Even though Blade was the first Marvel Comic Book movie to succeed before the first X-Men movie was released on July 14th 2000. Blade was never viewed as a Marvel superhero. Most general audience at the time didn’t know he was a Marvel Comic Book character. One of the reasons Batman had four movies from 1989 to 1997 was because he did not have superpowers. It was easy to do a Blade movie because it was easy to bring vampires to life on screen espically in the late 80s and into the 90s. Marvel Comics most popular superheroes all have powers and the technology for movies wasn’t their until the very late 90s to really bring the Marvel characters to life on the big screen.
Film companies tried to do a Captain America movie in 1990 but it didn’t work out. One film industry tried a Fantastic Four movie but was visually a disaster, an became a bootleg movie to was pass around at Cons. The Hulk TV series had a body builder to play the popular hero because the technology visually wasn’t there in the 80s. Even though Superman was a success in the late 70s the technology wasn’t there yet for him to really believe he could fly. The Lois and Clark tv series in the 90s had Superman jump of screen to fly an some times use recognizable digital for him to fly. Even the visually bad Spider-Man didn’t look great on TV.
I remember as a kid when they were finally doing an X-Men movie. I was so excited because I was a huge fan of the 90s animated series. When the first trailer was released I couldn’t believe how awesome it look because it was and still feels like The X-Men I am familiar with from the animated series. Even though the X-Men didn’t wear their colorful costumes like the animated series or from the comic books. The characters personalities was their and their powers looked fantastic on screen. Especially Rebecca Romijain transformarion as Mystique.
Even though the X-Men movies had it’s own universe. It still introduce the audience to the Marvel universe in live action form for the first time in 2000. The success of the X-Men movie brought a ton Marvel movies after that. From the Tobey McGuire Spider-Man trilogy, 2003’s Hulk, Ben Affleck’s Daredevil, Nicholas Cage Ghost Rider, 2 Punisher movies, 2 Fantastic Four movies, and 6 more X-Men movies, and 5 spinoffs.
Even though many of those movies are seen as misses or did not do well at the box offices. They all help Kevin Feige and Marvel Comics to develop Marvel Studios and introduce the MCU audience know today as giant success. Many people probably don’t know Kevin Feige was involved in the early 2000s Marvel movies starting with the first X-Men movie. The first X-Men movie in my opinion is the best X-Men movie to date. The movie had so many awesome moments. Espically the fight scene with Wolverine and Mystique.
I know many people might love X-Men 2 more but the first X-Men movie fleshed out a lot of things that fans loved about the world of X-Men. They took the material from the comic books and introduce the world they have never seen before on the big screen. Fox brought a lot of heart into the first movie and it paid off big time. Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijain-Stamos, Anna Paquin, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, and James Marsden became house hold names with X-Men fans, comic book fans and movie audiences whenever they appear in their latest movie or tv series today.
One of the biggest and best villains of all time in the comic book world is Magneto. The character is played by Ian McKellen, who’s performance is one of the biggest highlights from the first movie. His performance in the first X-Men movie is menacing and intimidating when the X-Men team goes up against him and his team of Brother Hood of Mutans in the movie.
His performance and Patrick Stewart performance as Charles Xavier is straight out of a comic book page with how they perform their scenes together. They show their mutual respect for one another but will do anything to prevent each other’s vision for the Mutan race to come true. One of my favorite moments from the first X-Men movie was the little jabs between Cyclops and Wolverine because it something I’ve read from the comic books and from animated series.
My overall option is that the first X-Men movie highlighted a lot of elements as to why the X-Men is very popular today and why the movie aged very well 20 years later. The case is still made why this movie is still the best X-Men movie. Who knows what Kevin Feige, and Disney has plan for the X-Men in the MCU but hopefully they bring back something familiar that fans loved about the first X-Men movie.
My Comic Book Opinion 