X Men 2000

Based on the wildly popular Marvel comic book series, X-Men is easily the most anticipated film of the summer, sparking heated Internet debate among legions of fans about its numerous script revisions and controversial casting. Meanwhile, uninitiated viewers wonder whether this ubiquitous flick is worth all of the fuss. The answer? Largely, yes. Though X-Men lacks the mind-blowing visuals and complexity of last summer's sci-fi/action spectacle The Matrix, this thoughtful, imaginative adventure is one of the better live-action comic-book adaptations on film. Director Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects) meets the challenge of distilling 37 years of epic adventure for newcomers while remaining true to the series' themes, tone, and characters.
Set during the "not too distant future" X-Men unfolds in a world where humans are beginning to evolve into uniquely and powerfully enabled beings. The widespread persecution of these "mutants" drives a pointed parable about racism and genocide, with direct references to Nazi-era Germany. Stemming from this broader sociological conflict is the ideological clash between two mutant factions: those who wish to peacefully co-exist with humans, led by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Picard), and those who wish to destroy mankind for its ignorance and inferiority, led by Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen, Gods and Monsters). Xavier and Lehnsherr are directly comparable to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, down to Magneto's oath to effect change "by any means necessary." Pretty heavy stuff for a comic-book film. Although the questions posed about intolerance and the definition of "humanity" are similar to those in Blade Runner, they're not as eloquently presented or affecting.

Singer and executive producer Tom DeSanto, who, after numerous rewrites, wisely focused the final version of the script on Logan (Aussie newcomer Hugh Jackman) aka Wolverine. Easily the series' most popular character, Logan is a wanderer, an outsider that acts as the viewer's introduction into Xavier's "School for Gifted Youngsters," a secret academy to train mutants. Unlike the team's squeaky-clean field leader, Scott "Cyclops" Summers (played with winking, self-referential humor by Gossip's James Marsden), Logan is a smokin', drinkin', cantankerous misanthrope who kicks butt with retractable, razor-sharp metal claws. The script playfully tweaks the two allies' oil-and-water relationship and their mutual feelings for Xavier's right-hand mutant, the telekinetic Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, GoldenEye).

But X-Men is Wolverine's film, and Jackman offers its most complex performance, melding feral instinct, sarcastic irreverence, and heart-of-gold sensitivity. Logan's blade-flashing yields X-Men's exhilarating moments, and his quips about the unusual situations he encounters add levity to the film's otherwise ominous tone.

The rest of the X-cast comfortably fill their superhuman boots, with Stewart a perfect fit as the Picard-like leader and McKellen equally sterling as his magnetism-wielding adversary. Anna Paquin (Oscar-winner for The Piano) offers a tremulous performance as the teenage Rogue, frightened and overwhelmed by her own deadly energy-stealing power. But despite leading-lady-level press, Halle Berry is no more than gorgeous window-dressing as the weather-controlling Storm, with few lines and clumsy screen presence.

The "non-actors" fare well as Magneto's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants: pro-wrestler Tyler Mane as the animalistic Sabretooth, supermodel Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as the gymnastic shape-shifter Mystique, and martial-arts master Ray Park (The Phantom Menace's Darth Maul) as the impish, twelve-foot-tongue-flicking Toad. These are more otherworldly mutants than the X-Men, and the trio brings a fantastical quality to the Brotherhood that's lacking in Xavier's more "human" team.

X-Men's story is sparse and economic, giving just enough plot information to move things along but without bogging down in excessive historical detail. Singer and cinematographer Tom Sigel (Three Kings) match the film's somber themes with their dark elegance, and the set design is clinical in its minimalism. Even the "score" is limited to humming, heartbeats, atmospheric sounds, and silence, which emphasize the prevailing sense of isolation and claustrophobia.

X-Men is about ideas and people, and makes no effort to establish a high-speed pace; its combat arises organically within the unfolding story, making the flow atypically varied for an actioner. Fight scenes define characters, advance the plot, and showcasie the mutants' abilities — and appendages — for humor. Special effects depict the mutants' super-powers and add to the fun factor, but few scenes actually inspire awe, and the team is largely landbound, lacking the over-the-top exuberance for combat one might expect of the über-abled. Other sequences — dream depictions, telepathic encounters, and Magneto's defining Holocaust experience — aren't effects-heavy, but they have a haunting, visionary beauty and lasting impact. Unfortunately, Singer doesn't sustain this level of wonder throughout the film.

Die-hard X-devotees may quibble over character interpretations and timeline violations, but with so many unbearable comic-book films — remember Tank Girl? — why nit-pick a creative, intelligent, and cohesive near-miss for condensing an operatic saga? X-Men isn't as dynamic as it could be, but it has style, substance, and soul. Trying finding that in the next Batman movie. and more than a touch of genuine sentiment.

Pie's plot, such as it is, involves four high school lads — desperate to lose their virginity — who make a pact to get laid by their senior prom. There's Jim, (newcomer Jason Biggs), the nice guy who just can't talk to girls; Oz (Election's Chris Klein), the jock whose buff bod conceals a sensitive soul; Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), the would-be sophisticate who makes jokes in Latin and drinks mochachino; and Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas) who, though he has a girlfriend, can't bring himself to utter the three little words that would get him past third base.

Their separate strategies to score take each member of the hapless quartet in different directions, and often to hilarious conclusions. In a scene destined to be rewound endlessly by hormone-wracked teen boys across the country, Jim inadvertently sends a live Internet feed of his painfully inept encounter with a hot-to-trot exchange student (nicely nubile newcomer Shannon Elizabeth) to his school's entire student body. It's probably the funniest scene in the film, and the only one that actually features nudity.

In fact, though the language is consistently vulgar, and there are sight gags involving masturbation, semen, and, yes, sex with baked goods, American Pie is not nearly as leeringly sexist as many of its '80s predecessors. The film's female characters are given personalities as developed as their figures. Though underused, Slums of Beverly Hills' Natasha Lyonne captures the perfect tone as the experienced girl who doles out advice on matters of sex. And Alyson Hannigan (Willow on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer) almost steals the movie as the geeky band nerd who's not quite the stereotype that she seems.

First-time director Paul Weitz, working from a script by first-time screenwriter Adam Herz, has crafted a breezy ode to adolescent sexuality. Granted, there's plenty of toilet humor and dirty talk, but the film's underlying humanism prevents this from being just another dumb teen flick. The young, mostly unknown actors acquit themselves well, fleshing out the characters so that American Pie never descends to the level of moronic caricature. Alternately outrageous and sweet, it may not be quite as filling as a nice piece of pie, but it's certainly as tasty.