Not going to argue that the Fox films have mighty flaws, or that their casting and production were inept. It’s been almost twenty years, we know what happened and at whose feet to lay the blame. Storm should absolutely tower over everyone like an Amazon goddess, Wolvy needs to be stumpy, and Rogue must be a good-time gal with a loud Southern accent - while I don’t believe lore is written in stone, some things are integral.
But when in comes to the first X-Men movies, it wasn’t all trash, and in fact on a close rewatch there is much to admire in these films. The style of them is often lauded, but kudos should also go to the co-writers & editors for their pacing and narrative choices, which made for an almost seamless political action film (a difficult line to walk).
Script-to-screen the casting was fine for the younger characters, such as Bobby Drake. Ok, they weren’t facsimiles of the hep 1960s OG versions, or the gaudy grimdark 80s-90s ones; but, why would they be? These were mid-‘00s movies. Though I’m a reader of the comic books, I didn’t even mind that the Pyro of those films had his comics-canon name, ethnicity, and appearance drastically changed and was played by an older actor (well, the second time around *sweats nervously*).
Stanford’s chemistry with Ashmore’s Iceman sold me on both characters, where I wasn’t a fan before (didn’t like either in the comics); it was how they would snipe at each other and undermine the other’s attempts to connect, but then gaze with sad longing when the other wasn’t looking because they couldn’t figure out all this teenaged angst and sexual confusion alongside their mutation problems and the whole political oppression deal. Much subtle and advanced acting going on, there - perhaps Stewart was giving lessons?
Singer, for all his faults, masterfully manipulated the young mutants’ arc, to suggest the bitter raging frustrations not only of the poor and abused in society, but also of LGB people when faced with persecution and downtreading - no thanks to capitulating bisexuals (Bobby), duplicitous Ts (Mystique), and meek pray-the-gay-away conversion cases (Rogue). There is a powerful allegory there, and it always surprises me when gay viewers aren’t moved by it, even to anger. It’s just a pity something so substantial had to come at the expense of strong rich characters from the comics, like Rogue. Still, for a throwaway C-plot in an introductory movie meant to hook bored tweens at the movies that summer, I think their arc was the most compelling and well-acted in X2 & X3 (until Ratner fucked it up, anyway....)
Sadly, I don’t have hopes for a repeat performance for Iceman or any of his lovers & friends, given the state of comic-book films at the moment. As a poster above sagely commented - the X-Men are politically-partisan, and that’s the one thing a mainstream film cannot be. Even Singer ran into issues with the Execs back in 2000 about how far he could push the envelope - what hope does a big budget main-platform Director have now? X-Men as ever faces the problem of "dude has a point" vs "no radicals allowed", which I think only suits underground medium such as comic books, fanfilms, cartoons and cult tv series on obscure platforms.
