X2: X-Men United (Widescreen Edition)

 

 

Create your own review

When taking into account all the comic book movies that have hit the theater recently this may sound like a bold statement, but really it's not. This may be a large grossing sub-genre but it isn't really that many movies we're talking about. With X2 though, I'm inclined to go even further and say it's one of the best sci-fi action films of all time...seriously. In terms of strictly comic book movies, it's simply either this or Batman Begins. I say X2 wins even in that comparison, but I'm certainly willing to accept the opposite view.

The film opens with a brilliant introduction to a crucial character, the German teleporter Nightcrawler who looks like a little blue demon but possesses an intense devotion to Catholicism, and his introduction does not serve to assist in painting him as a hero. More of an anti-hero I guess. I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't actually seen it but X2 opens with one of the more memorable action sequences of recent date and the film contains three more specific sequences that are just as good. Magneto's inevitable escape from his plastic prison is one of them.

One of the other memorable scenes sets up the real storyline for X2 quite nicely and introduces us to other mutant heroes in the process. William Stryker, an inventive military man, is motivated by his personal experience with mutant-kind to actually organize an assault on Charles Xavier's school for mutants. He wishes to gain access to the mutant tracking device called Cerebro and destroy all of them. His teams' assault is truely great action-filmmaking. The X-Men and Magneto, with his loosely forming band of mutants who agree with his politics on how to respond to humanity, find a common enemy in Stryker. The relationship established between Charles and Magneto in the first film is really important here as younger mutants develop and choose sides. I have to say, if I were in their predicament I may certainly be swayed by Magneto's extremism. The character developement here for supporting roles is important to note. Mystique and Pyro are really great villains here with massive emotion behind their actions and it's never over-stated, but it enhances the meaning and consequences to action sequences so well.

The other incredible action scene is when Bobby Drake's family calls the cops on him and his new mutant friends. There are enough under-stated layers in this scene and the characters; Wolverine, Rogue, Bobby and Pyro, are still consistent. The police show up and Pyro reveals his wrath. I always get excited for that scene even though I know he's wrong in his reaction. I mentioned four action sequences but the fun doesn't end there. Lady Deathstryke, who has been brainwashed by Stryker, and Wolverine have a great fight scene. Other scenes during the climax are just as impressive and all the while we are given enough tid-bits of so many characters that we still manage to care and even get a bit surprised near the end. It's a shame this wasn't pulled off in the third film.

X2 is unique in the sense that the plot is secondary and the film's primary operative is to develop the characters for more climactic stories. I think the screenplay succeeds in this sense but overall the screenplay (written by voice actor David Hayter) is not one of the film's strengths and can require a more robust imagination to really appreciate. Overall though, within the context of a complete trilogy, X2 is nearly perfect.

I never had anything to do with X-Men comics or cartoons and I only liked the first one. But this one was INCREDIBLE and I am now a huge fan of both movies! Unlike the disappointing Hulk (bad movie) and even the fragile Spider-man story, X-Men brigs true human issues to the big screen and almost can be taken out of the comic book genre because it seems so much more than that. Don't waste your money on mindless ridiculous movies like Hulk, instead get a movie that you know you will enjoy. THe interaction between the characters is great. Each has something great to do. Women take a fornt seat as Storm, Jean Grey, and Mystique are the major stars of the movie. Wolverine and Magneto play awesome roles and although Professor X's role may be smaller than in the first, it is much more important to the story of the film. The new X-Men just get cooler and cooler, bringing Nightcrawler, Deathstrike, Iceman, and Pyro to the scene. Also, Rogue and Cyclops are back, although with smaller roles, they have their moments. The action in non-stop and fantastic from Wolverine's rage on the school invasion to Storm and Jean piloting the X jet away from incoming missles. THe opening scene with Nightcrawler is not easily forgotten and shows Bryan Singer's true talent. The nemesis is fantastic and seeing the X-Men together in a fragile relationship is a joy to watch. Get this movie! Get X-Men 1 too! Its a saga you won't want to miss!

Even more so that its predecessor, "X2: X-Men United" is more of a treat for those of us weaned on Marvel Comics and know the complete back story of every single mutant superhero who pops up through the movie. When Dr. Hank McCoy (Steve Bacic) is shown debating the rights of Mutants on television we recognize he is one of the original merry mutants in yellow spandex, the Beast. During the final shot of the film we nod knowingly because our intimate knowledge of "X-Men" #101 means we recognize the strange shape and can hazard a pretty good guess as to what happens in the third X-Men movie before the credits even start to roll on this one.

This film is better than the first one, which is a very good sign in the world of Hollywood where a sequel is one thing but a franchise is even better. The first time around the X-Men, the good mutants of Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), had to stop Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his bad mutants (the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for those who know their X-Men lore), although there were humans trying to push a Mutant Registration Act through Congress. This time it is the ordinary humans who are after all the mutants in the world, ironically, by using mutants in the effort. In charge of the effort is General William Stryker (Brian Cox), who has found a means of extracting information from Magneto about Xavier's School for Gifted Children as well as some other ways of allowing him exercise some degree of mind control.

The worst thing I can say about "X2" is that it begins with the best action sequences the entire film. A mutant gets into the White House and goes after the President (Cotter Smith) in the Oval Office. We know that this is Kurt Wagner (Alan Cummings), a.k.a. Nightcrawler, who has the gift of teleportation (apparently without the omnipresent of brimstone this time around). This surprises us because he is one of the "good" mutants, but the answer will be forthcoming. He is one of the few new characters introduced into the mix and the tatoos they have worked into Nightcrawler's make-up are superb; on the basis of Nightcrawler and Zhaan from "Farscape," there simply need to be more blue chracters on television and in the movies.

Anyhow, Nightcrawler's attack on the President gives Stryker carte blanche to go after the mutants and his first target is the school in Westchester, New York. When the troops hit Xavier's school is probably the second best action sequence in the film, and we are still only a half hour into the film (the final action sequences has great significance but is considerably less spectacular). For those who remember when Marvel editor Jim Shooter put his foot down about X-Men characters doing any actual killing (e.g., a whole planet of asparagus people), it is rather surprising to see Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) slicing and dicing his way through the shock troops. From that point on the goal is for the X-Men to stay ahead of Stryker's army and try to stop his plan and save mutant-kind.

There are echoes of a lot of different epic adventures from the X-Men comic books in this film. The script by Michael Dougherty and Daniel P. Harris is based on a story created by David Hayter, Zak Penn, and director Bryan Singer, who were obviously inspired by the writers (Stan Lee, Len Wein, and Chris Claremont) and artists (Jack Kirby, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne) of the comic books. There is still Wolverine trying to get between Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Scott Summers/Cyclopes (James Marsden), as well as the sudden spikes in Jean's powers. Rogue (Anna Paquin) is trying to figure out a way of having the most tentative of physical relationships with Bobby Drake/Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), while John Allerdyce/Pyro (Aaron Stanford) is trying to figure out whether or not he should switch sides. There are a lot of characters being juggled here; Halle Berry has an Oscar and is one of the good mutants, but she does not have much to do except exercise her powers to control the weather periodically. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets more to do as Mystique, except, of course, you can never tell.

Ultimately what makes this film less than perfectlly satisfying is the fact that the nature of the characters compels the writers to create artificial restraints. When Marvel put out the "Ultimate X-Men" comic books it proved what I had long suspected: that you can really only have one fight between the X-Men and Magneto for all the marbles because as long as he has his helmet on, the Mutant Master of Magneticism is pretty much invincible. This is proven in "X2" when Magneto finally escape; keep in mind how he does it and then come up with a reason why he does not simply go out and do that to every human being on earth. Similarly, when the troops attack the school, there is more fleeing than fighting, although the tranquillizer darts used by the invaders do not work on the armored Piotr Rasputin/Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) or Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat (Katie Stuart) with her ability to walk through walls. Granted, the important thing is to get the kids to relative safety, but Wolverine does not have to do the Horatio at the bridge act.

The key to where the next film can succeed even better is contained in the climax, not only in terms of story of self sacrifice involved but also in the promise of rebirth. In other words, the next time around "X-Men" can reach operatic heights if they do any justice at all to the Dark Phoenix epic. Cross your fingers, True Believers.

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 251 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

 

4.0 out of 5 stars Some technical problems, but overall a great movie!
Ok... first of all, I have loved X-men for as long as I can remember... from the comic book to the movies to the t.v. shows ever since my dad introduced me I was hooked! Read more

Published on July 20 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A lot better than the first X-Men
I loved all the special effects and the storyline with Bobby (Iceman) and Rogue. I thought they were so cute together. Read more

Published on July 20 2004 by Desiree

5.0 out of 5 stars Another X-Men...
Even if you aren't an X-Men fanatic like myself, I suggest seeing this movie. Just... see the first one first. Read more

Published on July 15 2004 by Theatre Kidd

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Action, Not Much Film Time for Cyclops
I'm not sure why another reviewer called this "TRASS" (I think they meant "TRASH"). This movie was a lot better than the first X-Men movie. Read more

Published on July 14 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars You gotta love those mutants
Picking up somwhere after we left, X-2 is one of those rare sequels that kicks the other's butt.
The first I found wasn't one to watch twice, but X-2 is. Read more

Published on Jun 25 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars good
this movie had much better action than the first one, but the plot was very bad. the dvd features were very good.

Published on Jun 21 2004 by thmnshw4

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Sequel
We loved Patrick Stewart when he took the helm from Captain Kirk.

Now we love Stewart rolling around in his wheel chair with super human powers (thanks to his brainiac... Read more

Published on Jun 11 2004 by adoni_pub

5.0 out of 5 stars getting there, X3 will be true breakthrough
X2 as opposed to X1 started laying the groundwork for the major epic created by Claremont in the 90s, the Phoenix Saga. Read more

Published on Jun 10 2004 by RDO

5.0 out of 5 stars better than the first
the first xmen movie had to accomplish so much in the introduction of so many characters that most of them as well as the plot itself got short-changed. Read more

Published on May 29 2004 by Cameron Boahn

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Superhero picture!
I grew up reading the Uncanny X-Men and other comics, and I have to say this is a pretty darn good picture. Humans came a long way from the old 1980's superhero movies. Read more

Published on May 25 2004 by Tony CioLi

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 251 customer reviews on Amazon.ca

Search Listmania!