I watched this movie in theaters and hadn’t watched it since, and remembered it as being horrendous even in my dopey teenage years. But ever since seeing X2 and liking it, I’ve been wanting to revisit the original, and I finally got my chance. And the verdict is, my dopey teenage self was totally right. This is a clunky disaster of a movie. Singer’s heart seems in the right place, and some of the actors are doing a much better job than necessary (I’m not looking at you, James Marsden, or you, Halle Berry), but overall it’s just a waste of really promising source material, filled with silly effects and costumes and even sillier dialogue. I know the “what happens to a toad” line is as beat-on than Britney Spears and doesn’t need another knock from me, but holy crap, that has to be one of the worst cinematic moments I’ve ever seen. It’s the exact sort of mind-numbing stupidity that fuels most of the movie, which is sort of sad because I think the thought behind it all, of making a big-budget superhero movie with a thinly veiled plea for tolerance and understanding, was actually a fairly noble idea, and I think it’s how they managed to get classier stars like Stewart and McKellen involved, and I sort of feel like they got screwed over by another shitty Hollywood supermovie. Again, it has its moments and I think Singer is generally a pretty good director, but in the end it feels like more money was put into this project than sweat.
