00:00The first X-Men still stands today as one of the most mature superhero films in its approach,
00:04combining the social problems we know with the future of the mutants presented to us here.
00:09The film begins in the horror of the concentration camps.
00:12Young Eric Lencher is torn from his mother's arm,
00:14and in his anger, destroyed an iron gate without even touching it.
00:18Magneto was born in suffering and hatred,
00:20judged and marked as different from other human beings as Jews,
00:24and later as mutants.
00:26He knows that humans fear what they do not know,
00:28and he knows that sooner or later, what happened to his people will happen to mutants.
00:32He then enters into a certain extremism and sets out to transform all humans into mutants,
00:37which he believes will eradicate all forms of discrimination.
00:40Only, facing him stand the X-Men,
00:43headed by Professor Charles Xavier,
00:45Magneto's longtime friend, but also his greatest adversary.
00:49Both campaign for mutant rights,
00:51the difference being that one advocates living together,
00:53peace between two species,
00:55when the other, more fatalistic, imposes his vision, whatever the cost.
00:59This duality constitutes the heart of the film,
01:02and she is introduced to us in a shot-reverse shot which does not oppose the two characters,
01:05but isolates them on the same side of the frame,
01:07as if to emphasize that they are fighting for the same cause.
01:09At their second meeting, after an hour of film,
01:12the staging makes them confront each other differently.
01:14The two are now separated by a group of humans,
01:16which in some way hinders their friendship.
01:18The only point that diverges in their respective speeches,
01:21adapt to humans or destroy them.
01:23The complicity of the two characters is no more.
01:25Charles knows Eric's plans,
01:27and must protect humanity.
01:29His status as a hero is therefore established.
01:31He is a man who will fight prejudices to know,
01:34understand your neighbor to better accept him.
01:37In X-Men, mutants are a social problem,
01:39and Bryan Singer makes this clear through his staging.
01:42The political stakes are obvious,
01:44and it refers to our current problems related to discrimination
01:47that different minorities experience.
01:48Senator Kelly, in the film,
01:50wants to be able to find and differentiate mutants from so-called "normal" human beings.
01:54It refers to the dark hours of the Shoah,
01:56but also refers to a real US senator,
01:58a certain Joseph McCarthy,
02:00who wanted to flush out and differentiate the communists on American soil in the early 1950s,
02:04causing a wave of paranoia,
02:06and a kind of witch hunt throughout the country.
02:08The film has a real political bias,
02:11and that is where he draws his strength,
02:12that it differentiates itself from its competitors.
02:14It is entertaining, but thought-provoking,
02:16pushes us to question the various societal issues.
02:18And of course, colorful characters gravitate around this,
02:22superheroes.
02:23Some relatively insignificant,
02:25like Tornado and Cyclops, not very well developed,
02:27but others rather interesting to follow,
02:29like Mary,
02:30a teenage girl discovering her powers,
02:31which no longer allow him to touch anyone,
02:34under penalty of killing him.
02:35Because that is also the mutation,
02:36a metaphor for puberty.
02:38Something that changes us forever,
02:40and which is difficult to adapt to at first.
02:42There is also of course Logan,
02:44who will take Mary under his wing,
02:45but who will also have to heal his own internal wounds,
02:48no longer remembering his past life.
02:50Wolverine will be the big discovery of the film,
02:52will become one of the most popular characters in cinema,
02:55and Hugh Jackman will owe his international career to him.
02:58The action, on the other hand, is not really the film's strong point,
03:00which has not necessarily aged excessively.
03:03I mean, we still see that there.
03:05And that still has an effect today.
03:07This kind of texture there.
03:09So yes, we feel like we are in 2000,
03:11but it's still better than that, for example.
03:16Where the film is dated is in certain sets.
03:19Magneto's secret lair,
03:20we are not far from discovering that he is boring him to the Doctor of Hell.
03:23Contact me, the president!
03:25Because yes, if today we had the right to the original costumes,
03:28because everything is pop, vintage and colorful,
03:30At the time, the artistic direction decided not to use them.
03:33We are on something much darker,
03:35and it's consistent with the tone the film adopts.
03:37You can't start with a black and white scene in a concentration camp.
03:40and finish with fluorescent lycra.
03:43It could easily be considered bad taste.
03:45Personally, I don't care that the film doesn't respect the source material.
03:49And I would even say more, it is the whole principle of an adaptation.
03:52The medium is different, the author's vision is different,
03:55so the work must be as well.
03:57And the bet will pay off, since the film will be a success,
04:00and will have, with Sam Raimi's Spider-Man,
04:02undeniably changed the industry and paved the way for superhero genres.
04:06For better or for worse.
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