Where X-Men ‘97 delivers is where Fox’s movie run failed. X-Men as a franchise is deeply political – it is about race, refugees, persecution and human apathy. We’ve had nearly 20 years of X-Men movies before this and barring four of them – X-Men, X-Men: Days of the Future Past, X-Men: First Class and — these themes rarely find measured screen-time in the movies. In comparison, X-Men ‘97 is a breath of fresh air – it isn’t scared of hitting the big boom moments and neither is it shy of hitting the weirdness of the Madelyne Pryor/Jean Grey relationship with Cyclops. In fact, they make Cyclops great again (#winning).
That said, taking the time out to tell a longer story with a multitude of plots and sub-plots and remaining within the Disney PG-13 remit means some things will be sacrificed. Like, pacing and Wolverine, for example. Wolverine doesn’t have much to do until the final few episodes and even his epic scene with Magneto is robbed of its consequences in the finale’s sequel baiting.
Final verdict? X-Men ‘97 is probably of the highest quality that we’ve seen coming out of Marvel’s stable in a very long time. With great voice acting, solid animation, nuanced handling of complex themes that are both true to source and relevant in today’s world and some great action set pieces, X-Men ‘97 is everything the big-screen franchise should have been after the soft-reboot in X-Men: First Class. Does the finale lose some of its steam because of sequel-baiting? Sure. But is the show still one of the best in the Marvel superhero genre post-Endgame? Yes.