X-Men Movie Essays - Fictional Secret Agents And Spies,

X-Men Movie I am critiquing the movie X-men. This movie is based on a comic book and on an animated series. Both the animated series and the comic book revolve around mutants. These mutants often look human, however many look quite different than any normal human and also their powers are quite extraordinary. This creates one problem when converting to movie form. Make-up gadgets and special effects must be used so that our reality where the film is made may accurately reflect the reality where the film is set. Also, the characters from the animated series and the comic books all have personalities and physical features that the actors in the film must try to match. This is a difficult thing to do. Not only must the actors physically look like the character concept but they must also be able to play the correct personality. The movie also must keep in context with the animated series and the books. The sources both share a timeline and general background knowledge and stories that the movie must conform with. When you add this onto the feat of making a movie that is aesthetically and engaging for audiences you have a very tall order. For the most part however, the movie was successful in many of these areas. The special effects were well done in this movie. Storms power over the elements is well displayed. I believe that it is one of the high points in the movie when we get to see storm use her powers. Cyclopss eye beam was also well done special effect wise. However the head gear that they used, while close enough to the original, was very bulky. This hindered the actors acting capability. Actors do a lot of acting with their faces and facial features. Entire messages are sent with the eyes. This did create some problems for Cyclops in the movie. The headgear, while it was aesthetically pleasing, should have been reduced somewhat in size in order to better see the actors features. Rouges powers are well displayed as well. At this point in the timeline she has not yet gained her super strength or power of flight. So that is one less problem. She still however has the power of pulling other mutants powers from them. This tends to be a case of simply overlaying the special effects onto her from the original. However the only power that she really takes advantage of is wolverines healing. The special effects on this part seemed realistic enough. However I have never seen that kind of healing in real life, so I really must take it for granted. Speaking of Wolverine, his claws had a bit of a metamorphosis from the original sources. They were much bigger and thicker. This detracted slightly from the idea of the original sources. The claws appeared much more unwieldy however this did not seem to impair wolverines use of them. And so it did work out well. The claws also brought up the question of how they fit into wolverines hand, being so much bigger. However, wolverines healing power did seem to work well. The mind powers of others in the movie were slightly under done. However there were a few scenes that focused on the mind powers of various individuals. Mystiques costuming was very well done. So were her shape changing special effects. The various effects of her shape changing were believable looking and true to form with the various sources. Magnetos powers of magnetism were also well done. The sheer force of will and power behind Magneto was well represented by the special effects. The toad guy was an obvious extra, however, his tongue stretch effect was quite striking and caused the viewer to shrink back and go ugh. The rest of the minor roles were also well supplied with effects. Kitty Prydes phase and Icemans flower were well done special effect wise. The general acrobatics and fighting that went on were well choreographed. Many of the maneuvers were a little super-human, however, that is to be expected because of the nature of the film. There was a small amount of special effects used here as well and those effects were used well. The