I have never (that I can recall) read any of the comic books this movie is based on, so I can say that I watched it with an unbiased mind, at least concerning the comparison of the characters as they are known to their fans, and the movie's concepts of the characters. Though I did not think the movie was that bad — I was entertained, in any case — it did not really work, and was an altogether lopsided affair.

Despite the rather sketchy treatment given to most of the characters (exceptions were the Magneto of Ian McKellan and Rogue, played by Anna Paquin), it was still possible to develop sympathy for them and their plight. But the main problem was that the part of Magneto, the villain, was the most detailed role, and thus the most sympathetic one. Making the villain more sinned against than sinning is no longer a new, shocking Hollywood development, but is now par for the course (a glaring example of this, I believe, is Hannibal, but I have not seen that movie). Even Magneto's attempt to kill the child Rogue is offset by the sympathy the plot has set us up to feel for Magneto, and by the fact that Rogue's powers are somehow more frightening than Magneto's: he can bend metal, but she can kill with just a touch.

The acting was generally good, or at least inoffensive. As I said, most of the parts are only sketched in, and perhaps one needs to be a Shakespearean actor like Mr. McKellan or Patrick Stewart (who plays Professor Xavier, though this part is so underwritten that even Mr. Stewart could not make him more than a kindly cipher) to put flesh on these bones. I have had complaints from others who have seen the movie that the part of Wolverine (played by Hugh Jackson) made the character into a nonentity with no motivation; this is not the fault of the actor, who does as well by the part as possible, but the makers of the film. They simply did not give him enough to say or do for us to understand what lay behind his apparent cynicism. The character of Rogue here basically exists to fill the part of threatened child-woman in need of rescue, but Anna Paquin at least makes her seem like a real girl.