I found X-Men to be satisfying on all levels except the final one. Since the film is trying to catch up on 40 years of comic book history, a lot of time is spent on introducing characters and helping the X-Men challenged get into the whole genre.

The film begins in WW2 Poland, a dark time in humanities history, when one group of humans feared or disliked another group and decided to exterminate them. Then we flash to the not too distant future, where history is dangerously close to repeating itself. The U.S. Senate wants mutants--people with gifts not usually part of the human physic--to be registered, so that those who fear them, can "keep an eye on them."

Then the film delves into the X world. Our introduction is through Wolverine and Rogue, played by Aussie singer Hugh Jackson and New Zealander Anna Paquin of The Piano fame. Two loners who have been marginalized from society by their special gifts, Wolverine and Rogue are suddenly thrown together when they are attacked.

Once we're into the X-world, we find there are two groups. Those who want to use their powers for good, and those who want to use them for bad. No surprises there, of course. Where the surprises come is that director Bryan Singer actually manages to make sense of many of these characters in the confined margin of 96 minutes, such that you actually want care about them.

The good and bad teams are both led by British stage and screen legends. Patrick Stewart is Xavier. He's the good guy, and he can read minds. Ian McKellan is Magneto, he can control all things metal and is the leader of bad X guys. But the film is quick to point out that his foray into evil is provoked by circumstance, he was a child in the WW2 Poland of the first scene.

Once we meet Xavier and Magneto's teams, we have all the players on the field, it's now a matter of giving them something to do, and that's the only weak link of the entire movie. The action adventure section of the plot is rather thin, since we've spent so long meeting everyone. And, of course, all the questions cannot be answered in one movie, since the sequels et al surely represent a license to print money for 20th Century Fox.

So, although lacking in a really satisfying story, the film pays up in most other ways. I enjoyed the X-Men. I enjoyed meeting these people, and I hope the sequel is not long coming.


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