Two facts about the movie that Minty didn't mention. 1: One of the action choreographers was Hong Kong stuntman and director Corey Yuen. His assistant choreographer and interpreter was a guy named Jonathan, better known as Ke Huy Quan of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. 2: Despite this being based on a comic book, Singer encouraged the cast to not read the comics for research. There was a comics loving Production Assistant who went out of his way to write and present comics based bulletpoints to the cast behind Singer's back, even convincing Jackman to say Wolverine's catchphrase "Bub", which wasn't in the original script. The PA's name is Kevin Feige, who is the mastermind behind the MCU and president of Marvel Entertainment.
@@cinemaarts8795 I heard the same thing. Although I disagree with his implied suggestion that the x-men will get renamed to the mutants in the mcu. I disagree with that move because from a marketing perspective, everyone knows them as the x-men, so it would be kind of silly not to caplitalize off the name people are already familiar with.
Viggo Mortensen didn't want to commit to a multiple picture deal....but shortly after became a last minute replacement for one of the lead roles in one of the biggest multi picture deals of all time.
Yeah but there was alot of extensive reshoots in post production so the actors were contracted to be available. My mate worked on LOTR trilogy as a vfx artist and co supervisor he said there were a few reshoots and were under time pressure to get Twin towers completed
Translation. He had no faith in the X-men movie doing well at the time because of the stigma that "Batman and Robin" left on the genre, so him turning it down for that reason was obviously just an excuse if he was willing to partake in another multi picture deal outside of x-men later on.
@@getoffthisrocktravel2054 And Ian McKellen was LOTR too, as Gandalf. But also was Magneto in the X-Men movies. Not the X-Men First Class movie though.
Gotta thank Russel Crow for casting Jackman as Wolverine. These movie studios should realize that an unknown actor is the best way to go as long as they look the part and can act.
Yeah, especially for iconic preexisting characters. If they'd gotten Crow, then it would have just been Russel Crow _playing_ Wolverine, but with Jackman, it *IS* Wolverine. Sure, in later roles, he's just Hugh Jackman (the Wolverine actor) playing a part, but whenever he goes back to it, he *is* Wolverine again. I think of it as the "Christopher Reeve Effect".
The scene where Wolverine threatens the drunk guy at the bar by slowly extending his middle claw towards his throat is iconic, as those claws were nothing short of convincing - unlike the cartoon claws in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine was a mess, which is a shame because there are some good performances in there, the cast was trying but the script was terrible. I think it had to do with the writer's strike at the time. Anyway the next Wolverine movies were excellent and made up for it.
My son was a pre-teen when the X-Men cartoon came out in the 90s. I watched it with him to make sure it wasn't something I didn't think he needed to watch, and got hooked myself. It was a good storyline with good values. I wish more shows today were made this way. Even today, he's a huge X-Men fan.
Shouldnt there be an ❗after prefer cause the question was what would you prefer? Yellow spandex! Would that not be prober punctuation??? Just wondering
Another interesting fact: the truck driver who dropped Rogue off at the bar where Wolverine fought in the cage arena was played by George Buza who voiced Beast in the animated series. Buza wasn't gonna be the only voice actor from the cartoon to be in the movie, Gambit voice actor Chris Potter who also played Peter Caine in Kung-Fu: Legend Continues auditioned to play Cyclops
I met Chris potter and most of the animated cast in Chicago this year-I loved Gambit and was really happy to get my comics signed-He was very very nice(also remembered him from Kung-Fu series) and did not realize Catherine Disher(whom I watched in Forever Knight)voiced Jean. It was a great day for me.
Wow, someone else remembers Kung Fu: The Legend Continues! Another weird thing is that Lenore Zahn, who played Rogue, later became a Canadian politician.
That's interesting I can see that actor from Kung Fu legend continues.. he 1:50 played a cop and he was Cain's son yes. He would have been a little older I think like his early 30s maybe. He had presents and he was kind of tougher looking.. the face and voice he could have rocked a visor and still been a standout. I love Cyclops and I always watched Kung.
I wish they would have kept the extended classroom scene. Storm is giving a history lesson about a Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity to stop the persecution of Christians in Rome, which is good foreshadowing to what magneto is planning.
Agreed. I recall that episode where Wolverine admits he is catholic to Nightcrawler. Also, now I finally know why Rogue acted more like Jubilee because it was originally supposed to be her.
I was hooked on the first X-Men from the opening credits. Hearing Prof. X's monologue about humans versus mutants as well as the intensity of the scene of a young Magneto being separated from his parents was amazing. But once Wolverine entered the movie I was sold. The movie could've ended with the scene where Cyclops and Storm save Wolverine and Rouge I would've left the theater completely satisfied. I still enjoy watching that scene alone from time to time. When Wolverine senses something's off, raises his eyes, takes two whiffs and extracts his claws, I get goosebumps. Regarding Dougray Scott, I'd heard that Dougray got hurt while filming Mission Impossible 2, which prevented him from appearing in the X-Men movie but I looked it up and apparently Dougray partially blames Tom Cruise for not letting him do both projects. Apparently they were knee-deep into the production of MI: 2 and Dougray wanted to split his time but Cruise refused to let him go. I don't know if that's just sour grapes from Scott but I do find it interesting that history would repeat itself with Cavill being unable to shave his mustache for Whedon's Justice League reshoots. Anyway, clearly Jackman was meant to play Wolverine, so no matter how it shook out things were supposed to turn out the way they did.
Storm was not in the background. The character Storm is always cautious and holding back, because her powers are amazingly destructive if fully unleashed.
It was a dream come true to see Patrick Stewart taking on the role of Professor Xavier, Hugh Jackman was great as Wolverine, and mystique's makeup was fantastic.
Patrick Stewart as Professor X rates as the biggest no-brainer casting in the history of cinema. That part was cast by everyone the moment TNG hit the air a decade earlier, regardless of director. It’s why Bryan Singer didn’t bother trying to cast anyone else in the role at the time.
If you wanna get technical. Blade walked so Marvel could run. Since Marvel was dying and Blade helped save it's life and ultimately started the comic book movie phase.
Yeah they were definitely dying. They sold movie rights for a mere 15,000. Can you imagine?! And the irony that New Line Cinema made the movie who's parent company Time Warner also owned DC Comics
I do remember when Blade came out and everyone was shocked over how it was actually really good. Rumour has it, Blade's success saved Marvel and definitely helped get X-Men and Spiderman made.
X-Men was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, but lost to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film was also successful at the 27th Saturn Awards where it won categories for Best Science Fiction Film, Director (Bryan Singer), Actor (Hugh Jackman), Supporting Actress (Rebecca Romijn), Writing (David Hayter), Costumes. Nominations included Best Supporting Actor (Patrick Stewart), Performance by a Younger Actor (Anna Paquin), Special Effects, and Make-up. Singer also won the Empire Award for Best Director.
I worked with a lot of the X-Men crew on some smaller films and commercials. I heard a lot about X-Men and specifically Singer. Something interesting that I heard from multiple people is that Jackman is such a nice guy, he would help out the crew on set. He knew the crew by name and everybody loved him. Very nice guy. Very humble.
Met a few crew members when they were filming something where I was working and they said the same thing, Jackman would shoot the shit with them and smoke cigars
Minty - this is super trippy. I had a bout of 90s superhero nostalgia yesterday and watched Episode 1 of the X-Men cartoon. I agree with your assessment that this movie wasn’t a perfect film, but did an excellent job of introducing the movie universe it existed in. McKellan and Stewart added a ton of gravitas and the ensemble cast really fleshed out the heros and villains. The Senator turning into ooze was extremely disturbing… and I liked it.
I was in my late teens to early twenties when the animated series first aired, so I appreciated it being a little more mature than other cartoons, like the Japanese anime I was getting into at the time. I read a novel called Planet X which was a crossover of X-MEN and Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Storm gave Dr. Crusher the details she needed to create a holodeck recreation of Professor Xavier in his office. Seeing the rendering completed, her first thought was, "She was right, there was a resemblance." That always tickled me.
I was so excited when this came out. Being a Marvel fan during my youth I thought it was about time some Marvel characters got a film that was worthy of them. This did not disappoint. Jackman did a great job, but I just always wish someone like Russel Crowe had taken the role (I'm aware he actually passed it on to HJ).
He passed in part because he didn't wanna play a char back to back a lot like his LA Confidential character. But come on, that scene in Gladiator? "Frost-sometimes it makes the blades stick!" That would have been pure Logan.
Rogue was such an awesome character in the show. Best outfit, coolest personality. In the movie they made her even weaker than Jubilee. Such a shame. Not bringing in Gambit was also a huge fail.
I didn’t really see anything weak about her. In my opinion, she is one of the strongest characters in the story/movie because of the adversity she has endured and came out as what she is.
I have the novelization of this movie. It goes into more detail about the characters like Storm. It has a backstory about Storm and what happened when she was being whipped in her village.
Only the Young Naked Snake only then Keifer Sutherland voiced and facial capture for a middle age Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes Then Voiced as big medic for Ground zeroes then big medic turned into a mental copy and sort of body double for major Zero and Big Boss Naked Snake known as Ahab & Venom Snake. While Big boss Naked Snake runs off to build the real True Outer Heaven in Zanzibar land.also Keifer plays the voice of Big Boss Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid V: The phantom pain
The memories attached to this movie are insane for me. I was born in 1986 and this is just one of those teenager movies for me that I remember clear as day how it made me feel. Along with the first spiderman movie. The production was so brand new and a real sight of the future of movies. Magneto always has the best power too. The mute of the lift of police cars always sends chills down my spine.
If they wanted to keep the idea of alienation then why didn’t they just keep Jubilee? She was a young girl coming into her powers. Every time she got dazzled her powers would go off. A young person not knowing how to deal with her / their powers. That could’ve been ANY mutant really. They didn’t need to start with Rogue.
This is the only movie to date that i saw 6 times at the cinema, my local Odean even had Tyler Mane (Sabertooth) come and do an opening, i got his signiture, tall guy, very imposing but so friendly. I remember getting goosebumps at the introduction of youg Eric in the camp and whispering the name of each mutant as they first appeared on screen and just being super excited by this movie, as a massive fan of the 90s animated series i couldn't wait for this movie and i am excited about the figure line up for X-Men 97 to, i also had figures for this movie, the weird rubber faces on Wolverine and Sabertooth so you could get them to look like they were snarling, one toy i always wanted was Wolverine on Cyclops bike but i never found in my local toy store.
While this and several other Fox X-Men films took a lot of Liberties with the material I really do enjoy this first X-Men film a lot. It's just a fun under 2 hours Magneto vs Xavier X-Men versus the Brotherhood movie with a straightforward plot. It's not super complex but it's filled with likeable characters and some fun action and that really overshadows the occasional wonky effects and not so comic accurate details.
The first X-Men film managed to be a fantastic movie while also having to be a movie that sets up the entire franchise, and explain to normies what the X-Men universe is all about.
Hugh Jackman was detained at Pearson International (Toronto) when his prop claws gave security reason to search his luggage after they saw them during X-Ray. It was during the audition period, but the guards got photos and autographs anyhow. It was a small blurb in my local newspaper.
When this film came out, my brother and I were in college, and he took me to the theater to watch it. He was a comic book fan and I knew nothing of the series. We both thoroughly enjoyed the film. This was my introduction to Hugh Jackman and James Marsden - and all of the actors really suited their roles perfectly. And every time I see that water politician in any other roles, I feel like he’s going to turn into water. ((*shudder*))
For me, personally, X2 is so good, it makes the first one actually suck in comparison. As a writer, this has become my motto for the kind of sequels storytellers should be striving for.
Awesome video Minty. One of my favourite movies ever. I still laugh when I hear the line where Wolverine says “you actually go outside in these things” And cyclops replies “what would you prefer yellow spandex”
in the 80's, after seeing his portrayal of Billy in the movie Predator, I was sold on Sonny Landham playing Wolverine. I swear when I was a kid I expected his character in Predator to Snikt out some claws. :)
I think KAENU REEVES would be a great choice for WOLvERINE and even Daniel Radcliffe but they not way be better then Hugh JACKMAN no one can replace him as WoLVERINE
Oddly enough you see Jubilee & Shadowcat (Kitty Pryde), both characters who Rouge was morphed into, in the American version. You see them both in Storm's class. And Kitty runs through a door to get her book from Professor X's office. David Hayter is also the voice actor most associated with Solid Snake, from the Metal Gear Solid series. He also wrote the script for X2 & based it loosely on the X-Men graphic novel; God Loves, Man Kills. Tyler Mane the actor who plays Sabretooth was a former professional wrestler. Jackman found working with him easy as Mane had so much experience "fighting" someone without hurting them. Mane went on to play Michael Myers. Rebecca Romijn actually injured scene partner Bruce Davison (Senator Kelly) in the helicopter. Davison did not complain. Romijn found out later. And unlike Jennifer Lawrence, Romijn spent countless hours in make-up for all 3 films. I met Ray Park once & asked him if he would've like have been Wolverine given his closer height & build & background in martial arts. He said he offered, just as Minty there was no actor tied to Wolverine. They told him someone was on the way & Jackman's convincing American accent being the thing that put him over. Neither Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen knew how to play chess, Singer assumed both of them would know how since they were both "English Gentleman" as he put it. So they both had to be taught what to do, so pieces weren't moved improperly. And if i remember correctly this is the movie where Hugh Jackman cut a stunt performer. He had 2 different sets of claws. One metal, the other foam. They had figure out a martial arts style for using claws, so it was new to everyone involved. Although Hugh Jackman is a dancer & a former PE teacher, they had a trainer get him into a shape. He 5'3" & loved Wolverine. He kept calling Jackman Logan & Wolverine the entire time. Famke Jannsen had previously worked with Patrick Stewart. She appeared on a Single Episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where Jean Luc Picard falls madly in love with her, but she is betrothed to someone else as part of peace deal. A peace deal, Picard has to oversee on behalf of the Federation. Not long after, Hugh Jackman & Halle Berry went on to co-star in Swordfish.
I'm surprised at minty didn't mention that originally before Wolverine got his origins in the comic book anytime he was shown an animated series the character Wolverine with portrayed as Australian yes Marvel Comics intended for Wolverine to be from Australia Wolverine makes his first animated series appearance in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends season 3 episode 7 I think the episode was called the X-Men Adventures or the X-Men's reunions Wolverine was depicted with an Australian accent then a year later for the pride of the X-Men pilot Wolverine again was depicted with an Australian accent when Stan Lee was interviewed about the pride of the X-Men he stated that Wolverine origin was that he was from Australia he also stated in the DVD extras for the 2000 X-Men film that he felt it was a sign when Hugh Jackman was hired because he always felt that they should have kept Wolverine an Aussie but it was Jim Lee who created The Wolverine Saga which made Wolverine Canadian. So yeah up until the Wolverine Saga then later X-Men the Animated Series Wolverine was always meant to be Australian.
This was a great new picture into do comic related movies. It wasn't until 2008 when I had finally had a chance to watch it, and it was impressive. I do agree, that X-men II was better, but being first, it provides a picture on how this series goes. Patrick Stewart was perfect in playing the roll of Xavier and that was another reason for giving me interest in watching it. Gives me more reason to see it again.
However, the Remy LeBeau name was shown on a list of mutants in X2, the scene where Mystique was looking through "short n fat" Stryker's computer files, while posing as Deathstrike. Then Gambit is actually shown in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, when Blob tells Logan and Will I. Am's character, to go to New Orleans to find him, and he'd fly them to "tall n thin" Stryker's facility, but they get off on the wrong foot with him there, and also run across former partner Sabretooth, and it's the end of the line for WIA's character, so it ends up being just Logan, getting the plane ride from Gambit. 🤷
Bit miffed we never got Mr. Sinster in any of the films despite being teased! I mean the guy exudes evil and is a great character but then again who would play him? Loved his outfit BTW.
In the UK and Australia, it totally *is* the figure used instead of 300 billion as in the US. Though if you it could not be an accurate figure for this movie, then yeah you are right. That would be an awful lot of profit obtained by one movie. Hollywood would love it if that were true though.
I think this movie was key to getting Marvel based movies mainstream appeal. Blade was Marvel's first truly successful movie which got the company on track, but it was more horror and rated-R. X-men made superhero films a mainstay and Spider-man really made them yearly blockbusters. I think X2 was the best superhero movie of the first, post 2000s wave of movies prior to TDK and the MCU films. I even liked it better than SM1 and SM2.
"Blade was Marvel *_(property)_* 's first truly successful movie..." It was the first successful comic book-esque movie. X-Men and Raimi Spidermen made the comic book superhero popular again. Marvel wasn't the juggernaut its become until Iron Man. The three Hulk films of the 2000's sucked.
@@Eyesorecrymore Whoops. My mistake. Think I counted the Ang Lee film as separate to the Eric Bana film. Both bad. They just haven't made an entertaining antagonist for Hulk.
This movie was a long time coming, I also was introduced to the X Men through the Fox series cartoon and loved it! The trailer for this movie was great, it came on the TV as breaking news/ live TV. I didn’t even know they were making an X Men film I’ve never seen another film trailer debut like that since it was pretty cool at the time.
i dont think most people realized it but the dark pheonix was hinted in the first movie, if you pay attention, it is magnetos machine that wakes her up, and you see a dedicated camera shot of her looking concerned after the fight
Even so it was an extremely subtle moment that doesn't take away from the standalone quality of the first film, so even if it was being hinted at then people aren't likely to notice until after the fact. It was X2 where Singer was really wanting to make the most unavoidably obvious teases for Dark Phoenix showing Jean tapping into some mysterious power throughout the sequel up until her sacrifice at the end, only for the payoff for it in The Last Stand to end up not being the Dark Phoenix adaptation fans would have been expecting and the first big disappointment in the franchise.
@@nicksorenson940 i was mentioning it cause in the video he explains what the original script might have and the fact the phoenix was supposed to b there and all but there might have been remnants of it in it.
Pretty sure Jean Grey was always known as “Jean Grey”, that’s her given name. Her code names were Marvel Girl, Phoenix, Dark Phoenix and White Phoenix.
Been a lifelong fan of the X-Men in both comic, cartoon and film form. It's sad how they've fallen in the movie verse with the recent terrible entries. Hoping they make an epic comeback...
I remember when this first came out, so many people were convinced that John (Pyro) was actually Johnny Storm, the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four. Their argument was always "Storm calls him John, so he must be Johnny Storm". I would point out Pyro's real name was also John, and that Pyro can only control fire, but not create fire, which it is shown he has to use a lighter.
The Hugh miss here is that Jackman originally was going to turn down the role, until he wife convinced him to take the role. She told him that both Ian and Patrick were involved in the film and he had always wanted to work with them in theater. He would later end up befriending both of them, after taking the part.
Originally I hated this movie for not being like the Animated X-Men but over time I have learned to like it the more I learn about X-Men the movie the better it becomes.
Yes, I agree. It was weird not seeing Wolverine in his yellow spandex and black mask over his eyes. But Hugh Jackman made him iconic with his hair and long sideburns
@@nsasupporter7557fsc5 dud you know Tim burton and Joel shumchsckwr are at oping ging to direct this yrh imginnthe xmdn hxvunv um nipples on thier suit wel fane chrdctod it would make sense
The first X Men movie when I first saw was played like a extended trailer as had been admitted by Director Singer who stated that the 2nd movie X2 was the real X Men that he wanted to make. This was of course the breakout role for Hugh Jackman and one that he would become iconic for, despite not being short and stocky as he was depicted in the comic books 📚.
I’d like to see a X-Force movie. Deadpool is my guy though and the X-Force joke team in Deadpool 2 got me, I was stoked for about five minutes and then they all got got lol. They’ll probably never do it but I got into X-Force through the Deadpool limited series comics. The story line in the comics about a virus that was offing mutants could make an interesting movie. I was legit sad when Multiple Man got sick and died in the comics. I think X-Force could be an R rated team comic movie.
It might have been fun to have seen Storm go through her belief that she was a goddess of weather over the three movies, but I can understand why they didn't.
I think the reason the X-Men movie worked was because it was primarily a science fiction movie and only tangentially a "superhero" movie. I feel the best movies of the superhero genre are actually dramas, horror, or a different primary genre that draws in normie and geek alike. Now that we have people making Superhero specific movies we are seeing failing box office numbers.
The first X-Men movie is without doubt the best one in the series. I remember seeing the movie on Home Video I absolutely love it. The reason why I love was because at the time of release the Popular video game Marvel VS. Capcom 2 was released on Dreamcast.
Even though I have some fond memories when I first saw this movie in theaters, there are flaws that bother me, like Sabretooth not feeling like Wolverine's personal archenemy and Rogue as a mousey dweep instead of a badass tomboy like in the cartoons. But I like her as a moody goth in the later cartoons, which fits with her issues with her powers. I hope the MCU does a better adaptation of the X-Men... as long as they don't screw it up like they did Spiderman.