X-Men

This movie may be a redemption fantasy for the misunderstood and underappreciated child in us all, but it carries even greater weight as a fantasy of demigods fighting a holy war over who is to control the destinies of mere mortals. Two master mutants, a “good” one (Patrick Stewart) and a “bad” one (Ian McKellan), are locked in battle over how the future of humans must be shaped. It’s yet another cinematic clash of Manichean good and evil, but the moral choices of humans’ free will is beside the point: X-Men is a war of the gods or of some master race, to which mere mortals can only be passive spectators.