Tommy Olsen: My Favorite Mutants!

#10 X-Men

List of Movies: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X3: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class

Why I love these movies:

I was first introduced to X-Men when I was really young through trading cards, and the awesome 90’s cartoon. As a kid the X-Men were probably my second favorite super heroes. After the 90’s show was over I didn’t really think much about X-Men again until 2000, which was when the first X-Men movie came out.

I saw the movie opening day when I was 11, with my brothers and cousins up in Utah, and I absolutely loved it! Immedeitly after the movie, we were in my cousins backyard pretending like we were our favorite X-men, battling it out. All we could talk about the last few days of our trip was X-men. To me then it was simply just a fun action movie with people and their cool powers, but since then I have learned that these movies are much more than that.

I love X-Men because first of all the concept of humans with special powers has always been so fascinating to me. Like most people who watch these movies I too wish I had some awesome mutant powers (who wouldn't?) I also really like the team aspect of them as well, because with most superhero movies there's usually just one hero.

One of my favorite things about these movies is they teach us great moral messages, as well entertain. These films are an allegory in some way of how mankind has always struggled with understanding each other. In our world we don’t have mutants with crazy powers running around, but each and every one of us does have someone who is different from us.

One of the biggest conflicts in these movies is that humans and mutants don’t try and understand each other, and in our world we do the same thing to one another. These movies show the two opposing sides very well. Magneto fears that humans will destroy mutants out of fear, and he believes that in order to prevent that he needs to take the humans out first. The humans fear the same thing about the mutants. Then we have Professor X, and the X-Men who stand for something different. They believe that mutants and humans can live together. I think sometimes we are like Magneto, when something or someone is different from us we get offended, and then defensive, and then we think that those that are different are bad, and we become aggressive to them. Rather than being offended or aggressive to those who are different, we should take the approach of Professor X, and try to understand those who are different.

These films are also great because not only are they great action films, but they also show the bad side of discrimination and racism. It shows that we should not fear those that are different from us; rather we should seek to understand them. I think this is a message that we as a society can easily forget, and we all can use a reminder of it from time to time. Through in some awesome action sequences and great message like this, and you've got one awesome movies series!

Favorite Film: X2: X-Men United

X2 is easily the best of the series for numerous reasons. I think that it demonstrates the best the message that I mentioned above. It is the most complete and well rounded, and has an amazing story. Along with that it has some the best action sequences of all the X-men movies, such as the opening scene with Nightcrawler, and Wolverine going ballistic. While the first has the problem of having to introduce all the characters, this one is able to hit the ground running. Out of all the movies it feels the most like what I imagine a X-men movie should feel like.

A close second is First Class. This was a solid entry to the series that brought a fresh approach to the X-Men films that may have been lost from the films before it. It shows the struggles of mutants trying to accept themselves and their new gifts, and at the same time trying to find a place in the world. I know a lot of people didn’t like X3, but it is my third favorite. My biggest complaint was that it was too darn short, and they didn’t give some of the characters anything to do. With that said the reason I like it is because it has the most dramatic scenes out of the whole series, like when Jean Gray blows up Professor X! Man, who else didn’t see that coming? A student killing off her mentor/father figure (I won’t lie I shed a small tear the first time I saw that part, haha).

Another tear jerking moment is when Wolverine has to kill Jean at the very end. Pretty intense and dramatic stuff. X-Men 1, my fourth favorite, was great because it introduces all the characters and the concept, but it’s a little outdated when you watch it now. Despite that, it does a great job of bring the characters to life, and it makes them believable. The Wolverine movie just wasn’t that great. Hugh Jackman was outstanding as always, but the rest of it just wasn’t done very well.

Final Rankings: