Review of the X-Men Final Shooting Script!

Guys, here’s a review of the last X-Men shooting script posted by Stax. Read ahead but prepare for spoilers.

This "quad green" revision is dated February 18th, 2000, which is only days before principal photography wrapped, and it runs 125 pages in length (with a lot of "A, B, C" pages added in). Although my copy is missing the title page, my invaluable source advised me that this last draft was written primarily by David Hayter and that the other screenwriters who've contributed to X-MEN include: Ed Soloman (MEN IN BLACK, CHARLIE'S ANGELS), Oscar-winner Chris McQuarrie (USUAL SUSPECTS), James Schamus (THE ICE STORM), John Logan (RKO 281, GLADIATOR), and co-producer (and resident X-fan) Tom DeSanto. My source also mentioned that Andrew Kevin Walker (SE7EN) may have contributed something to the script but all I am sure about is that Walker wrote an older, unused X-MEN script several years ago. Unless you've been living in another solar system, you may know that X-MEN is directed by Bryan Singer (USUAL SUSPECTS) and is produced by Lauren Shuler-Donner and Ralph Winter. X-MEN stars Patrick Stewart, Sir Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Bruce Davison, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Ray Park and Tyler Mane. Twentieth Century Fox will release this feature film adaptation of Marvel's best-selling comic book on July 14th, 2000.

It is a grand understatement to say that X-MEN is a highly anticipated film. It is even more of an understatement to say that the buzz on this film from its inception was mixed-to-negative, thanks mostly to rampant (and SOMETIMES erroneous) Internet gossip. I am not going to recap the range of grievances that X-fans have had with this film, from the casting to the costumes to, well, just about everything. Some of these diatribes, like attacking the sexual orientation of some members of the production, have been inexcusably mean and against the spirit of tolerance that the X-Men comic has always been about. How one could be a fan of this title for years and still not understand the meaning behind it eludes me. I truly believe that many X-fans decided long ago they were going to loathe this film no matter what and just won't give it a chance. This is not to say that many fans did not have justifiable reasons to worry about the mutants' translation to the big screen. With the arguable exception of BLADE, Marvel Comics has not been blessed with good fortune regarding feature film adaptations of their most popular characters. But it doesn't help when you also have members of your own team (like Halle Berry and Famke Janssen) making less than enthusiastic comments about the project to the press before it's even released.

The worst inside offender/whiner has got to be writer Joss Whedon, who has been playing the violin for months now to any online publication that will acknowledge him. Whedon was one of several script doctors brought in to rework SOMEONE ELSE'S script so it is not like this was his baby the studio was trying to "mess with." Whedon's incessant cyber-mewling about Singer discarding his revisions just smacks of ego to me; if his hit TV series, successful films, and cult following are not enough to placate Whedon, then I don't know what is. Despite being an X-MEN fan, Whedon's take on the material was rejected by Singer. Apparently, Whedon's pages inserted a lot of pop culture references and were an attempt to make the characters "more likable." After having now read both the first and the final drafts, I can see why Bryan Singer did not want to go in that direction (if that is indeed the style Whedon had written in). The final shooting script has excised the unfunny humor and campy elements that riled so many fans that had read the early draft. I think if there were scenes inserted of Logan watching "Designing Women," as Whedon's pages are alleged to have shown, then that would have been a step back and not forward. If this last draft does not feature much of Whedon's work then that is fine by me. Meanwhile, Mr. Whedon ought to get over himself, lick his wounds, and remember that the success and opportunities he has had in the screenwriting trade is a privilege accorded to few.

After reading the final shooting draft of X-MEN, I am greatly relieved and happy to report that X-MEN (gasp!) is actually pretty good. My long-time readers from FlixBurg know that I do not hand out praise easily so my positive reaction to X-MEN should come as a bit of a surprise. True, I have always been more hopeful about this film than most. While other fanboys and fellow webmasters were wasting breath on how much Hugh Jackman did not look like Logan in his publicity shots, and how much they really wanted Russell Crowe instead, I was biding my time. Waiting for the script to come my way, waiting for the first stills and trailers. My reaction to the early images was cautious optimism. Like others, I wasn't crazy about the costumes at first; ribbed leather still makes absolutely no sense to me but it might to Michael Jackson. And why does every super-hero costume have to be ribbed? All it tells me is "Bob Ringwood was here." Note to future super-hero filmmakers: you people have ribbed more latex than Trojan. Enough already! So far I've liked both trailers, the last one more so than the first. Twentieth Century Fox released another highly anticipated genre film last summer that had great trailers for it but, alas, the final film of THE PHANTOM MENACE failed to amaze me in many fundamental ways. Thus, I was hesitant to fall for this Fox marketing ploy again and remained skeptical even after scoring not one but two different drafts of the X-MEN script within a week of each other. After reading the final shooting script, I am definitely optimistic now about X-MEN. It was not quite a "Paul on the road to Damascus" conversion but I have reaffirmed my faith!

I decided to read the final shooting script first. The other draft I had is dated February 1999, which is almost exactly one year to the day before this final draft. I found the X-MEN shooting script to be an amazingly brisk read. I won't recap its plot too much because there are dozens of other synopses available online (all based off the early draft, unfortunately) and that general storyline has remained intact. X-MEN follows Logan and Rogue as they are introduced to Professor Charles Xavier and his school for gifted mutants. Mutants are just now becoming public knowledge but already hate-mongers like Senator Robert Kelly are fanning the flames of fear. Kelly's support of the Mutant Registration Act, a government-sanctioned blacklist, is deemed the first dangerous move in the "us vs. them" struggle brewing between humans and the next step in their evolution. Eric Lensherr (yes, they use his real name in this draft) alias Magneto opposes this legislation but, unlike his old comrade Xavier, will fight mutant-bashers like Kelly "by any means necessary." (This is just one of several obvious parallels drawn from the civil rights movement, with Magneto the Malcolm X to Xavier's MLK. Mutants even refer to themselves as "brother" with Magneto's group dubbed The Brotherhood.) With the largest ever United Nations gathering scheduled be held at Ellis Island to discuss the "mutant phenomenon," Magneto intends on making a "statement" there. He has a secret weapon that will teach the world's leaders first hand about mutants; to go into any more depth about this plan would be to reveal far too many spoilers. But I will say that in order to accomplish this task Magneto needs a certain mutant currently under Xavier's care. Naturally, the X-Men face off against the Brotherhood in order to protect the U.N. (in a spectacular showdown set on Liberty Island). Didn't Adam West and Burt Ward also save the UN in the 1966 BATMAN movie? Holy bad comparison!

The X-MEN has a pretty simple and, at times quite thin, plot. Singer is accurate when he describes X-MEN as being a character drama with some action sequences in it and NOT an all-out action film like THE MATRIX or DIE HARD. The X-Men have such a detailed and complex back story that most of the plot is dedicated to establishing their world, its natural and man-made laws, and in making you suspend your disbelief while growing to care about the characters and their relationships. This was a necessary and awesome burden for the first X-MEN film to carry. Fortunately, this final draft accomplished all this admirably. I expect the sequels to be able to jump right into the action and have more special effects sequences to them (and, of course, with a budget next time that will allow the filmmakers to do so). X-MEN treats its source material with reverence and intelligence. Unlike the later BATMAN films, it does not make a mockery of the comic book and what it stands for. In fact, X-MEN more closely adhered to its comic origins than the first BATMAN film did. After enduring the super-hero films of Joel Schumacher, the fact that the storytellers actually crafted a genuinely serious and often thoughtful comic book film is a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself. This is even more satisfying when you read the February 1999 draft and see just how far the X-MEN movie has come since then.

The initial negative buzz about X-MEN can be traced back to Soloman and McQuarrie's February 1999 draft. This early draft was not true to the spirit of the X-Men; it got the setting and the issues right but its execution was wildly off. Its dialogue was atrocious and its characters two-dimensional. Magneto was given a lot of long-winded "super-villain speak" replete with silly quips and bad jokes; the whole character played like a John Travolta performance. In that draft, Magneto lacked the pathos he has always had in the comics, the charisma and honesty that makes him such a remarkable opponent for Charles Xavier. In the comics, Magneto oftentimes made a heck of a lot more sense than Professor X did. There were innumerable bad moments in this early draft. The President of the United States makes this big sappy speech at the end about loving your fellow man; yet at the Ellis Island scene he is cracking jokes with Yassir Arafat about playing cards afterwards! The dialogue between the X-Men was laughable, with Xavier calling Logan an idiot a few times and other out-of-character moments like that. The February 1999 draft dropped the ball in every conceivable way. If all I knew about Chris McQuarrie's writing were this draft, I'd never think that the man could win an Oscar. This whole draft just reeked of "take the money and run." I can now completely understand how the ball got rolling on trying to ruin X-MEN before it even got made. I hope that this review can in some way reverse some of that considerable damage.

Normally when you see more than three writers listed on a project it means the film is in serious trouble (CHARLIE'S thirty ANGELS, anyone?). This rule of thumb has too often proven true. The X-MEN final shooting draft, however, is the only exception to it that I've found so far. If X-MEN were a Warner Brothers release, however, that atrocious McQuarrie/Soloman draft would have been the final script! I am still unsure which writer contributed what to the final draft, but it is a vast improvement in nearly every major way over that early draft. The main characters were better realized here, although the supporting X-Men (Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Storm) are really just along for the ride and only have a handful of scenes to "act" in. Jean comes off best of all because she gets to interact with more of the cast and has more responsibilities than she did in the comic; Cyclops is really only there to get in Logan's face over Jean; Storm comes off worst of all. She is NOT poorly written, none of them are so don't misconstrue what I am saying; she simply has nothing much to do. Storm has a couple of decent moments, including one with Senator Kelly, but these three characters are really just "the team." They do the running and fighting but X-MEN really belongs to Logan, Rogue, Magneto, and, to a lesser degree, Xavier.

The first thing that impressed me most about the final shooting draft was its dialogue. Much to my surprise, it was good. Quite sharp at times and even poignant. It really captures the spirit of the X-MEN comics I grew up reading during the 1980's, the Chris Claremont/John Romita, Jr. run. I have lost interest in the X-MEN comics much in the last ten years. When I read X-MEN, there were only two titles then, I believe, and they had a clear theme and storyline. In many ways, it was almost like following a soap opera. Now the comics seem more concerned with over-lapping plotlines that stretch across a half dozen titles than with characters and story. Like a politician who has lost his way, the X-MEN comics seemed to have gotten off message. They've become more about who has the biggest muscles, hair, breasts, and capes. I was quite relieved then to discover that the final X-MEN script had smartly gone back to basics.

The final script does a commendable job in grounding the X-Men in a real world set "in the not too distant future." It wisely brings all the characters back down to earth, literally (Storm doesn't fly here, only Magneto does once or twice). I can already hear the howls from angry X-fans everywhere but, again, the purpose of this first film is to establish the X-Men's world and their back story and, above all else, to make a mass audience suspend their disbelief about the mutant phenomenon. All the bells and whistles that come with being a mutant can and should be saved until the inevitable sequel. If we never get to know the main characters as people first then we won't care what their mutant abilities are. After seeing George Lucas violate his own code with PHANTOM MENACE and embrace special effects over story and character, I was glad to have an X-MEN script that was more cerebral and human than, well, comic book-y. If anything, Singer and company will probably be taken to task for making the film too serious and perhaps too talky. But I "thank The Maker" that all the Akiva Goldsman-esque elements were purged from this final draft. I'll take a brooding and adult X-MEN over a "fun," gaudy version any day.

Now, this is not to say that the script didn't have its problems. X-MEN probably won't win any Oscars; so far the best special effect I've seen is Hugh Jackman's hair. One of my biggest concerns with X-MEN is not readily apparent in the script. Let me clarify: it will be how Mr. Singer has interpreted the material. My gut feeling is that the final film may, like PHANTOM MENACE, have a lot of "dead weight" that could grind the narrative to a halt sometimes. It was not that way when I read this final draft but I still harbor that feeling. As a read, X-MEN was well-paced and engaging. I was never taken out of it by something someone would say or do that seemed out of character or untrue. The tone of the script never broke, never suddenly turned into another movie.

I have another major issue with the final script that still bothers me a few days after reading it. I suspect that it will be other people's biggest criticism of the final film, too. Magneto's scheme sort of loses focus near the final act. I became confused as to why he needed this certain X-Man to accomplish his attack against the assembled leaders on Ellis Island. It all comes down to a "big secret weapon" cliché that has always been a part of this particular series of X-MEN drafts. Magneto is the master of magnetism, one of the powerful men on earth, as the script proclaims, yet he has to use a "doomsday weapon" like any other Bond villain? I never bought why he and the Brotherhood didn't just attack the U.N. head-on. They've got the muscle for it so why not? Also, if there were such a gathering of world leaders then you can bet there would be a military presence in the water. The Brotherhood and the X-Men would not be able to just sneak onto Liberty Island. Although it was vague, I got the sense that Magneto felt he was on a bit of a "suicide run" here, as if he was willing to make a martyr of himself for the cause. Of course, this is undercut by having him kidnap this certain X-Man. The purpose of this X-Man in Magneto's plot seems to be to save Magneto's life if necessary. Another nit-pick of mine is the introduction of Senator Kelly and his fellow panel members as "GOP creeps." Now, I am not a Republican but I can spot an easy Hollywood villain when I see one. I think it should be noted that George Wallace, arguably America's most successful hate-monger politician, was a Democrat when he wasn't running as an independent.

Overall, the X-MEN only really faltered in the last twenty or so pages, which is where nearly all other high-profile projects face problems. The final act often seems to be the area most susceptible to script-doctoring. Perhaps this is because the most lasting impression one has about a film is how they felt when it ended. If it lost you at the end, you probably will walk out and say, "Eh, it was so-so." If an okay film picks up pace at the end and hits its marks, chances are you will remember you walked out of it in a pleasant mood and recommend it. Thus, doctoring the ending seems the most logical way for a studio to make sure its product is successful. The ending of X-MEN was good but it could have been more clarified; the coda back at the Xavier mansion, however, took the edge off some of the confusion and discomfort I felt reading the Statue of Liberty climax.

What made X-MEN work was the relationships between its characters. The bond between Logan and Rogue is the emotional center of this story while the strained friendship between Xavier and Magneto is its philosophical core. Both relationships are nicely developed, with a lot of nuances and good dialogue throughout. The script even captures the almost father-daughter bond between Xavier and Jean that I liked from the comics. All of these relationships are faithful to how they were portrayed in the comics. But the one difference that will surely irk X-fans is that Rogue is not really the Rogue from the comics. She is essentially Kitty Pryde (more on her later) with Rogue's power. While still a Southerner, this Rogue is not the sassy sexpot she is portrayed as in the comics and never once calls anyone "sugah." But Rogue's power is very dramatic (and cost-effective; all she does is grab them and the rest is up to the actors); she cannot make casual physical contact with any other person or she'll kill them. This makes her very sympathetic, and I assume more physically challenging for Paquin to portray than one might think. But because she's not the Angelina Jolie-type she is in the comics, I suspect many fanboys will be displeased with the treatment of Rogue.

The relationship between Logan and Rogue is very much like the one between Wolverine and Kitty in the Claremont/John Byrne issues. Logan is a little cooler in temperament than I expected him to be. Don't panic: when he fights he still goes ballistic but otherwise Logan is not what I would call "feral," a silly word that only we fanboys use with any frequency. He is more like Martin Riggs from the first LETHAL WEAPON but not as quick to be sarcastic. He is a troubled loner who does not remember much beyond the last fifteen years. This next revelation isn't really much of a spoiler now that Jackman mentioned it in an online chat the other night but there are indeed flashbacks to the Weapon X program where we see Logan being experimented on by unknown scientists. One reason why Logan remains at the Xavier school is that the two of them make a deal: if Logan helps the X-Men defeat Magneto, then Professor X will help Logan find out more about his past and who experimented on him. Logan does have a few funny lines but they are not one-liners and they're often at Scott's expense. All in all, I really liked the portrayal of Logan in this draft and expect Hugh Jackman's career to take off like a rocket much like how MAD MAX launched Mel Gibson's career. Ah, poor Dougray.

Some major spoilers:

1) Rogue's real name is Marie (last name unknown) and she is a 17 year-old from Mississippi. She earns her stripes as an X-Man by the end, if you catch my drift.

2) There is NO Danger Room sequence, nor even a mention of any such place.

3) The scenes of young Storm in Kenya and of Scott at his prom have been cut. The opening scene of Magneto as a boy during WW2 is much more effective anyway.

4) There are indeed bit speaking parts for Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, Bobby Drake, and a mutant named John (who has Pyro's powers). They are all students at Xavier's school and all use their powers at one point to show-off. There is no mention at any point of Peter/Colossus or of Sam/Cannonball.

5) The X-Man that Magneto is after is no longer Logan, as it had been in the earlier drafts.

6) There is a scene of Jean and Scott in bed together but it is NOT a sex scene.

7) There was a lot more swearing here than I expected. We'll see if it stays in.

8) The February 1999 draft showed Beast, Pyro, and Blob but they're not in this draft.

9) The ending is a set-up for a sequel where Logan's quest to uncover his past might be more closely explored. Logan is sort of the "traveling angel" figure from westerns who, like SHANE, rides into town to shake things up and then goes his separate way.

10) There was little to no body count in this draft unlike in the BATMAN films.

I enjoyed the final shooting script of X-MEN far more than I expected to. It stayed true to the characters, respected the source material, and had a lot more heart and soul to it than I imagined a major studio genre film would have. For all of its flaws, X-MEN was still a good read. Could it have been better? Of course, but after seeing just how bad the script was back in February 1999, I am very thankful at how the story has finally turned out. This final shooting script nailed the spirit and themes of the comic book; now I just hope the actual film doesn't suffer from an acute lack of adrenaline. I hope that after reading this that some of you negative folks will give the film a fighting chance. Rest assured, X-MEN won't be the Schumacher-esque turkey that you fear. -- STAX

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