CLAMP, it could be argued, have never really respected their characters. It's a pity, because so many of their characters and series have such amazing potential and are interesting as they are, but the stories surrounding them and the ultimate resolution of the plot are often badly-handled. In particular, CLAMP tend to do at least a passable job on series and then essentially black flag them on the last lap, ruining the entire work by way of a poor attempt at an ending.
This is both the strongest and weakest aspect of X, as a film: it is blessedly brief. If it were any longer, it might develop the characters and make it infuriating that none of them really manage to survive. So in that respect, it's good that it is so condensed. But on the other hand, it's a pity that none of the fights, while interesting, are anything close to being impressive struggles. It's just some random people with interesting character designs in mortal combat. A character's final battle should be their most impressive, but that doesn't happen here. More or less all of the fights are brief, unexceptional, and confusing. And since we have no real emotional investment in any of them (aside from some hasty tries at back-building emotional connection with some of them as they're shuffled off), there's absolutely no tension whatsoever whether or not they'll survive.
It's also a pity that there isn't more buildup or more development of the circumstances. Too much time is spent on Kamui, and yet he doesn't manage to be compelling or sympathetic, just bland. Things happen simply because the script dictates, which is a common weakness in CLAMP works, rather than them actually having any seeming logical prompt. Kamui appears in a cape and flies around Tokyo upon his return for a good half-hour, for no good reason. Fuuma, despite his reasonable demeanour, immediately starts thinking he's Kamui and displays the most incomprehensible moustache-twirling villain psychoses. Where did any of this come from? Nothing in the plot led up to this; it just happened without reason.
There are also plenty of logical errors. Arashi draws a sword from her body without any detrimental effect, yet Kamui's mother (who for some reason must be nude and has vast, spherical breasts) and Kotori are both killed by the exact same thing. Hinoto says she cannot see, hear, or speak, yet Kanoe speaks aloud to her and she clearly hears and understands. Fuuma nonchalantly knocks off a few people without any motivation to do so. Nobody has thought to question the massive electrical drain BEAST must present. Likewise, not a soul has questioned the gathering of a bunch of random people in an extremely important part of the government building. The questions of destiny, choice, and strength are reduced to window-dressing by a group of people who only ever arbitrarily do anything.
Kotori is pulled into a dream and runs out from it, only to receive real damage, yet when Fuuma very clearly stabs Kamui, nothing actually happens and the animation becomes awkwardly stilted as Fuuma vanishes. What was that about? Satsuki's relationship with BEAST is also not well-defined, and its actions toward her are completely at odds with what a computer system would logically do -- which is, to act logically -- and makes the whole thing smack of 'because I said so' scripting. Kigai is in the film and has his characteristic weapon, yet his powers are given to a movie-only character who never appears anywhere else. Could they not have planned this a bit better? There's some grotesque content which is clearly included simply to satisfy the preferences of its genre when it was made, which is to say over-the-top violence, blood, apocalyptic scenarios, and boobs. X satisfies all of these in abundance, and in many cases without legitimate justification. It ends up detracting from the scenario, rather than enhancing it.
And the less said about the 'ultimate showdown', the better. As anticlimactic as all of the fights are during the film, the last is the least interesting of them all. The ending itself is laughably melodramatic and manages to piddle away what little was built up by that point.
It's a shame, because the Japanese voice acting is excellent, the music is evocative (except 'Forever Love', now marred irreparably by the surviving group members reuniting to exploit their past popularity), and the visuals are stunning. The animation is so smooth and so polished, so detailed, so painstakingly created. Everything but the actual plot came through, and that's especially a shame with something that has the potential to be interesting. Watching it, it's enjoyable only if the viewer completely switches off his mind and lets the images wash over him. The lack of cohesive plot or cultivation of any attachment to the characters enables this, at least, but it doesn't make for a good film.
In short, X is roughly tantamount to all of the blood-and-guts-and-boobs OVA productions that were so popular for American anime distributors to release in the 80s and 90s. Take any one of those and up the budget, and you have X. It's got violence, it's got blood, it's got a vaguely-defined apocalypse with a bizarre melange of various religions, and it's got boobs. It's not surprising that this was released in the US, and it's even less surprising that some people were all over it. It's practically tailor-made for the US anime market.
As for the rest of us, the things it omitted were a bit too insurmountable, chiefest of all being what every film really should have.
That is, a coherent plot.
This is both the strongest and weakest aspect of X, as a film: it is blessedly brief. If it were any longer, it might develop the characters and make it infuriating that none of them really manage to survive. So in that respect, it's good that it is so condensed. But on the other hand, it's a pity that none of the fights, while interesting, are anything close to being impressive struggles. It's just some random people with interesting character designs in mortal combat. A character's final battle should be their most impressive, but that doesn't happen here. More or less all of the fights are brief, unexceptional, and confusing. And since we have no real emotional investment in any of them (aside from some hasty tries at back-building emotional connection with some of them as they're shuffled off), there's absolutely no tension whatsoever whether or not they'll survive.
It's also a pity that there isn't more buildup or more development of the circumstances. Too much time is spent on Kamui, and yet he doesn't manage to be compelling or sympathetic, just bland. Things happen simply because the script dictates, which is a common weakness in CLAMP works, rather than them actually having any seeming logical prompt. Kamui appears in a cape and flies around Tokyo upon his return for a good half-hour, for no good reason. Fuuma, despite his reasonable demeanour, immediately starts thinking he's Kamui and displays the most incomprehensible moustache-twirling villain psychoses. Where did any of this come from? Nothing in the plot led up to this; it just happened without reason.
There are also plenty of logical errors. Arashi draws a sword from her body without any detrimental effect, yet Kamui's mother (who for some reason must be nude and has vast, spherical breasts) and Kotori are both killed by the exact same thing. Hinoto says she cannot see, hear, or speak, yet Kanoe speaks aloud to her and she clearly hears and understands. Fuuma nonchalantly knocks off a few people without any motivation to do so. Nobody has thought to question the massive electrical drain BEAST must present. Likewise, not a soul has questioned the gathering of a bunch of random people in an extremely important part of the government building. The questions of destiny, choice, and strength are reduced to window-dressing by a group of people who only ever arbitrarily do anything.
Kotori is pulled into a dream and runs out from it, only to receive real damage, yet when Fuuma very clearly stabs Kamui, nothing actually happens and the animation becomes awkwardly stilted as Fuuma vanishes. What was that about? Satsuki's relationship with BEAST is also not well-defined, and its actions toward her are completely at odds with what a computer system would logically do -- which is, to act logically -- and makes the whole thing smack of 'because I said so' scripting. Kigai is in the film and has his characteristic weapon, yet his powers are given to a movie-only character who never appears anywhere else. Could they not have planned this a bit better? There's some grotesque content which is clearly included simply to satisfy the preferences of its genre when it was made, which is to say over-the-top violence, blood, apocalyptic scenarios, and boobs. X satisfies all of these in abundance, and in many cases without legitimate justification. It ends up detracting from the scenario, rather than enhancing it.
And the less said about the 'ultimate showdown', the better. As anticlimactic as all of the fights are during the film, the last is the least interesting of them all. The ending itself is laughably melodramatic and manages to piddle away what little was built up by that point.
It's a shame, because the Japanese voice acting is excellent, the music is evocative (except 'Forever Love', now marred irreparably by the surviving group members reuniting to exploit their past popularity), and the visuals are stunning. The animation is so smooth and so polished, so detailed, so painstakingly created. Everything but the actual plot came through, and that's especially a shame with something that has the potential to be interesting. Watching it, it's enjoyable only if the viewer completely switches off his mind and lets the images wash over him. The lack of cohesive plot or cultivation of any attachment to the characters enables this, at least, but it doesn't make for a good film.
In short, X is roughly tantamount to all of the blood-and-guts-and-boobs OVA productions that were so popular for American anime distributors to release in the 80s and 90s. Take any one of those and up the budget, and you have X. It's got violence, it's got blood, it's got a vaguely-defined apocalypse with a bizarre melange of various religions, and it's got boobs. It's not surprising that this was released in the US, and it's even less surprising that some people were all over it. It's practically tailor-made for the US anime market.
As for the rest of us, the things it omitted were a bit too insurmountable, chiefest of all being what every film really should have.
That is, a coherent plot.