Generation X

Recap
A group of mutant students must fight a man that can enter their dreams while also learning how to work as a team.
Review
Mutation: n. 1. The act of being altered or changed. 2. The illegal genetic condition [US Statute 5504178], first apparent in puberty, caused by the X factor located in the pineal gland of the brain
Scientist Russel Tresh (Matt Frewer) is working with Emma Frost (Finola Hughes), a mutant with telepathic abilities, on a machine that would allow someone the ability to enter into the “Dream Dimension”. Tresh discovers that a cell from within a mutant’s brain would allow them to become omniscient. When his experiments nearly end in the death of a young mutant, Emma steps in and saves the day, but the mutant is still carted away to an interment camp since he was unregistered. Years later, Emma is now the head of the Xavier School along with Sean Cassidy (Jeremy Ratchford) also known as Banshee. They are about to pick up Angelo “Skin” Espinosa (Agustin Rodriguez) who has an elastic like ability, but they also discover another mutant who has landed in trouble and swoop in and rescue Jubilation Lee a.k.a. “Jubilee” (Heather McComb). Once at the school, They meet the rest of the students, Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix who goes by M (Amarilis) who describes herself as the perfect mutant and shows prowess in virtually all aspects, strength, intelligence, invulnerability; Mondo (Bumper Robinson) who can take on the properties of any organic or inorganic matter he touches; Arlee Hicks known as Buff (Suzanne Davis) she is super strong, and her body is overly muscular which causes her to be self-conscious; Kurt Pastorius / Refrax (Randall Slavin) who can shoot laser beams from his eyes and eventually learns to see through solid objects. The kids all have difficulty getting along and often have run ins with the “townies” in the nearby community. Skin is a computer genius and learns that the dream machine that Emma and Tresh built is hidden in a secret room within the school. He and Jubilee find it and use it, but discover Tresh is now trapped in the Dream Dimension separated from his body. He uses Skin and once reunites with his corporeal body, kidnaps Skin to use him to finish his experiment and become omniscient. The rest of the team must band together to save skin and the world from the madness of Tresh.
Generation X is a television movie which was intended to be a pilot for a series. It premiered on Fox on February 20, 1996 and is based on the Marvel Comic book series of the same name, which is a spin-off of the X-Men franchise. The film was directed by Jack Sholder and written by Eric Blakeney with hopes that it would lead to additional movies or a series. It had a budget of $4 million but that was not enough to do a literal translation of the comic book, so the characters of Husk, who is a woman that can remove a layer of skin revealing something different, often metal or stone; and Chamber, a man who is composed of psionic energy which destroyed his lower face and chest when his powers emerged are absent. Both of these characters were deemed too expensive to do in live action (in 1996) and were replaced by original characters created by Scott Lobdell not found in the comics, Buff and Refrax respectively. Other notable changes were that Jubilee is supposed to be Asian American, and although Heather McComb has a similar look, she is not an Asian American. Similarly, Mondo is supposed to be Samoan which Bumper Robinson is not, and his body should change when he absorbs the properties of what he touches, but in the film, his body retains its human looks, most likely a budgetary restraint. Although they did tone down the ethnicity of two of their characters, one of the leading characters and the primary hero of the film is Latino, which is one of the few times Marvel has had a Latino as a hero in a live action adventure.
There is no wonder why this film never saw any sequels or a series, it really is not very good in my opinion. Visually it is interesting with some interesting use of colored lighting to give the production a comic book feel and some of the special effects weren’t bad for 1996. Those are the positives. The script is clumsy with dialogue that feels forced. There are some great references to other Marvel Comic groups, that that’s the best I can say about the script. The story itself is uninteresting and there are a couple of scenes where, as far as I could tell, the only intention was to interject juvenile humor. For the most part the performances were okay, they weren’t amazing but they weren’t terrible, all except for one. Matt Frewer is abominable in the part of Tresh. His over-the-top performance lowers the quality of this film to the equivalent of a basement level clearance rack! I thought the same thing when I originally watched the film in 1996 as I did while re-watching it for this article. He is the sole reason this film is as bad as it is. The script and the storyline I could forgive, but his wannabe Jim Carey antics destroyed any credibility that this movie could have salvaged. Overall, the film would have been bearable if it were not for Matt Frewer’s performance.
Final Thoughts
Even with its budgetary restraints and the special effects available in 1996, this could have been a much better movie focusing on more character development and for Odin's sake stop casting Matt Frewer in anything other than Max Headroom!
The New Movie of the Week: Generation X 1996
- Writing - 6/106/10
- Storyline - 6/106/10
- Acting - 6/106/10
- Music - 8/108/10
- Production - 7/107/10