Who saw this in cinemas back in 00?

I actually saw it at a drive-in, so they played X-men and something else back to back. But I can't for the life of me remember what the second film was. I know that, one time, there was some non-memorable karate/boxing movie as the second film, but I'm not sure if X-men was the movie it was paired with or not. In any case, I certainly remembered seeing X-men and, in particular, I remember calling out the names of the characters who appeared to the person with me [thanks to one of the benefits of drive-ins - you're in a closed car so you're not bothering other people if you talk with those you're with].

I wasn't really clued into the promotional campaign beforehand, so I didn't have a lot advanced knowledge of which characters would be in the film and who was playing them. The only thing I really saw ahead of time was part of a special on Fox where they played clips of Jean/Senator Kelly and had Xavier give his speech on evolution. So, for example, I didn't know Wolverine was in the film, but I instantly recognized him and went; "Oh, that's Wolverine." The only place I got tripped on was with Rogue. Because she was a teenager I went; "Hmm... Jubilee maybe," thinking that they might have changed her ethnicity, but then of course she drained her boyfriend with a kiss and it was obvious as to who it was.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the movie at the time. Given the silliness of then recent live action superhero fair both on TV and in film that I had seen, it was such a welcome change of pace.

I remember being pretty underwhelmed with what I was seeing when the movie was being made. The costumes and look of the film seemed drab and uninspired. When TV ads started rolling around, I remember worrying that we were going to get some sort of techno music score with lots of bad wire work fight scenes. I just wasn't very impressed with the promotional content UNTIL I saw the Fox Special, which managed to dig deeper and show what it was all really about. See, I was not that familiar with Xmen prior to this film. I'd seen a bit of the cartoon and that was about it. The Fox Special really did make me take notice.

We went to see the film and I recall really being drawn into the story and walking away quite impressed with the effort. It was nothing like I had thought it was going to be judging by those early photos and TV ads. It was a sincere take on the material with a good story to tell. A friend of mine happened to be there, someone who was a huge fan of the comic books and had been for many years. He liked the film ok, but things got on his nerves such as Magneto being too old. Thus began my enlightenment on the silly things that comic books fans let get in their way when watching movies (leading up to recent years when fans were in an uproar because Superman didn't have red underwear on his costume ). Anyhow the audience in general seemed to enjoy the film a lot. It was a big crowd.

Anyhow, I loved the film and have never stopped enjoying this franchise. I don't mind other superhero movies, but this one resonates with me more than the others these days, as I grow older. Here I am 44 years old now and I can't wait to see Days of Future Past, while all of the Marvel films don't really matter to me, nor have I bothered with either of the new Spiderman films, nor do I even care much about the new Superman flicks or even the Nolan Batman films. Xmen is the only superhero series I care to stay with now or that I have a genuine interest in. That is not an attack on those films, but simply an attempt to help you understand how I have changed.

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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

I didn't know much of the X-Men when the movie came out. I was much more into Batman and Spider-Man, but apart from some crossovers between Spidey and the X-Men, I didn't know the X-Men that well.

But when I saw the movie in cinema, it changed my whole view about comic books in general and especially the X-Men.

Since today, X-Men is a great movie, with a lot of socially critical themes and a depth that was unknown before for movies that were based on comic books. It's been 14 years now and I'm glad the franchise is still alive.

Here's to 14 more years!

I remember clearly because it was PG 13 and I was 12. My dad drove me to the theater so I had to convinced him of going in with me.
Was super excited because I was a HUGE fan of the Fox animated series.

Funny anecdote: when I saw "Only In Theaters" in the trailer I thought it would never come out on DVD. Stupid, I know. So I was desperate to see it :D

I saw it twice in theaters and loved it. I appreciate it now for being a good intro film for the franchise but when i watch this and X2 back to back it's amazing how much better X2 is when compared to this film. It was just made with a lot more confidence behind the camera.

the one thing i remember though was it got good reviews. people liked it but it had huge drops after its opening weekend and that always seemed strange. Even the second film had big drops but it did open bigger.

I did. It was cool finally getting to see iconic Marvel characters in a big theatrical movie. Before that it was just t.v. productions and straight to video B movies. There was Blade in '98 of course but I didn't see that theatrically and I don't think I was even aware he was a Marvel character at the time.

I saw it when it came out as well. I was a senior in college. The way I remember there wasn't as much hype behind it as there is with new comic book movies. The hard core comic guys were excited for it, but the buzz beforehand was more like "Cool an X-Men movie, I hope it's good," rather than "I've been waiting my whole life to see this!" Remember that up to this point for comic book movies there were two good Superman movies and a couple bad ones, one good and one OK Batman movie and several terrible ones and a bunch of one-off flops. People were pretty skeptical that a good X-Men movie could be made.

The reception I remember was that everyone liked it, but wanted more. They had to spend a bunch of time with the early exposition and there were so many awesome characters that there just wasn't time to fit in everything that everyone wanted to see. Now that we have 7 movies in the franchise that's a lot easier to overlook. We liked that it had good actors in it and they focused on the characters and themes rather than just effects, action and some plot. We were happy that it was a bit more than just a stupid action movie. It very well cold have been just like The Expendables.

I don't think people really understood how important it was, either. While the effects and action were all good, they weren't anything special. The Matrix was better for most of that and still fresh in everyone's mind. They didn't really break any ground there. I don't think most realized just how influential it would be in the next 15 years. People remembered Burton's Batman fondly, but it wasn't until you go back and watch it again that you see how cartooney it was. This was a straight up good movie based on a comic book and we didn't realize just how much we'd see that in the future.

X2 was totally different. Spiderman had already come out (and was super successful) so comic book movies got big budgets. There was a lot more hype and people were a lot more excited to see it.

I don't remember there was much excitement for it, but when I saw it I loved it, thought it was the greatest superhero movie ever.