I think that it's fair to say that both Marvel and Disney have had a terrible year last year with alot of there films and TV shows either flopping badly or being at best very divisive. Well there was one show released near the middle of this year that has proven that with the right creative team that actually knows and are fans of the source material that both Marvel and Disney can indeed put out some worthwhile content and so then join me as I give you mt SPOILER FILLED review of the show that was so much better then what it really had any right to be with the show in question being called simply just "X-Men '97" enjoy.
The plot of this show is one year after the supposed death of there leader Professor Charles Xavier the X-Men find themselves in a new fight one which sees them come into contact with an old enemy. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good with the plot of this show being so good that at times it really does feel like the plot of the movie but only it was done as a TV show and while the above synopsis might not be the best representation of the shows plot it is the best way to describe the plot of the show without going to much into spoilers as the plot of the show really does takes so many twists and turns that nine times of ten you really don't see coming with the plot of the show also being really entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this show is Ray Chase as Scott Summers / Cyclops and Cal Dodd as James Howlett / Wolverine. Also starring in this show is Lenore Zann as Anna-Marie Raven / Rogue , Alison Sealy-Smith as Ororo Munroe / Storm , George Buza as Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy / Beast , A.J. LoCascio as Remy LeBeau / Gambit , Holly Chou as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee , Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor / Goblin Queen , Matthew Waterson as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto , Gui Agustini as Roberto Da Costa / Sunspot , Christopher Britton as Nathaniel Essex / Mister Sinister , Adrian Hough as Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler , J.P. Karliak as Kevin Sydney / Morph , Ross Marquand as Charles Xavier / Professor X , Gil Birmingham as Daniel Lone Eagle / Forge , Eric Bauza as Sentinel , Ron Rubin as President Robert Edward Kelly , Catherine Disher as Val Cooper , Chris Potter as Nathan Summers / Cable , Lawrence Bayne as Carl Denti / X-Cutioner , Alyson Court as Abcissa , Theo James as Bastion , Martha Marion as Emma Frost and Moira MacTaggert , Todd Haberkorn as Sebastian Shaw , Gavin Hammon as Bolivar Trask , Courtney Taylor as Callisto , David Errigo Jr. as Mojo and Gladiator , Abby Trott as Spiral , Josh Keaton as Steve Rogers / Captain America and Mike McGill as Thaddeus Ross.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. With all of this shows cast members turning in some really good performances which really isn't all that surprising as alot of this shows cast are reprising their roles either from the original show or from other X-Men TV shows and would therefor thus now what kind of performance would best suit there character in any given situation and the shows new actors more then hold there own when it comes to acting against alot of the returning cast members with Holly Chou being a very suitable replacement for the great Alyson Court as Jubilation Lee / Jubilee and Matthew Waterson making for a great replacement for David Hemblen as Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto with the acting in this show really being helped by the fact that the scripts for this show are just so good that all this shows cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this show.
Doing the animation for this show is Happy Tiger Animation and the legends and the greats that are currently over at Studio Mir. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about e actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featu4ered / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty phenomenal with the animation in this show taking inspiration from anime by having a very anime aesthetic to it but done in a way that the animation in this show can also look like that it was made in the nineties as well with this shows animation looking alot better then other animated shows out there right now as despite this show being pretty much a more mature take on the X-Men characters it has animation quality that is up with Avatar: The Last Airbender interms of it's quality which is something that you don't see not only in adult animation but in animation as a whole as alot of animated shows are there just to be product fodder for whatever network is releasing them and because of that the animation does indeed suffer yet with this show the animation is just top level and is a good example of just how good animation really could be and as well as the fact that not all animation has to be just for little kids.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!
It's safe to assume the best episode of this show it's easily the shows fifth episode "Remember It" as it's an episode that takes the show in a completely different direction. As until that point it seemed like that the show was going to be about Magneto trying to do good and earn the teams trust and yet by the end of the episode we find out that actually the show is about mutants just trying to survive and that sometimes they can have a very bad day with this episode being a good example as it's something that effects not only this episode but the remaining five episodes of the show which is such a smart move as something like this would've most likely been the focus of one episode and then never mentioned again in the original show only being brought up every once in a while and yet because of what happens in this episode it effects episodes seven , eight , nine and ten with it only being brought up at the very end of episode six which is such a smart move as it now allows us to see what alot of the mutants of the world thought about this truly dreadful attack that saw thousand if not hundreds of thousands of mutants die.
One of the things that this show kind of became known for was for it's cameo's from characters in the wider Marvel Animated Universe. With this final episode being no different as we get to see Iron Man , Captain America , Cloak & Dagger , Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson among others and while these cameos are fun to watch it was getting to the point where it was becoming distracting as all they ended up doing was pulling you out of the episode instead of keeping you invested in the final episode of the shows first season while the cameos are fun to see they should've been done a bit more sparingly just to make them feel alot more special or just have them appear in the important episodes of the show as that would make the world feel alot more bigger then what it actually is instead of taking time away from the shows main characters which has the add on effect of making it shocking when they reveal that Magneto is actually evil again something which was never hinted it and thus comes out of nowhere when it happens in the shows eighth episode and heck the character doesn't even have a plan with him wanting to end the world just for the sake of ending the world all because of the fact that he believes that it was humans that launched the attack on Genosha.
Something else that feels like wasted potential is the fact that in episode seven the show shows us a much more darker side of Rogue. With the show making it seem like that she's going to be somewhat of a villain with her even leaving the team in episode nine to join up with Magneto and yet the show just straight up drops it in episode ten with the team now fully trusting Rogue again even tho just a few minuets ago she tried to kill them and as a result of that is the fact that we end up with what could have been a good idea feel wasted as the very idea of seeing Rogue be a bad guy even if it was just for a few short episodes of season two would have made sense from a storyline perspective given everything that she goes through in this first batch of episodes and yet the show drops that idea and that plot line of her trying to cope with the death of Gambit for no reason when that is a plot line that really should have been resolved by the end of this final episode as it would have brought closure to that characters character arc.
Now then the episodes of this show have / had an exact grad total running time of roughly twenty seven minutes with this final episode having the longest running time of the whole entire series with this episode being forty minuets and three seconds. With the final episode really deserving that long running time as it really does have more then enough there interms of plot to really cover that large amount of running time and it really did need to have that large of amount running time as it had so much story to wrap up and it wouldn't be able to do that if the episode was thirty minuets long and with the extended running time it allows the makers of the episode do alot more emotional stuff which is what they do with Scott , Jean and Cable as both Scott and Jean say what they think is going to be there final goodbye to there son as they think that there going to die and that is a moment that would have most likely been cut out of the episode if the episode had a much more short running time but I will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. With the action in the show really benefitting from the shows animation as the animation in the show makes the action in the show just leap of the screen with the episodes animation rather rightfully getting alot of the shows best animation and as a result of that is the fact that the we get a bunch of action that all look really good with them also having some really cool moments in alot of if not all of the shows action scenes and it's during those action scenes were we get to see just what it is that each members of the team get to bring to the team with even Jubilee getting her time to shine as well in alot of the shows action scenes something which very rarely if ever happend in the original series and yet it happens in this one and it looks so good along with alot of the shows many action scenes in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this show is so much better then what it really had any right to be as it's a good example of how to do a sequel series that is both really respectful to the original series and those characters and yet at the same time introduce this incarnation of the characters to an audience that perhaps wouldn't have watched the show growing up in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very show in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very show really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 9.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very review being the great the official Disney fandom wiki page simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from these very episodes and are really of course on the official Disney fandom wiki page are really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.