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Look out, sliced bread: the uncanny X-Men are threatening to become the latest, greatest thing. Action-hungry audiences spent a surprisingly robust $54.5 million in the film's opening weekend. Critics found themselves shocked that character development and social import could blend with the comic-book genre. And Christians spend the weekend seeking the most meaningful spiritual analogies from the highly allegorical story.

"It's this summer's most thoroughly satisfying movie," says GreenLake Reflections' Jeffrey Overstreet about X-Men, in which a group of superpowered mutants strive to fit into a society that fears them. "X-Men are the heroes the big screen so desperately needed. They're damaged, lonely, and misunderstood, but they have a … hope for understanding with 'normal mankind.'" The Dove Foundation says this parallels a Christian experience in America: "Often, the unwitting suspicion cast at the followers of Christ takes on a comparable prejudice. But, like the sacrificial motivations of the film's protagonists, believers are reminded to love their persecutors." This is not the only way the X-Men display Christian virtues. Movieguide appreciated "the unconditional forgiveness [X-Men leader] Professor X shows to his old friend Magneto, in the hopes that he will turn from his evil ways." Deanna Marquart, guest reviewer for Christian Spotlight, says that another mutant's penchant for self-sacrifice is a "heart-touching lesson in love." Not every reviewer was happy; Childcare Action complained of a nearly nude mutant with a "sprayed-on outfit," and a premise that was "in favor of the theory of evolution." But Hollywood Jesus disagreed, saying that the one reference to mutants' "evolution" from humans was merely meant to imply "that we all contain the same genetic stuff. (As the Bible says, we are all of one blood.)" Crosswalk.com's Michael Elliott uses the mutants' "evolution" as a parallel with being made a "new creature" in Christ. Just as the mutations have given the X-Men "a potential power, but it is necessary for them to learn how to control, exercise, and use it properly," so Christians "continue to study the Word of God [to] learn how the spirit within us works." Mainstream critics also noted the film's spiritual resonance, even if they couched their descriptions differently. The Oregonian's Shawn Levy says the film possesses "an unusually sober strain of moral insight [that] sees into the heart of human life," and J. Rentilly of Rough Cut was impressed with "the meaningful heroics of flawed individuals struggling to save themselves." Lest the movie sound textbook-dry, the U.S. Catholic Conference reminds readers that it delivers on a strictly visceral level, too—"an entertaining sci-fi thriller [with] an absorbing, multi-layered narrative, sharp editing and imaginative special effects."The debate continues over how emotionally to invest oneself in The Perfect Storm. World magazine complains that the movie "spends several reels trying to make the audience care about … uninteresting, unheroic characters who make the suicidal decision to drive straight into a hurricane." The storm is far more interesting, says World, making it "a better screen saver than feature film." But PlanetWisdom felt it captures human emotion well, particularly "that sense of dread that washes over you [at] the realization that nature is much bigger than you—and you can't control it." Feeling this dread helped the unnamed reviewer (presumably site owner Mark Matlock) picture the Mark 4 account of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, in which "the disciples—some experienced fishermen at home on the sea—got scared. They were sure the boat was going to capsize and drown them all." For more opinions on the emotional resonance of this film, read our earlier posts from July 6 and 12.

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July (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44