X-Men

In retrospect, the first X-Men film seems more of a long prologue to its first sequel, but still turned out to be an intelligent big screen outing for Marvel comic's X-Men that actually made a decent hash of character development, rarely sacrificing it for gadgets or action. It avoided the campiness of Superman, had more interesting plot and characters than Batman and the character development (notably Rogue and Wolverine) stronger than expected. It also made excellent use of two elder British thespians, in the shape of Messrs Stewart and McKellen, seem plausible leaders of their good and bad mutants factions. The studio, in its infinite wisdom, decided to cut out about half an hour of the film and as such the complexity of the characters and plot is likely to have been eroded somewhat, but the result still far above expectations.

One point of criticism has been Michael Kamen's score. Apparently director Brian Singer rejected the more strongly thematic approach that Kamen originally employed and wanted more of a stirring undercurrent of music, vaguely themeless, but dramatic in all the right places. Of course, it seems an almost impossible thing to comprehend, a heroic comic book film without a really strong main theme, but Kamen's use of the theme he composed for the animated TV series works well, even if it could have been employed more extensively. Magneto's gang are all eerie sounds, notably Mystique, who is accompanied by something that sounds like a synthetically altered glissando 'cello idea. Not perhaps an instantly memorable tune, but one that worked well in the film to add a sense of danger and mysticism to McKellen's somewhat less interesting and underdeveloped gang.

The opening track is one that has been praised above all others, a kind of over-dramatic Schindler's List dirge that builds into a more horrific cacophony as we are given a prologue detailing Magneto's powers and background. The impressively staged action and effects sequences are well complimented, although the album doesn't really dwell on this side to the music. Ambush is mainly a couple of minutes of build up followed by a brief finale of heroism and action does not return until Train, with Kamen mixing in synths that are more akin to a David Arnold Bond score, but the results are effective and don't overwhelm the orchestra as much as Arnold is prone to do. Lighter moments are few, but Mutant School makes for some brief, plinky plunky montage music and the quiet Logan and Rogue provides a restrained finale to the album.

For all my protestations of the score's quality, it is still not really Kamen on top form, which is possibly as a result of the strong exerting pressure of the director. There are some fine moments, but some choices seem less interesting, particularly Magneto's Lair and Cerebro during which not a lot happens, giving rise to one of those scores with a slow and slightly lifeless central section. The opening couple of cues and final few are all good though, with plenty of imaginative mixing of synths and orchestra. Not a score I could perhaps recommend wholeheartedly, but certainly a whole lot better than has been suggested.