I have always enjoyed films that show the origins / beginnings of something, in fact I particularly enjoyed the movie showing the origins of Wolverine and this time the beginnings of Professor X and Magneto were quite extensively explained. The movie starts with Magneto as a young boy in 1944 showing his powers of magnetism at a Nazi ghetto camp. He is spotted by Bernard Shaw, a German scientist and so the next day, he forces the child to move a metal coin on his desk and when he is unable to do so Shaw kills the boy’s mother. In rage, the boy (named Erik Lensherr) kills two guards and destroys the entire room. Meanwhile, Charles Xavier is shown as a young boy meeting another mutant – Raven / Mystique posing as his mother. Charles, instead of getting mad at the mutant girl got so excited finally meeting someone ‘different’ like him so he persuades Mystique to live with his family.
The movie shifts to present day in 1962 with Erik Lensherr as a young man, forcing a banker to trace the address of gold shipment for Shaw in Argentina. Apparently, Erik is still trying to get back at Shaw and is shown next killing three men also from the Nazi camp. Charles Xavier, on the other hand is now an Oxford University graduate with a thesis on mutation. In Las Vegas, Nevada Shaw is shown with US Army Colonel Henry whom he is threatening to force the to US install some missiles in Turkey.
Meanwhile, due to his thesis, Xavier is tapped by CIA agent Moira Mactaggart for help with mutants and together they are able to track down Shaw. At that time, Eric has also been tracking Shaw and moves to attack him but he fails and is saved instead by Xavier when Shaw escapes in a submarine. Eric then decides to join Xavier and Raven in the CIA facility where they meet Hank, another mutant. Hank created the prototype for the cerebro machine which they use to track down other mutants to recruit and stop Shaw.
Eric and Xavier go off to a Russian camp thinking Shaw would be going there but instead Shaw sends Frost whom they capture to learn Shaw's evil plans. Instead, Shaw attacks their hideout at the CIA facility and recruits Angel and kills another mutant, Darwin. When Xavier and Eric return, they start training the mutants to harness their powers in a battle with Shaw and his team.
The battle at sea begins with both US and USSR not knowing they are being played by Shaw to fight against each other and begin a World War. But Xavier and his rag-tag team of mutants come to save them from being pitted against each other. Xavier mind-controls a Russian ship to strike at the missile ship being controlled by Shaw and his men. Eric meanwhile searches for Shaw and finds him in a submarine which he pulled out of the water. When Eric was able to successfully get Shaw’s helmet, Xavier takes control of Shaw but what Xavier didn’t foresee was Eric putting on the helmet himself and killing Shaw with ‘the coin’.
When Eric comes out of the submarine, Xavier tries to convince him to stop the madness he is planning to do. But Eric countered that they are being attacked by the humans they have just desperately tried to save. So Eric holds the missiles in the air and deflects them back to the humans that launched them (both the American and Russian fleets). Xavier tries desperately to distract Eric to stop the missiles from hitting its targets and in the ensuing fight, Xavier is hit by a bullet fired by CIA agent Moira that paralyzes him from the waist down.
In the end, Xavier fails to convince Eric to return to their team and so Eric leaves with Raven, Angel, Riptide and Azazel in a bid to dominate the Earth. Xavier meanwhile puts up a school for mutants in an old mansion while confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. The last scene shows Magneto in his new uniform (still wearing the helmet that could block Xavier’s thoughts) breaking Frost out of the CIA prison.
In summary, suffice it to say that I love the entire X-men franchise - all three previous films and the origins with Wolverine. This would definitely be included in the list of movies in original DVD that I want to own/buy someday. This particular movie was dazzling in its use of effects and the numerous characters it introduced and explained their beginnings. I just hope the next installment to the franchise would be just as spectacular and the characters all the more interesting. I also hope to get a copy of the original X-men cartoons or even an e-book of the comic book (if any). Truly I am admittedly a die-hard X-MEN fan!
[photo/poster grabbed from IMDB]
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