X-Men Reviews
Top CriticThe most beautiful, strange, and exciting comic-book movie since the original Batman.
X-Men plays like a so-so middle chapter of an epic series rather than a fitting kickoff.
Apart from the brushed metal production design and pin-sharp camerawork, this offers only moderate excitement.
It's a rich, impressive comic-book fantasy.
All these characters with their odd powers are inherently absurd and they throw a barrel of wrenches into the machinery of a coherent narrative.
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| Original Score: 2.5/4
A rarity, a comic-book movie with a satisfying cinematic design and protagonists you want to watch.
A distinctively absorbing entertainment, offering just enough popcorn thrills for mass audiences and just enough chewiness for hardcore sci-fi fans.
It sucks that this choppily edited film appears rushed and incoherent in ways that cheat the story of its human resonance and the stunts of their anticipated pow.
The direction sometimes lacks vibrancy and occasionally obscures the action and special effects.
It's darker, more complex and far more substantive than anything in the Superman or Batman cinematic series.
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| Original Score: 3/4
Sleek, entertaining and stacked with flashy special effects.
An accomplished piece of work with considerable pulp watchability to it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The film is effectively paced with a good balance of exposition, character development, and special effects-enhanced action.
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| Original Score: 3/4
X-Men lacks the style and substance of such top-drawer science-fiction movies as The Matrix or The Empire Strikes Back.
The events that end the movie are sort of anticlimactic, and the special effects, while energetic, are not as persuasive as they might be.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
If you're a fan of those Marvel Comics mainstays -- Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey -- this is your lucky day.
An entertaining adaptation of the classic comic book, boasting excellent special effects and sets.
Had it simply ignored or abbreviated the inescapably hackneyed origin stuff, the movie might have been in a position to break some ground.
What X-Men offers are outrageous makeup and costumes, gaudy overproduction and that bland, dopey dialogue.
The film is stranded between too many poles to be effective on any level.
Clumsy when it should be light on its feet, the movie takes itself even more seriously than the comic book and its fans do, which is a superheroic achievement.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
It ain't saying much but, when it comes to stoopid fun, X-Men could be the summer movie to beat.
X-Men fights a skewed, rerun version of yesterday's battles.
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| Original Score: C
One must give credit for the film's cheeky attitude to director Bryan Singer.
X-Men will exceed your expectations.
X-Men crosses its X with a flourish.
It's a film X-Men fans can embrace and action fans in general can appreciate.
An engaging popcorn movie in a summer that's littered with duds.
