I read this novelization years ago, right after the movie came out. I loved the film - it was one of the first films I saw more than once in the theatre. This novelization follows the film fairly well except for one, glaring, cringe-inducing issue: Wolverine has four claws on each hand instead of three. Now, I get that the book was written before the film, probably well before, but Wolverine has been a staple of the comics for decades. Every time he "popped his claws," one from each knuckle, it made me grind my teeth because it was wrong. Other than that, the book was fast-paced, with a little extra expansion on what characters were thinking and feeling during pivotal parts of the movie.

If the claws don't annoy the crap out of you, as they did me, this book was a decent read. ( )

A warm up for the fist movie... It's basically sort of a story board of the movie, specially what concerns the drawings, dreadfull. ( )

The book keeps pretty close to the movie.
It's well written and entertaining. ( )

As every fan knows, the X-Men made their Marvel Comics debut in 1963. Like other Marvel crime-fighters, these oddly assorted mutants have both superpowers and terrible personal hang-ups. Now an established writing partnership has novelized the X-Men movie from 20th Century Fox.
The storyline follows the recurring X-Men theme of mutants being feared and persecuted by humanity -- not helped by the minority who use their powers for evil. Here the comics' bad guy Magneto is less wicked than misguided, aiming to defuse prejudice with a Machine that pumps superpowers into ordinary folk, such as anti-mutant US Senators. Unfortunately this scientific genius neglected to research the side effects.
Meanwhile, telepathic Professor Charles Xavier teaches his X-Men recruits to handle their abilities and neuroses: Cyclops (destructive red-eye beams), Rogue (drains souls), Storm (controls weather), Wolverine (super-strength, extensible claws).
""I opened this school, a place where mutants could be safe from persecution. This is a place where they could not only learn to focus their powers, but also learn that mankind is not evil. Just uninformed.""
Colourful, kinetic fight sequences abound, especially towards the climax of Magneto's master plan. These scenes cry out for stunning artwork on lavish film SFX; our authors do their best with mere words. Their competent story-telling will be best appreciated by comics' aficionados and lovers of the movie, who'll have clear images of Marvel's bizarre, exotic characters and costumes.
-- David Langford in Amazon.com