Long before the X-Men made a splash on the big screen, Marvel tried things on a smaller scale with this Fox TV Movie based on an X-Men spin-off title. They made a wise decision, and the result signals the beginning of Marvel’s rise as a theatrical force. Breezy and entertaining, audiences will be surprised how effective the low-budget Generation X entry is.

Generation X is the story of children taken to the Xavier Institute and trained by Emma Frost (Finola Hughes) and Banshee (Jeremy Rachford) to be a force for good. The Xavier mansion is actually the same one used in the X-Men movies! But not everyone has the children’s best interests at heart. An insane scientist (Matt Frewer AKA Max Headroom!) schemes to capture the young mutants to use in his deplorable dream experiments. There’s plenty of sly humor to complement an engaging storyline and it’s fun to see Emma Frost, Banshee, Jubilee, Skin, and Monet as live-action characters, along with a primitive version of Cerebro. .

This is the uncut, uncensored European version of the movie, longer and with many alternate cuts chock-full of raunchy dialogue (”Nice beaver!”) and sexy scenes unseen in North America.

Director Jack Sholder works wonders with the limited budget, managing to make the movie look more expensive and elaborate than a television film ought to. This was essentially filmdom’s first exposure to Marvel’s mutants, and Sholder ensures that they make a memorable impression.

This film has NEVER BEEN RELEASED OFFICIALLY, AND NEVER WILL BE. It is provided for collectors only, as a curioso object. Comes in the beautiful case shown above, imitating the look of 1970s Marvel Comics covers. Other rare and unreleased Marvel films are also available in this design, so you can build a collection. The spines follow the look of current Marvel trade paperbacks and look great on your shelf.

• Running Time: 91min
• Format: DVD-R
• Language: English
• Subtitles: None
• Video System: NTSC
• Region: 0 (No Region Protection)
• Audio quality: 9/10
• Picture quality: 8/10