 7

At the time, this film will have thrilled audiences with some its action sequences but it certainly pales in comparison with what audiences would expect nowadays. 

That being said, there are several standout sequences. The sequence at the train station which features almost all of the main characters from the film - showcasing their mutant abilities is certainly a tease of what will happen in later films. The culmination of this sequence has a stand off between Charles and Magneto as Magneto attempts to flee is a personal highlight of the film. 

In a way the actual finale, in my opinion, doesn’t live up to this moment and feels a bit of a letdown. 

Visual Effects = 8

This is going to be a category where it’s reviewed ‘at the time it was made’. If we judged a film 25 years ago by today’s standard, it would likely not hold up at all. That being said, for the year 2000, this film produced some very good CGI. 

This was a film that had various VFX challenges. One character, Toad, has a tongue that has visual effects that still hold up okay today. In fact, some of the visuals really did surprise me. 

I’m also someone who massively appreciates practical effects and there were plenty here to accompany the CGI.

Production Design = 7

Ah, the heavy use of practical sets and props. Beautiful. The X Mansion set is iconic. So iconic, that last year Airbnb partnered to recreate an immersive experience to stay in it for $97 per person per night. Not bad for a night, dinner and breakfast. Oh and an X-Men training experience. 

The creation of things like Cerebro and how that appears is brilliant. 

The one thing that certainly bemoaned this whole franchise up until recently, is that lack of comic book accurate suits. One day, hopefully in Doomsday, we will see them all in their actual suits. 

Music = 4

For me, music in movies is almost as important as the screenplay or what the director does. This opinion might not be as universally shared by everyone but let’s face it you can all instantly hum Star Wars or Jaws. You can hear the tinkle from Back to the Future. You can feel the magic from Harry Potter and the adrenaline almost course through with James Bond’s main theme. 

However, this film just doesn’t have that. There are little cues that start to build into something but then disappear. It just doesn’t have any memorable cues. Even on rewatch, there was nothing that stood out. I know that in later X-Men films there are but this is one area of the film that falls down. Apparently, John Williams was approached but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Imagine the score we would have had if things had worked out differently 

Entertainment Value = 7

So. Do you feel like you got good entertainment value? That’s really what you want with a good popcorn movie. And we love good popcorn movies. 

The answer is hard to answer without bias. I think if I saw this at the cinema in 2000, the answer would have been yes. Audiences lapped this film up becoming the #9 highest grossing film of 2000. Do I feel like this film has still got that entertainment value in 2025? Mostly, yes. 

There is still a real thrill about seeing these characters and some of the set pieces are brilliant. 

But it is one of those films that doesn’t quite hit the same level as even some in its own franchise and many will skip over this to watch X2 instead. 

IMDb Score = 7.3

The one rating that I do not give out and pass it over to the public. This film has a rather solid, if yet unspectacular, 7.3 but given the era that this film came out and what came afterwards, this is a score that has led to 57 other films. 

Total Score = 72.3