X-Men '97 Review - RIB09

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X-Men ‘97 Review

Disclaimer: I never watched the original animated series, but I saw a recap of the events and am familiar with X-Men lore. I try to keep my reviews spoiler-free.

TLDR: This is one of the best things Marvel has put out in a long time. You can go into it pretty much blind so long as you know some very basic X-Men background info, but the show fills you in on all you need to know. It’s a great watch, a little rushed, but it does everything it sets out to do very well. I really can’t recommend it enough, go watch it.

        X-Men ‘97 really exceeded my expectations, I mean it. I grew up with Wolverine and the X-Men and so I didn’t think the original would have been anything beyond a typical Saturday morning cartoon and that ‘97 was made simply as nostalgia-bait (overarching dramatic plots in cartoons are more a staple of my generation than the previous imo, but perhaps I’m wrong). I’ve always been a fan of the X-Men, however, and so after continuously hearing great things about the new show I decided to watch a short review by The Cosmonaut Variety Hour that completely sold me.

        Normally I’m someone who needs to know details before jumping into things, especially in the case of something like this where we’re continuing almost directly from the end of the 90’s show, so I watched a recap from ScreenCrush before starting the show. I’ll begin by saying that although the recap was entertaining, it’s really not necessary to enjoy the show, again I’m a stickler for these sorts of things but the show doesn’t leave critical information out or assumes you’ve seen what happens before. On the other hand, ‘97 also doesn’t directly recap or dump information on you so it’s not like you’re going to be seeing the origins of our heroes and their history with some of the villains that appear. At the end of the day it’s your call for what you want to do. I know I said it’s unnecessary but I think I enjoyed ‘97 more with the context from the recap, however the show also stands on its own merits and is certainly enjoyable all on its own.

        (I just took a break from writing this to read a bit on the Wikipedia page, where I found out that Cyclops’s voice actor is also Noctis from FFXV, which I think is very cool.)

        I went into this series expecting terrible, millennial, soft-modern writing (here’s what I mean), but the dialogue is written in a way that gives actual weight to the characters and they grow splendidly as the series elapses. It’s really written as a superhero drama, but not in a sort of over exaggerated telenovela fashion, more like (and yes I cringe at this comparison too but weirdly it fits) Shakespeare. What I mean when I say this is that the characters are thoroughly believable, they are consistent, they grow in a natural way and the dramatics evolve compellingly.

        Now this is high praise, I say this often but when I write reviews and say stuff like the above I don’t go into it expecting to praise it in that way. The show isn’t perfect, there are definitely elements I would critique but they are very minor. The main thing is really that it’s quite fast paced at 10 half hour episodes (which makes the execution all the more impressive, at least if this is the sort of corporate constraint that I think it is). I don’t think saying “I wish we could’ve delved (I’m not an AI, I love using that word) into the characters more” is valid because, well, there’s a whole previous show that does just that which I haven’t seen, and yet for someone who hasn’t seen it I can’t help but want more.

        Again, this isn’t a valid point against the show, ‘97 actually does a pretty good job of spending time on the new characters they introduce (the ones that really matter anyway) and of not wasting your time, it’s not like the show doesn’t have light hearted filler-esque moments, but these are usually still very important plot points and yet serve to expand upon the characters while forwarding the story brilliantly. Also, the action is superb. Whoever was behind the action choreography needs a raise or something, well done.

All in all I feel like ‘97 is really worth your time, it’s short, enjoyable, and built in such a way that you’re going to be hungering for more. Bravo to the cast and staff behind the production, I really can’t wait for season 2 (and a rerelease of Rogue’s Marvel Legends figure).

Nikhil Saxena

Founder, Destrier Studios

https://linktr.ee/destrierstudios

        

        

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