The year 2000 set the stage for the decade plus years of gritty super hero movies that we seem to still be in the midst of now. DVD players were becoming more affordable, special effects were on the rise and 20th Century Fox studios put out a movie based on a popular comic book series: X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer.
In a previous blog post I discussed what the X-Men movie meant to me as a ten year old girl; a second generation nerd that still believed that comic books were only for boys. Before X-Men my one real taste of the super hero genre was the consistently ridiculous Batman & Robin film of 1997.
Now it’s time to focus on the merits of the females within this film. My initial data counted twelve main characters, counting all X-Men, all those in the Brotherhood, Senator Kelly and Bobby Drake aka Iceman. Of those twelve, four were women: Rogue, Storm, Jean and Mystique. A third of the characters. I don’t feel the need to change those statistics now having watched the film, it still seems accurate to me. But how well did these females do in the actual film?
I want to take a moment to note that most promotional materials included only ten of the characters, four of them still female making the ratio seem more half and half. Still the focus of the trailers circled around the Xavier vs Magneto philosophy with a tagline of ‘trust a few, fear the rest.’ There is not even a hint that the plot centers around Rogue, and why should it? After all it all happens because Magneto orchestrates it and Xavier isn’t smart enough to anticipate his old friend’s plan. Rogue is just a pawn, imagery highlighted further by their game of chess at the end of the movie.
But let’s back up and talk about the movie as a whole.
For the time that it came out and for its moderately low budget ($75 million for a summer blockbuster instead of the usual $100) X-Men had decent special effects. I would even go so far as to say that it’s held up well for fourteen years. The wirework is a bit obvious and the opening sequence is starting to look dated, but it’s not as of yet displeasing to the eye. Mystique’s transformation still work well and are some of the most visually pleasing bits in the movie.
But with mostly uninspired dialogue (unless you’re Magneto in which case even the plainest of lines sounds epic from Ian McKellen and he has some nice lines) it can become a lackluster performance at times. I also have trouble with its opening, giving us three starter scenes before Rogue even comes across Wolverine. The character that is set up as the franchise main character, yet it takes over ten minutes for him to become relevant to his own movie. There is nothing entirely wrong with any of the three scenes (young Magneto bending a fence with his powers, Rogue tapping into her powers accidentally while kissing a boy, and then Jean Grey giving a speech on mutants) but it strikes me as a lack of focus.
Part of the problem might be that too many people had their hands in this cookie jar. A pass over of facts on the film’s production shows that nearly half a dozen people wrote a script for this movie, the final result keeping pieces from each of these. Joss Whedon was one such guy that did so but it was turned down for being a “quick-witted, pop-culture referencing tone” that didn’t fit the X-Men. Pieces were kept in the final script, like Storm’s statement about “what happens to a toad when it is struck by lightning.”
X-Men starts as a good launch pad for the franchise, but I would say it is only that. It knows what message it want to tell about prejudice, following a Martin Luther King Jr and Malcom X allegory in Professor X and Magneto but it struggles with how to drive this story. It tries to cut down on unnecessary characters it doesn’t have time to develop but we still only get one dimensional characters on all sides of the field. It’s a team/ensemble movie that’s vague in giving us our main character. Are we supposed to sympathize with Magneto who turns out to be our villain? Or is it the young innocent Rogue? And yet when we reach the manor it is through Wolverine’s eyes that the rest of the movie unfolds, but he was simply a red herring on Magneto’s motives the entire time.
For the first of its kind, the movie is a fun ride. It’s just not one that you can scratch at too much or it starts to crumble.
Young Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto, on the way to a Nazi death camp
Now for the women.
The first female we meet is Rogue, a young southern girl who dreams of traveling beyond her small town borders. She explains to a boy about how she plans to travel all the way to Anchorage, Alaska for her own personal adventure. After the start of a kiss, however, her powers activate and she sends the boy into a coma. Her reaction is to scream and cry and eventually run away. When asked what happened she states in tears “I only touched him.”
I’ve done a blog post before based solely on Rogue so I won’t linger on this long. But think for a second on the message this sends, that a young girl that decided to take control of her own body and feelings is instantly punished by having this fun moment hurt somebody. It makes this boy’s coma her fault because she kissed him and now she has to be scared to touch anybody ever again. At the end of the movie we get to see Rogue more comfortable in her body, playing a game with her fellow students and even seen playfully bumping shoulders with Bobby without fear.
Still the message is there: her touch is poison. And is that how we want all girls to feel when they want to start experimenting with their impulses? That if they feel the desire to kiss a boy, they shouldn’t because it’ll be all their fault when something goes wrong. Just something to think about.
Now, I completely appreciate the transition from Rogue’s developing powers to Dr. Jean Grey discussing how mutations normally manifest during puberty under moments of great stress. Since this was clearly illustrated not once but twice in two previous scenes, we know she knows what she’s talking about.
Do those glasses ever reappear?
Since Dr. Hank McCoy, aka Beast, was cut from this original film it’s Jean Grey that takes up the mantle of team doctor. This is great, since in her opening scene its shows her going toe to toe with a man in a moral debate about whether or not mutants are dangerous. She comes at it from a scientific perspective, average audience members unaware just yet that Jean is herself a mutant, while Senator Kelly talks like a politician, twisting facts to fit his agenda and playing on people’s fears.
However after this first moment, Jean gets relegated to love interest for Scott and Wolverine. I can’t help but feel that part of the decision to make her a doctor was simply so she could be around Wolverine when he was shirtless. Since taking care of him and her opening speech are the only doctor things of merit she does in the entire film, Jean loses some of her credibility after the first act. She doesn’t even show any solid interest in either guy (other than commenting she shares a room with Scott) yet over their attraction to the same woman, these men are constantly irritated with each other.
Yeah, we’re asking why she’s here too, Logan.
Storm is our third woman introduced to the audience, an African woman with shocking white hair that can control the elements. Her name is Ororo Munroe and that’s about all the audience ever gets to know. She and Scott are there to rescue Wolverine and Rogue from Sabretooth, she holds Senator Kelly’s hand while he dies, zaps Toad and sends a gust of wind to help Wolverine to his final confrontation in the movie. In writing it looks like quite a bit, but none of these actions in context are stand out moments. Her and Scott’s appearance is cool and dramatic, but after that she becomes a soft spoken, uninteresting presence to the movie, physically and emotionally harassed by Sabretooth who wants nothing more than to make her scream. Yeah, I’m not even going to touch that last one…
An origin scene much like Magneto’s and Rogue’s was planned for Storm (as well as Cyclops) but had to be cut for time. I understand this but I can’t help but feeling that she was entirely unnecessary to the flow of the plot. Xavier mentions that she was one of his first students for movie continuity, not in keeping with the comics. Part of me wishes that they’d held back on introducing Storm for when the time was right instead of shoe horning her into the film. Then it could be suggested that Beat and Angel also joined Jean and Scott as Xavier’s first students, but left for other things. The other part doesn’t like the idea of losing one fourth of our females, but with no Storm, Toad almost becomes unnecessary for the Brotherhood side as well.
Which brings us to the one female bad guy and, in my opinion, the only stand out female performance: Mystique. A shapeshifter whose ordinary form is blue, scaled with yellow eyes and red hair, Mystique hates humans and is a loyal supporter of Magneto’s. We get no reason as to why she’s loyal, but are left to assume that mutual hate garner’s loyalty. It also seems to make for a far more cohesive team: the X-Men can’t do anything without bickering but the only bit we get in the Brotherhood is a bit of poking from Toad at Sabretooth.
Other than a comment from Mystique to Senator Kelly (as she’s kidnapping him) about how people like him made her afraid to go to school as a child, we get very little characteristic of Mystique. She is yet again a prop piece in the burgeoning war that Magneto warned Xavier was coming at the beginning of the movie. Unlike Rogue, she doesn’t feel like a victim of circumstance: she chooses to be here every step of the way. Or, we can only assume so.
I’m conflicted on Mystique’s look. On the one hand as a bisexual girl, even at ten, I appreciate the view. It might even be better that she’s not even trying to look dressed by putting on a dress similar to her outfit in the comics which has side slits going all the way up to her waist. On the flip side of that, she becomes a sexy object of which it’s real easy to fantasize about: after all, she can turn into anybody you like.
Still, her fight with Wolverine trumps all other fights in this film and subsequent X-Men films. The graceful ease that she jumps and flips around Wolverine’s flailing claws gives her a strength that all the rest of the females lack. Jean and Storm get into battles, but they’re primarily power based. The only other people to get nearly as physical as Mystique would be her counterparts in the Brotherhood: Toad and Sabretooth, the latter of which gets his own final battle with Wolverine.
The female representation in this film is wider spread than many other super hero films. You have the quiet, alienated teenager Rogue who grows to find acceptance. The brilliant, mind oriented Dr. Jean Grey bring the intellect. Storm brings some heart and spirituality (or she would if she was given more time on screen) and Mystique is not only a villain, but a strong, physical woman.
Was that really easier than walking around the table?
However all of these women play minor roles in comparison to Xavier, Magneto and Wolverine. This trinity of the two leaders and the uninvolved loner that gets dragged into the fray anyways is what pulls us through the entire story. Of the four girls, Rogue struggles the strongest to make it as a lead character but I feel as if Scott and Jean’s stronger performances boxes her out. It doesn’t help that she’s relegated to damsel in distress during the final sequence of the film, needing rescuing from Wolverine. Insult to injury, she develops a crush on her hero only to have him choose Jean instead, the girl he can’t have because she’s dating the boyscout.
Besides that, all of them at one point or another become poorly objectified. Rogue becomes the film’s main damsel, unable to save herself and helplessly awaiting Wolverine to save her. Jean is placed as an object of desire in Wolverine’s path, a possible prize he can claim at the end of the journey. While the movie doesn’t cash out completely on this possibility, they don’t undangle Jean from in front of Wolverine, like a carrot in front of a donkey. Mystique is left gloriously undressed for the entirety of the film, though to the movie’s credit not a single thing is said about it and none of the men seem to be ogling her. Then again, she’s usually kicking their asses. Finally, Storm is placed as this treat that Sabretooth wants to claim and she doesn’t even get her comeuppance as its Wolverine that gets a final throw down with the feral mutant. Again, I’m not even touching the screaming comment… make of it what you will.
At the time X-Men came out, even this representation for females in a comic book super hero based setting was ground breaking. For once, girls really seemed to be involved from the get go (instead of Alfred not wanting Barbara to join the Bat team only for it to turn out he made her a Batgirl costume anyways… Yeah, did anything make sense in that movie?)
With hindsight, though, we could have done better. We still could do better. But the X-Men films have done very little to break this mold they’ve set up. Over and over males crowd the top tier of protagonists with one or two females scrapping for the second tier.
But we’ll get to those in later posts.
For the movie in general I give it a 7/10 rating. It’s good, it gives us a decent beginning, but it’s an uninspired script that doesn’t really risk pushing any boundaries.
As for its female representation I give it a solid 5/10. It’s neither really good nor really bad. It has a slightly above average female to male ratio with a spectrum of personalities to choose from. But all characters are simple and under developed in comparison to their male counterparts, doing less for the overall plot. More often than not things happen to them instead of them making things happen.
Furthermore, it seems that anytime a female character wants anything, bad things happen to them. Mystique wants her freedom and ends up skewered by Wolverine. Jean may or may not want Logan (or Scott), it’s left all rather unclear but any interest she shows ends in a pissing contest between the two males. It becomes less about what the girl wants and about which man is going to win. And who knows whether or not Storm has any motivation.
I give you, instead, an X-Men film where the women are active components. Instead of it being Magneto’s Brotherhood, Mystique is actually the leader (much like Scott on the X-Men side) with Magneto playing philosophical compass and instructor. Now it’s Mystique who physically is searching for Rogue, perhaps even beginning an emotional connection with the girl (like a precursor to the relationship they shared in the comics) that causes a slight twinge of guilt when Rogue is handed over to Magneto. But Mystique perseveres for the larger picture… though how cool would it be if at the last second she decides to tell Wolverine where Rogue is being held and flees the fight instead of getting maimed?
As for young Rogue, she still has her traumatic coming into her power and leaves home to go on a trip she always dreamed of doing. Except there are complications in her hitchhiking, possibly related to Mystique trying to capture her. During one such complication, cornered and scared, Rogue takes off the gloves and touches a pilot to gain the knowledge of flying, steals a plane and carries on. She’s horrified at herself for purposefully using her powers but if she didn’t what terrible things could have happened to her? Eventually the memories wear off and she crashes, running into Wolverine who then takes a beating from Sabretooth.
Keep Jean Grey as a doctor, but throw in at least one small affection scene with Scott. Perhaps she finishes checking him over in the med bay, they kiss and get cutsey before he leaves and she turns to work on Wolverine. While admittedly attracted to Logan, she puts a firm foot down that she’s with Scott. Logan can still flirt and see her as playing hard to get but in this way she’s taking a firm stance on her life.
On the other hand, Storm takes Rogue under her wing when the girl comes to the school. Part of Storm doesn’t quite trust this girl, but everybody deserves a second chance and since Storm once lived a life on the streets, picking pockets, she feels she can best help Rogue transition. Meanwhile, Storm makes a few advances on Logan much like he does with Jean, while maintaining it’s really a physical attraction. After all, there aren’t many guys there that could take her in a fight.
To do all of this would require sidelining Wolverine more in the story, playing a mentor to the true protagonist: Rogue. Mystique and Storm would be conflicting role models for the girl, one pulling her in the direction of the Brotherhood, the other to the X-Men. In the end it’s Wolverine she truly listens to as he says ‘how about we give these geeks one more shot?’ Afterwards, Storm and Mystique both respect Rogue’s decision, part of the reason why Mystique tells Wolverine where to go to rescue Rogue.
While Rogue still gets damseled in this scenario, she is still part of the decision making that eventually gets her rescued.
That’s girl power I can get behind.
I ship it. I also ship Storm/Nightcrawler. So, yeah… awkward
Next: Spider-Man
Photos from 2000 X-Men and X-Men Evolutions.
Writing in the Skin 