2000-07-15 - 12:03:37

You know, for the most part I love the customers that come into my comic store, but some of them are insensitive, thick-headed dickweeds.

I went downstairs to the store yesterday, and my friend the Manager had one of those looks on his face. The look that said "I have a story to tell."

He started the conversation by saying: "I can tell you all about the X-men movie. All the plot points and all the funny lines."

I said: "Oh? Did you see it last night?"

No, he hadn't. Some dimwit who was at the preview came in and simply wouldn't shut up about the movie. The Manager politely told him that he hadn't seen the movie yet, and didn�t want to know the details of it, but the guy just HAD to keep talking. What a dick-brain.

I think a good, solid boot to the head would have taught this cretin some sensitivity, but that is not exactly good customer relations.

Anyway, I saw the X-Men movie last night with an old friend of mine, a former employee. I hadn't seen him for years, and it was good to catch up with him again.

However, in the spirit of my rant up top, I will not tell you anything about the movie itself, about the characters or the plot or the special effects, or the dialogue.

It is not the best movie that I have ever seen. There were some things about it that annoyed me.

However, it is FAR AND AWAY the best movie based on a comic character that I have ever seen, and believe me, I have seen a lot of them. That is not really a huge compliment, considering that there have not been a lot of good movies in this genre, but this movie sets a new standard that is very high.

However, the thing that I enjoyed the most about this movie is that the people who put this movie together actually cared about the characters, about the concept of the X-Men itself. There was a loving attention to detail that made the characters come to life for me. This mattered an awful lot.

At several times during the movie, I found myself thinking: "So THAT'S what that would look like in real life."

And you want to hear something sad? The plot and the story of this movie was better than anything that's been in an actual X-Men comic for the better part of a decade. Marvel Comics is a terrible caretaker of the wonderful characters in its possession.

Probably the best compliment of the movie was one I heard uttered by a person sitting behind me after the film was over. With an ironic smile on his face, he said: "I was really disappointed. I wanted it to be LONGER."

Go see it, folks. It is definitely something you should see in a theater, not on videotape.