Movie Crush Monday: Little C and X-men

Readers, CT mentioned in her letter this weekend, but we went to see The Greatest Showman and we are (as the kids say) shook. We love musicals as much as any former choir kid, but this one has something special to it. And ever since I have been down a rabbit hole of Hugh Jackman's musical outings. Should I have stopped before I got to Oklahoma? Probably. Did I? No. But it also means that this week I get to talk about a movie that started a trend. A movie that changed that game in superhero films. I want to follow Ms. Anna Paquin to X-men.

source IMDB

Cast your minds back a ways, if you will. In 2000 the world was different. Will Smith was the big name at the box office, and movies almost always fit neatly into simple categories. Then X-men came out and proved that a superhero movie that wasn't just Superman or Batman could be good, and maybe more importantly it could make money. If it had failed we might never have gotten the Tobey McGuire Spiderman films. And by extension most of the comic book content that we know today.

source IMDB

CT and I were huuuuuuuuge fans of the animated X-men TV show. When we played make believe she would pretend to be Jubilee and I would pretend to be Gambit with what I'm sure was an appallingly bad accent and we would fight imaginary robots and Magneto all through those long summer days. So when this movie came out we stormed the theater and probably irritated the theater workers. We had high expectations and the sort of blind faith you only find in kids. So when the movie was not in fact a perfect live-action replica of my beloved cartoon (and there was a criminal lack of Gambit) I was disappointed. But cut to a week later and I was back in the theater to see it again. This time with different expectations. I just wanted to have fun, and I did.

source IMDB

What I love every time I watch this movie I'm struck by how many truly amazing actors signed on to it, especially when X-men was not an established franchise. Anna Paquin and Hugh Jackman weren't huge stars yet (although their performances are what made this movie work), but Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen were already legends. I'm so glad they took the risk on this film, as their friendship is adorable and a joy to see. Also, rewatching this movie I couldn't help but notice how young everyone looks and man does it make me feel weird. 

source IMDB

Happy Nerdy Watching

Little C