The first installment in the X-Men series isn't as exciting and sterling as the two follow-ups, even if the characters and atmosphere show great potential. The introduction of the realm, the school, and the predicament is done in a very conventional manner for this genre, hence removing a lot of the possible tension and surprise elements. Compared to his work in the brilliant X2, Bryan Singer's direction here is disappointingly pale. He also gets only minimum help from the useful, but uneven screenplay by David Hayter. The secondary characters are all over the map, the action set-pieces somewhat overdone, and the narrative presentation a little too dichotomic. Despite all this, X-Men has enough promise, intelligence and interesting aspects to be worth a view. Jackman/Paquin and Stewart/McKellen play well off of each other in the leads.