"Generation X", as with the X-Men franchise, is set in a world where a small number of humans experience genetic mutations as they hit puberty and become ostracised from society as a result. While the government's policy is to send them to "mutant camps" to be straightened out, the X-Men leader and general philanthropist Dr Charles Xavier runs an academy which tries to rescue as many kids who get picked up as possible and encourage them to harness their abilities and use them for good. At the start of the film, we see two new students, Jubilee and Skin, joining the academy. Skin, who has stretchy limbs a la Reed Richards from Fantastic Four, has volunteered himself to join the academy while Jubilee, who can shoot fireworks from her hands, is rescued from police custody after being arrested when her abilities go haywire at a local amusement arcade.
The academy is run by two lesser X-Men, White Queen (who has the power of telepathy) and Banshee (who can emit a scream that immobilises everyone within a 100 yard radius) with other students including Refrax (who can shoot lasers from his eyes), Buff (who has a huge muscle mass which she's incredibly embarrassed about and usually covers up by wearing loose clothes), Mondo (who can make his skin take on the properties of any substance he touches) and M (the group's nominal ringleader who has super intelligence and strength and invulnerability to weapons attacks).
We also find out that the arcade that Jubilee was arrested in was being run by a mind control expert (and former colleague of White Queen's) called Dr Tresh played by Matt Frewer. This guy is probably the single most annoying villain I've encountered in the 18 weeks I've been doing this blog so far, over-acting to a ridiculous extent and basically coming off like a hyperactive Aldi Jim Carrey. I accept that this is meant to make us hate him but it's what's known in wrestling as "go away heat" in that it doesn't make you think "yeah, I really can't wait to see this guy get his when the X-Men get him", more "please just get off my screen now and never return you irritating t**t of a man". Apparently he's been using his powers to put subliminal messages into Virtua Fighter video games to get people to buy them. Well, at least it explains why that terrible game was so popular at the time I s'pose...
As the two new kids at the academy, Jubilee and Skin end up becoming friends as they try to fit in with the initially reluctant other mutants at the academy. The pair also have an interest in a dream technology and, after several failed attempts, Skin manages to hack into the room at the academy where the technology is held.
It turns out that this is the same machine that Tresh was helping White Queen with previously but he was thrown off the experiment for unethical conduct including trying to kidnap a mutant so he could slice their brain open and steal their powers. He's now working in advertising and trying to sell his way of manipulating people's thoughts by being able to enter their dreams. His take is that this can be used to influence peoples' consumer interests and allow corporations to sell whatever they want to the general public. However, even the bunch of big capitalist scumbags that he makes this presentation to find this idea beyond the pale and order his boss Bob to shut him down.
Tresh, however, isn't taking no for an answer and infiltrates Bob's dream that night causing him to sleepwalk and jump out of a window to his death. He's also realised that there are mutants accessing his "dream world" and decides to try and capture one to reactivate his experiment from years ago.
The students are occasionally allowed to go into the local town on the proviso that they stay away from any confrontation with the local kids and don't give anything away regarding their superpowers. However, on his first trip into town, Skin ends up making eyes at a local college girl resulting in her fratboy mates shoving his face into a banana split in the local diner. We also find out that Refrax has a crush on Buff but, contrary to his normally cocky persona, is shy about asking her out.
That night, Skin and Jubilee decide to activate the machine and see what they can do with it. During their trips into the dream world, both of them encounter Tresh. Jubilee sensibly runs away from the maniac as fast as she can but he befriends Skin by promising him the ability to enter the dreams of the girl he met in town earlier that day. However, while they're having the conversation, the police have burst into Tresh's flat and unplugged him from the dream world. He's about to be sucked up into a vortex and oblivion but Skin uses his stretchy limbs to grab him and bring him back to the dream world leaving him still alive but trapped in limbo.
The next week, the students go to town to visit the local carnival. While M is cleaning up on the strength machines, Buff and Refrax get to spend some quality time together. However, just as they're engaging in some back seat activity in the car, Refrax's full mutant ability kicks in giving him X-ray vision. This freaks him out and he suggests the two of them go back to join the others. Unfortunately, Buff overhears him talking to Mondo about this shortly afterwards and promptly dumps him.
Meanwhile, Skin has run into the girl he fancies and goes off for a walk with her. However, on returning to the fairground, the fratboys who beat him up earlier make an appearance and threaten him leading to Mondo, Refrax, M and Jubilee to get involved and the police to be called.
Back at the academy, White Queen is ready to expel all the students for their part in the fracas but Banshee persuades her to give them one more chance and instead, all six of them are grounded. This doesn't stop Skin still sneaking into the lab to use the dreamworld machine to go and see his girlfriend. However, he's interrupted by Tresh who orders him to repay him for introducing the two of them by bringing him back from the dreamworld or else he'll haunt the dreams of Skin and all his friends and family forevermore.
Suitably threatened, Skin goes to the mental hospital where Tresh is lying in a coma and uses the technology to bring him back. However, Tresh promptly kidnaps Skin and takes him to his lab to be operated on. Trying to unlock his full ability, Skin manages to use telekinesis to create an image of himself in Jubilee's room and get her to send for help.
Cue the big confrontation between the students plus White Queen and Banshee and Tresh. Refrax also takes the opportunity to apologise to Buff and tell her that he loves her in case they don't come back. As it happens, the students manage to defeat Tresh fairly easily with Skin eventually knocking him over the edge into an abyss before using his stretchy arm to rescue himself.
Back at the academy, White Queen and Banshee tell the students that they've redeemed themselves and they get some new superhero costumes as modelled by the now-much-more-confident Buff. Tresh meanwhile is left back in a coma, forever falling through the dream dimension...
Well there's no two ways about it, this film was dreadful and it really shows just how far the whole Marvel films concept had sunk before the next few films we're due to review arrested what was arguably a terminal decline. The idea of crossing X-Men with Harry Potter might have had some legs but the script on "Generation X" was terrible, the acting veered between trying to make the best of a bad situation to downright lousy (especially the ultra-annoying Frewer as described earlier) and the whole thing just feels cheap, low-rent and will-this-do. It was a very close-run thing as to whether this was going to go bottom of the table but the fact that it missed out is more a testament to how utterly meritless "Spiderman Strikes Back" is than any sort of redeeming qualities on its part. Quite simply, avoid like the plague and thank your lucky stars I'm watching these things to save you the reader having to do the same!
FINAL RATING: ⦻⦻ (2/10)
CURRENT MARVEL FILM TABLE
1. The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988) (6/10)
2. Conan The Barbarian (1982) (6/10)
3. Conan The Destroyer (1984) (6/10)
4. The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk (1989) (6/10)
5. Doctor Mordrid (1992) (5/10)
6. The Punisher (1989) (5/10)
7. Doctor Strange (1978) (5/10)
8. The Fantastic Four (1994) (4/10)
9. Red Sonja (1985) (4/10)
10. Captain America 2: Death Too Soon (1979) (4/10)
11. Spiderman (1977) (4/10)
12. The Death Of The Incredible Hulk (1990) (3/10)
13. Spiderman: The Dragon's Challenge (1979) (3/10)
14. Howard The Duck (1986) (2/10)
15. Captain America (1990) (2/10)
16. Captain America (1979) (2/10)
17. Generation X (1996) (2/10)
18. Spiderman Strikes Back (1978) (2/10)
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