WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
I’m going to put this out there right from the start – I find James Marsden’s Cyclops so IRRITATING! In the first film it’s like watching the jealous boyfriend in a rom-com so I love the way Wolverine screws with him so often! It’s because of this that I’m not sad when he dies in the first film. Yeah, yeah spoilers but two things – you’ve been warned AND the film came out in 2006 so if you didn’t know, where have you been?
Campfire Tales
This was probably an interesting one to choose, considering it’s an anthology film so he wasn’t in it for long, but at least James was in the opening story The Hook. However, this also meant I didn’t need to watch the whole film as this story didn’t last much more than a minute or two – which doesn’t exactly give me much to base his acting on. His character of Eddie is unlikeable from the very beginning, and in my opinion doesn’t exactly come across as a jock from the 60’s which is when the opening segment is supposed to be set. Even though the story of the man with the hook for a hand is one I have heard before, and I was aware no one was likely to be killed, I still silently hoped we would see the end of Eddie.
Gone In a Heartbeat
For a film based on a true story, I couldn’t exactly find any information about what had actually gone on so there was no way to know quite how accurate the film or Marsden’s portrayal of Michael Galler were. This film, and Michael’s character, does make you wonder how a class president who starts out looking for his ‘potentially’ stolen CDs gravitates to full on kidnap! I get that he explains that he isn’t the goodie-goodie that he displays to everyone deep-down but still! The way he suggests to kidnap someone so casually is just down-right dark on its own. Strangely, the way Michael and David tried to concoct their alibi for the kidnapping reminds me of the portrayal of the Menendez brothers in Monsters. I feel like, in his last phone conversation with Jan’s husband, Marsden doesn’t exude the aggravation that is expected quite as well as he could. I understand that they aren’t going to hurt Jan because all Michael and David want is the money but it definitely needed to be played better to be convincing. The one thing I will say however, it made me wonder about the real Michael Galler’s mentality if he truly claimed he had no idea where Jan Hale was and that they forced into the kidnapping!
In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco
This is actually the first film Marsden made and is also based on a true story. What is more concerning about this is the fact that when it was released in 1993, the events shown were still being investigated by law enforcement because it was made the same year that the Waco siege took place. You don’t see anything and I’m not going to explain too much about “The House of David” that is referenced but this film disturbed me to the core! I know this isn’t relating to this article but it’s disturbing how much Tim Daly looks like the real David Koresh! Now, given that Marsden has a full character name, I thought we would see him earlier in the film. Thinking he was part of the Branch Davidians, I searched the crowd when David gives his all-night sermon around 35 minutes in and I couldn’t see him at all. Because of this I probably missed his earlier appearance, if there was one, in the film considering he portrays the real ATF Special Agent Steven Willis. When he finally stands out, if he’d been there before, there’s around 20 minutes left. This moment lasts about 30 seconds with only one line, and the next time we see him he’s dead, shot during the ATF raid just as Agent Willis was in real life.
Honorary Mentions
I’ll be honest, it was really hard getting hold of films for this article because it looks like the majority of Marsden’s roles prior to X-Men were TV films, which leads me to believe that it was his role as Cyclops that truly made his name as an actor. The only films that weren’t made for TV would be Disturbing Behaviour in 1998, where he is the lead character, and Gossip in 2000 – same year as X-Men.
