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Generation X (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Marginal attempts to bring superheroes to the small screen

Author: Gislef from Iowa City, IA
27 December 2000

Compared to most comic-to-TV adaption, Generation X is...adequate. It doesn't rely on campiness (Batman/60's, the Justice League TV show pilot...). The main problem is that the writers don't seem to have much idea what they're doing. They opted for one big-name star (Frewer) and ended up with a bargain-basement Joker impersonation. The whole Dream Dimension plot is just stupid (even the characters acknowledge they're ripping off Freddy Krueger/Elm Street - not a good sign).

When the show sticks to the mutants themselves, it's pretty good. The school seems curiously understaffed, and in that huge mansion, why do six students have to sleep in two fairly small rooms? And the lack of budget shows, since the superheroics are mostly small-scale. Still, the cast is likeable enough, and it probably would have made a decent TV series if the ratings had been there.

7 out of 9 people found the following review useful:

The first X-Men movie......sort of

Author: xindi005 from United States
21 October 2005

Though it is in no way as good as the latest X-Men movie, X2: X-MEN UNITED, GENRATION X is still good for being the first to star characters from Marvel's most influential comic line.

To be made in 1996 and only for television, This movie does in no way fall into the same boat as the other attempt to bring Marvel to the small screen,FANTASTIC FOUR(1994?). I have to admit the special effects were cheesy and the acting could have been better, the movie was still good and the action was still compelling. I had the opportunity to read the comic not long after the movie premiered on FOXtv and it goes very well with the story and the characters are cool.

If you have the opportunity to see this film, it will be worth your while. Enjoy.

4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:

A surprising attempt at continuing the X-genre.

Author: wsdmspryde
24 April 2003

As someone who followed Generation X the comic book from its inception, I recall being very excited about the Generation X tv movie during its debut. Unfortunately, that didn't last long. It was a thrill to see what started out as a fantastic comic make it onto the small screen, but the attempts just weren't enough.

Matt Frewer did a fantastic job of chewing the scenery, but it's usually easy to forgive the man his zaniness, particularly if you've ever watched Max Headroom. Beyond that, Generation X was and still remains painful to watch. Just about every canon character that started out in the comic book was not only miscast (i.e., the Chinese-American Jubilee being played by someone who wasn't), but poorly characterized. Mondo, the laid-back Hawaiian had transformed into pure arrogance, while Angelo, the cynical and quick-witted ex-gang member was suddenly on the shy and tentative side.

It was, in a way, what you'd expect from a comic book movie. That is assuming that you don't actually read comics and just have a stereotype in mind, however. Lighting was often overdramatic in a way that any Batman moviegoer could recognize and wince at. Scenery was not especially impressive, excepting the building which stood in for the Massachusetts Academy. Characters did not come across as particularly three dimensional, and it felt as if every prop involved had been drawn rather than created.

Although the movie in and of itself is a whimsical bit, easy to watch if you'd like a brightly colored distraction from the world around you, its script is lacking and its acting on the dull side. I felt for the characters involved not because Generation X the movie was convincing, but instead because I felt loyalty to the characters I'd been reading about for a number of years. The addition of Refrax and Buff, who had potential of their own, was more proof that this was a slapdash movie made in hopes of grabbing a few bucks. After all, these two appears sheerly because the remaining characters from the comic book would go over the budget for filming, as their appearances and powers would require too much in the way of special effects.

Overall, it was a disappointing experience, but I remain fan enough of the comic to keep a taped copy for nostalgia's value.

2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

not really a bad movie

Author: hamilton-21 from Australia
12 August 2006

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Yes, I know, this film was made for t.v. and was low budget, but it did have elements that I liked. Matt Frewer was wonderfully over the top as the bad guy; just dripping insane evil. He reminded me a lot of Cliff De Young's portrayal of Dr. Mallardo in the Robocop t.v. series - another show that got canned before it got into its stride. This isn't the best film set in the 'X' universe to ever come out. These characters are carried on from the X-Men comics and this film is more true to the comics than the three X-Men movies that have been released since. The characters are likable, and most men I'm sure appreciate Emma Frost's attire - those skin tight pants and bustier's don't leave much to the imagination. The students at Xavier's school - it's never explained where Charles Xavier himself is - all interact in a natural way with each other and their powers (Kurt's is rather reminiscent of Cylcops') are interesting without being overdone. They argue and fight and generally act exactly as teenagers would and have the normal teenage problems. Mostly, if you can get the past the somewhat cheesy effects and the rather lackluster in places script. then this is a good film to watch. I enjoyed it and I would buy it if someone would bother bringing it out on DVD.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:

The good, the bad, the mutant.

Author: magguss from United States
18 March 2006

For it's time, probably the best comic adaption made. This is before comics adaptions became big. It was plagued by a bad plot, a terrible time-slot and advertising that was minimal and geared only to the comic crowd. Anyone who didn't read the comic, or at least some X-Men comics and Wizard had no clue it was even related to the X-Men. They didn't even play off of Jubilee's popularity. Marvel, at the time was a different company and was pushing hard to make this movie a TV show, and get the pilot movie itself more airtime. But, at the time the TV companies wouldn't -touch- something like that (makes you wonder how Mutant X made it).

The characters were well played, with Banshee, the White Queen, Jubilee and Skin directly pulled from the comics, though with Mondo and M being watered down for more -real- versions. Husk was replaced by a body-building -strong- girl, and they added-in a cyclops knock-off.

I think the concept should be looked upon again.

Generation X is a story about the younger mutants at Xavier school for the gifted, the ones not old enough to be X-Men. They used an alternate Mansion somewhere in the midwest, and were lead by Banshee and the White Queen. I'd love to get into the plot, but I only saw the broadcast as a kid in '96. I just remember the plot wasn't very good.

Here's hoping that it gets a DVD release, perhaps in the big-deluxe-special edition DVD for X-men: The Last Stand, or something. Quality comic book TV-media has gotten the short end of the stick as far as DVD releases. I'd love to see the Saban Entertainment version of the X-Men cartoon, or the Maxx from MTV's oddities get a DVD release.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:

I'm betting it looked better on paper...I hope...

Author: Kninja from Xavier Institute for Higher Learning
16 April 1999

I'm a Generation X fan, especially the early Scott Lobdell run on the comic book. So it was with much enthusiasm that I flumped down in my recliner, remote and comic book in hand (yep, I'm a comic geek), and prepared to witness the anticipated event.

What I ended up watching, however, was a really disappointing two hours of mutant mayhem.

First of all, they were trying to do a Gen X movie without ANY connection to the X-Men, other than the basic 'mutant menace' thing, and the fact that they were using Xavier's school. Second, the actors they got to play the kids looked and acted nothing like the comic version I know and love. I mean, Jubilee is Asian, but tell that to Heather McComb, who had none of the firecracker's attitude. Mondo was nothing like the Samoan slacker in the comics, and instead was some punk kid I wanted to slap. Husk and Synch were noticeably absent, and in their places were Refrax and Buff (the latter of which was the only interesting character in the movie). Skin turned out similar to his comic roots, but all in all I had to constantly remind myself that the characters speaking were supposed to be the same ones from the book. That's a bad sign.

What's Matt Frewer doing in this movie? He's supposed to be a comic-relief villain, but name me one villain in a comic-based movie over the last decade who WASN'T!

Now I hear they're going to make another GenX TV movie (or possible TV series). They say they're going to have better casting. I hope they have better writers and producers as well.

2 out of 3 people found the following review useful:

Twelve Years later...still pull out the old dubbed copy.

Author: mattbromagin from United States
27 October 2008

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Let me preface the review by saying that I give it an 8 out 0f 10 within context. This was a made for TV movie that I think was to be a predecessor or a nifty little copycat of The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It did a great job with that. I'm not saying this made for TV movie is up there with Citizen Kane. I also look at it from the perspective of a fellow that tries to collect strange and unusual movies/TV shows.

It was loosely based on a Marvel comic in the X-Men line which was a variation of an earlier comic called New Mutants. Think "Degrassi" with super-powers.

For what it was...it was great. No real complaints. Fox added characters to replace ones they had to take away that wouldn't work on film (with a TV budget), it was the first X-Men movie if you think about it (a group of mutants that attend Xaviers School for Gifted Mutants), and it had strong ties to the X-Men universe had the original intentions gone through (this was a pilot for a live action Saturday morning kids show). I had heard ABC picked the show up after the movie bombed on Fox, but I've never seen an "episode" besides the Fox movie.

If you're the kind of person that seeks out rare comic based television shows or movies (such as CBS's Justice League live action series or that god awful Roger Corman Fantastic Four flick) you will absolutely love this and it will probably exceed expectations. If you're a casual browser and said "OH MY GOD! FOX MADE AN X-MEN MADE FOR TV MOVIE! I HAVE TO SEE THIS! I BET IT'S AWESOME!"...well...you'll probably be disappointed.

If it means anything, the girl that played Jubilee was spot on for the character and Matt Frewer did play a rather cool villain. Finola Hughes IS the White Queen as far as I'm concerned. Good enough acting across the board. Everyone did their part well and it made up for the smaller budget and cheesy subject matter.

So, so bad... and that's with forgiving how 90's it is

Author: rothrouga from United Kingdom
15 February 2011

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I can forgive this 'film' for a lot of things. For one, it's obviously only a pilot and they only give a pilot so much money. Secondly, I can understand why they couldn't put Chamber or Penance in (as the trivia says)... But it's just... so bad.

What probably doesn't help is that I'm currently reading Generation X etc, which is how I found out that this even exists (advertised in one of the x-men titles). While even the big budget films will never please the fanboys for continuity I don't think they even tried that hard with this...

Emma Frost, Jubilee (not-Asian at all), Monet and (if you ignore the terrible Irish accent) Banshee are probably the closest to the mark. I'd even consider Skin to not be that bad. I was even shocked when there was a mention of the Hellions having died! But it's where they've not stuck to the comics that makes this so terrible.

The backgrounds of the characters are shot to hell. Jubilee's parents are alive, Skin apparently comes from the suburbs but has a 'homeboy' friend etc. The place takes place at Xavier's school even though Xavier and all the other xmen have seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth as there's no mention of them. As other reviews have pointed out, the plot is some tripe about all mutants being latently psychic and accessing the dreamworld...

The villain of the piece is an actor painfully trying to be Jim Carrey, to the point where I actually thought I'd have to stop watching because it was just so terrible. One of the replacement students called Kurt is some sort of bargain basement Cyclops but with none of the stoic grit and more slime and misogyny. Mondo is now apparently a jock.

I would only advise watching this if you want to see something that makes Xmen 3 look good...

Great story, terrible direction

Author: rossmcdee1 from United Kingdom
15 July 2009

Although the previous review mentions good acting the story is severely criticised; however to me (with over 30 years of comic book reading experience) the story is superb and well written with a cynicism sadly missing from most po faced costumed escapades. For the last 10 years this has been one of my favourite Comic book adaptations- Danger Diabolik & Batman Begins being two notable others.

The fact that the direction is less than average; the set designs garishly multicoloured and the acting (in general) rather wooden, spoil this brave attempt at 'post modern' super heroics. The direction is in the music video mould of handcam wobbliness giving the whole film a sea-sick sensation, spoiling an otherwise interesting and fun (in an O.T.T. megalomaniac comic book style) adventure yarn. Whatever its failings it was still 100x better than the time waster MUTANT X.

The Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters Movie

Author: Dino Andes (xaxnxdxexsx@hotmail.com) from Philippines
21 July 2005

Warning guys! Hey, the following is just my opinion. To the makers of this film, don't get offended. This is just my opinion. I liked your movie, anyway.

The movie was about the star of Generation X with Emma Frost and Sean Cassidy as headmasters of the Xavier's School for Gifted Younsters. In the story, Angelo Espinosa and Jubilation Lee were being recruited by the headmasters. In school, they then meet the rest of the kids, M, Mondo, Buff, & Refrax. Typically, not all students get along. The movie showed the life of the kids in and out of school. Then later, they battle against Russell Tresh. After some twists and thrills, Generation X won the battle against Tresh.

I saw that TV movie from way back. They didn't follow the storyline, they added two characters (who aren't even in the comics), failed to include Penance, Chamber, Paige, Synch. Speaking as a BIG fan of Gen X, that was so appalling. Speaking as a BIG fan who wants a Gen X Movie, that was quite OK. I loved the movie in a way because there is no real Gen X movie. The cast just don't look like the comic book characters. Anyone would totally agree with me. But all in all, it was just OK.

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