Heroic adaptation

>> Bryan Singer's X-Men isn't so bad

by MATTHEW HAYS

It's difficult to know whether or not Bryan Singer is in an enviable position. Yes, the director behind the critical and box-office success The Usual Suspects and the less-successful-but-equally-interesting Apt Pupil is helming his first big-budget movie. But it's based on X-Men, the hugely popular comic book--the bestselling comic book series in history, in fact--which means there are droves of purist fans out there who are ready to nit-pick the hell out of the adaptation.

To be fair to X-freaks, I must confess here that, though an avid comic-book reader and collector in my childhood and adolescence (which some would argue continues to this day), I never got hooked on this crew. I liked the X-Men and thought they were cool enough, but either preferred the irreverence of cult oddities like Howard the Duck or stuck with the tried and true like Superman, Batman or Spiderman.

So this review comes from the uninitiated. But here goes: I thoroughly enjoyed X-Men. I thought Singer handled the action well, created solid tension between mutant rivals Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, and cast his merry band of outcasts perfectly. The characters are suitably over-the-top (this is a comic book, of course), with mutant powers ranging from being able to manipulate the weather (Storm, played by Halle Berry), animal-like morphing abilities (Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman) to hyper-empathics (Anna Paquin's Rogue).

In the spirit of the original comic book, Singer has a McCarthyite senator (Bruce Davison) attack the mutants in congress, arguing that they pose a massive threat to the fabric of American society and should be controlled at any cost. This, coupled with the dark side of the mutant movement (led by McKellen), make for the film's central suspense. Who will win in this epic struggle between good and evil?

Okay, so it's not the most original conflict in film history. But the clashes between mutants of varying capabilities make for excellent fight scenes, the climactic one occurring, both photogenically and symbolically, atop the Statue of Liberty.

What Singer has apparently done quite consciously is keep the exposition to a minimum. This is not a primer on all X-Men-related comic-book trivia. Rather, Singer essentially introduces the characters and lets us in on their powers, then lets the action rip. Mercifully, he knows enough to make us care about his X-Men, so the movie doesn't devolve into nothing more than a series of chases (à la M:I2).

Finally, it's worth noting that Singer's gay sensibility can be felt throughout. In the press kit, McKellen comments that his own sexuality often makes him an outsider and that proved inspirational in terms of developing his character. Certainly, Singer has astutely created an entire universe for a group of folk who are misunderstood because of their differences. That, along with Singer's camera's artful ogling of his male heroes, make him seem the perfect director to bring X-Men to screen life. :

X-Men opens Friday, July 14