Will Evolution Help Us, or Hurt Us?

X-Men and X2 are two excellent displays of how characters, and thus people, can be both heroes and monsters. In many movies, there is a clear hero who the audience is supposed to root for, and a clear monster or villain who the audience is supposed to be against. But in reality, and in these two X-Men movies, people are not so cut and dry. You must figure out characters’ or peoples’ motives; you don’t simply judge them based on appearances.

In the X-Men movies, the main characters are what we would consider “monsters” in the most general sense: some mutants are quite frightening in appearance, and all of them have powers which, if used appropriately (or inappropriately) could frighten and hurt non-mutants.

However, we discover that, at least for the X-Men, scaring and hurting is not their intention. In fact, most mutants just want to be accepted by society. Thus, simply by the appearance and characteristics of mutants, the X-Men movies blur the lines between hero and monster.

Additionally, the X-Men movies make the difference between hero and monster difficult to discern through the intentions of characters. In the first movie, the X-Men, Magneto is essentially the “villain.” He seeks to achieve mutant superiority by turning non-mutants into mutants. He turns Senator Robert Kelly, a senator who tries to pass a mutant registration act, into a mutant. At first glance, this may seem to be an evil and monstrous thing to do: turn someone into a mutant when they are not. However, when he was younger, Magneto, as Erik, was separated from his parents as he enters a concentration camp. Although Magneto’s actions might seem uncalled for, when you realize that his intentions are based off of growing up in a world where people had to register themselves for simply being Jewish, it makes sense why Magneto would want to avoid the same thing just because he is a mutant.  

A final way the X-Men movies blur the lines is through the use of characters. Although Magneto is a villain in the first movie, in X2 he joins the X-Men as they fight a human villain who seeks to destroy all mutants. Even though Magneto and his followers still want different things than the X-Men, we see a side of them that we did not get to see in the first movie: that he can stand for a cause which we can all relate to.

However, I thought the most interesting aspect of the X-Men movies was the emphasis on evolution, and the reality factor it conveyed. As a Biology major, I really honed in on this aspect of the movies. It certainly makes me think, because one day, the human species will mutate and will evolve. This is true because it has happened in the past: before us, there were apes. It makes me wonder whether or not people would exile those who were different, if those exiled beings would fight back like Magneto, or if they would just want equality like the X-Men.