Les Misérables 

Well, I guess Marvel is back. After throwing its hat into the television ring with miniseries Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki, the superhero media assembly line has returned to the silver screen with Black Widow. So is this a review of the long-overdue solo feature for the only woman in the comic behemoth’s original Avengers cinematic lineup? Of course not, silly. It is a retrospective on one of the first Marvel properties to be immortalized on film, 2000’s X-Men, which set the stage for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (despite being produced by 20th Century Fox, not Marvel Studios).

The X-Men franchise is about mutants, people who have gained superpowers through accelerated genetic mutations. The 2000 movie features a strong ensemble cast: Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Sir Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier, Halle Berry as Storm, James Marsden as Cyclops, Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, and Sir Ian McKellen as Magneto. The gruff, immortal Wolverine and the anxious young Rogue find themselves in the middle of an ideological battle between Professor X with his school where he teaches mutants to control their powers, and Magneto’s ring of mutants hell-bent on protecting mutants’ rights, by any means possible.

It’s a fairly straightforward premise, but its lasting cultural impact is so much more complicated. The main value of the movie is as an allegory for real-life oppression, with strong parallels between anti-mutant sentiment and actual ableism and homophobia. Professor X is one of the most powerful and well-known wheelchair users in cinema history and Cyclops must wear a visor over his laser eyes. The fear, shame, and secrecy of the mutant community mirror emotions felt by so many queer people discovering their identities, and sometimes the avarice from non-mutants seems referential of the stigma around the AIDS crisis. 

The subtext is no accident. The X-Men comics feature a large handful of explicitly queer characters, so the movie is actually toned down in comparison. Gay icon McKellen gives an incredible performance, and he and Stewart make Magneto and Professor X out as lovers torn apart by tragic irreconcilable worldviews. Wolverine and Cyclops have a combative kind of chemistry as well. The film’s unapologetic melodrama, aided by the stage-acting experience of McKellen, Stewart, and Jackman, makes it delightfully campy, which is, as my lesbian sister-in-law said about a dozen times when we watched the film last month, gay culture. 

And director Bryan Singer is gay! That’s a good thing, right? WRONG! Singer is a terrible representative of the gay community! He has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting numerous young men and boys over the course of his career, including on the X-Men set, triggering something of a mutiny behind the scenes. So many queer people have found comfort and visibility in X-Men, and I would also be complaining if a straight director was given the reins, but it’s a total shame that Singer still has a career and there is no excuse for enabling a predator.