Who saw this back in the day? What were your memories - the anticipation of seeing it in the weeks/days before, the actually seeing it and how much a big deal was it where you were back then, the crowds, audience etc and after coming out of the cinema what were your thoughts and in the days/weeks that followed...
Back then I hadn't read the comics, had seen only a few of the animated series episodes and wasn't much into movies so my anticipation was low ... and yet when I saw it (not opening day but sometime within the first month) I really understood and really liked it, thought it was a really good and entertaining achievement.
I remember being in high school at the time. I first found out they were making a movie because I just happened to be sitting at home watching Entertainment Tonight one evening and the host said, "Catch an early glimpse of the new superhero film coming next summer" and it showed the part where Sabretooth tossed Wolverine off the Statue of Liberty and he catches himself with his claws. This was 1999, but the internet in my area still wasn't accessible. Up until then, I had zero idea that it was even being made. The next day at school I spent part of my time in computer class looking it up and telling the info to my friends who had also grown up loving the X-men.
The following summer we went to see it and the theater was packed. A memorable thing that happened was right when Wolverine was about to be attacked by the guy in the bar, the movie went off and the loudspeakers instructed us to head to the nearest exit immediately. We evacuated the theater, but after waiting 15 minutes or outside, they let us back in.
My friends and I didn't have too many discrepancies with it until much later with the advantage of hindsight (I do remember joking that they need to hurry up with the sequel before the guy that plays Magneto passes away). At the time we were just happy to get an X-men movie. Right now we could list a ton of stuff we didn't like. It hasn't held up well over the years.
the movie went off and the loudspeakers instructed us to head to the nearest exit immediately. We evacuated the theater, but after waiting 15 minutes or outside, they let us back in.
I was 8 years old at the time. I remember the year before my dad reading in the newspaper that they were making an X-Men movie and I was a big fan of the cartoon on Fox Kids. I remember thinking, "aren't they going to look stupid wearing yellow suites in real life?" :P
I was really excited to see it. At 8 years old, the last movie I was this excited for was Star Wars Episode I. I remember going to KB Toys and getting all the X-Men The Movie toys that Toy Biz put out :)
Fast forward to seeing the movie in theaters. If I recall, it was the first PG-13 movie I had seen. They played a trailer for Hollow Man and I remember it scaring the sh*t out of me, so I went into the movie pretty apprehensive. Then I had the sh*t scared out of me again during the scene when Senator Kelly explodes. As a little kid, it was pretty intense because this was right around when CGI was becoming a thing and I had never seen anything like that before. Still, I remember loving the movie.
Anyway, 16 years later and it's my favorite X-Men movie. It's probably because I have a ton of nostalgia for it though :P
I was 10. I remember seeing stills for it on Entertainment Weekly, on a special edition they did of movies that were coming out that summer. I remember getting a bit excited as I remembered the animated series from when I was a younger kid. Then, I remember Fox Kids started showing the animated series again in anticipation of the movie, and they'd have featurettes about the making of it, and that made me buzzed about watching it. But I missed it in theaters. My brother-in-law went to watch and kept gushing about how great it was, and how he loved the line about the yellow spandex because it seemed like a hint like they were going to wear the traditional costumes in the future haha.
The school I went to would take us to the movies every year, and we got to see X-Men. Everyone in there was really into it and loved it, myself included. I was surprised that it was pretty serious and even a bit scary in points for a superhero movie, but loved that it also had humor in spots, and that it I actually felt for the characters. A combination that I guess happened because I was growing up, but also because the movie was also having that effect on me. When we got back to school, our teacher used the movie to talk to us about the theory of evolution and how it was allegorical to the civil rights movements.
I was 23 when it came out. I saw it at the old ABC in Canterbury. I had seen some of the X-Men cartoon series(the 199os one) and an episode of Spiderman and His Amazing Friends with them in it. I had a couple of the comics - although, not that many. I hadn't read any of the reviews beforehand. I think it's one of the best comic book adaptations - and one of the best in the series - the later films don't seem to capture the magic of the first two.
It really was half my life ago. I was 16 when it came out. I recall being excited for it and see the promotional poster at a theater. My dad, his gf at the time, myself and my best friend all went. My dad had no idea what we were seeing. He enjoyed it as did the rest of us.
I recall big laughs at the "You're a dick" line from Wolverine.
I thought it was a good movie but not great, part 2 blows it out of he water IMO, it's the Aliens of the X Men series. I remember the DVD of X1 was 30 bucks back then lol. It seems really tame and restrained today compared to what we have now in this superhero era of movies, watch Logan or Avengers after this one and you'll see how far things have come. Keep in mind this is the film that started the superhero craze and is continuing today, I do consider it historical for the genre.
I did! I was 20 at the time. My brother and our friend Jason went to see it being X-men fans since 1990. We all got a free x-men the movie comic book with our tickets... and a poster.. was sweeeet.