Intermission: Comic book adaptation has insightful message, good action

"X-Men"

Directed by: Bryan Singer

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Hugh Jackman

Rated: PG-13

There are a few things in each person's past that are remembered as being "life-changing." I can honestly say that one of those for me was discovering Marvel comics.

As a kid in the 60s, I was an avid reader of the super hero books that were everywhere at the time and cost a mere 10 cents. I was completely satisfied with the likes of Batman and Superman, but when I got my first Marvel comic ("Fantastic Four" No. 24), the world changed.

These super heroes were indeed "super" but they also had qualities the other guys from the D.C. comics camp didn't: They spoke and acted like human beings. They had faults and foibles. They seemed so much more believable, if you could believe that super heroes existed in the first place.

Besides the Fantastic Four, there were the Avengers, Spiderman, Daredevil and my personal favorite, the X-Men.

Made up of numerous mutants, I think it's pretty easy to see why so many adolescents liked this group. At that time of life, one tends to feel sort of like an outsider from the mainstream of society.

I've long since given up comics though some might argue that movies are merely a different form of the same thing but I have to admit I was pretty excited when I heard "X-Men" was finally coming to the screen.

I was worried as well. The "Superman" movie series never did much for me and outside of Tim Burton's first installment the "Batman" franchise left a lot to be desired. On the other hand, "Mystery Men" from a few years back was pretty promising.

Also promising, in regards to "X-Men," were the people involved in the project. Director Bryan Singer gave us "The Usual Suspects" and "Apt Pupil." Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are well-respected actors and Stan Lee, the original writer and editor of all things Marvel in the 60s, is listed as executive producer.

Lee's original take on "X-Men" was a commentary on the racial separation and civil rights movement going on in the 1960s. The X-Men were allegorical characters representing people outside the mainstream trying to be accepted for what they were.

The same holds true in the new film, and it is even more apropos in today's society.

The message is here, no doubt, but the movie is fun and exciting without ever becoming overly preachy about its deeper philosophy.

In the film, the world has come to realize that there is an alarming number of mutants already living among us. Some of the powers that be, led by a Joe McCarthy/Pat Buchanan type senator named Robert Kelly, want the weirdoes to be rounded up, registered and regulated.

As for the mutants themselves, there are two camps. Professor Charles Xavier leads one (the good guys) and the other (the bad guys) is headed by a mutant called Magneto. Magneto, a survivor of Nazi concentration camps as depicted in the riveting opening scenes of the film, is sure that the humans are about to start an all-out war on mutants.

Xavier, leader of the X-Men, believes that everyone can coexist. Similarities between these characters and Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. will be apparent to the astute viewer.

The film spends a great deal of time introducing the various characters, and for loyal readers this may be a bit tiresome.

Once the action kicks in, though, all is forgiven. The special effects and stunts are dazzling, and Singer's direction is deft enough to turn even a "comic book" plot into a worthy motion picture.

A lot of people may complain that there's no really big payoff at the end, but I must point out that indeed there is.

With Magneto enclosed in an all-plastic prison cell, one of the evil mutants impersonating Sen. Kelly and more than a few background stories left unexplored, it's obvious that the big payoff here is the setup for the sequel(s) to follow.

Many times the "obvious impending sequel" leaves the bitter taste of Hollywood greed in the viewer's mouth but this time I think 20th Century Fox has at least two decent (and lucrative, of course) films in what will be the first franchise of the 21st century.

For action at its best, and not action of the entirely mindless sort, "X-Men" promises to be the big hit of the summer.

This film is showing at Campbell 16 Cine, 890-7800, Springfield 8, 882-7469 and Town & Country 6, 864-4373.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)