Review of X2 (2003) by Maineutral R — 22 May 2014

It's weird how many people call the first X-Men the benchmark for comic book movies. It was good on managing a lot of characters, but something harder and even ambitious, is to evolve these characters and establish new ones. X2 not only accomplish that, but also gets everything else bigger, better, more powerful, more entertaining, more provoking, more climatic, more exiting...this is one of the best comic book movies ever. This SHOULD be regarded as the so-called benchmark of the comic book movies.

X2 makes everything bigger without overwriting it. It knows how many stories it manages, and closes all of them while leaving some loose ends good enough to have us guessing, but not so much to feel this was an incomplete story. Much like the first movie (only, better) it accomplished what it wanted to accomplish, but it also accomplished much more in the way. This is like a pre-Dark Knight formula of making sequels: make everything bigger and better, but not dumber. Well, it does have some dumb moments, but, like I said, this is a pre-Dark Knight, not entirely perfect, but very close.

The performances are great once again, and the cast seem to have grown on the characters, which is good. One of the things I didn't like from the first X-Men was the music, done by Michael Kamen. It didn't felt energetic or fitting, but this time, John Ottman made a great score to fit this second installment. Another proof of how to make everything better and bigger. The movie is fine and well, but there are two major problems I had with this movie:

First, between the transition from the first to the second act, the movie got kinda slow or not very exhilarating, while that was fixed later on, it still was pretty bothering. And second, (SPOILERS) the death of Jean Gray was not only very cheesy, but also stupid. Couldn't she move the aircraft while being inside of it? I'm pretty sure she could, she seemed very powerful before, she even took down a torpedo that was out of the ship early in the film. Not only that, she was also able stop a highly pressurized water wall with one hand while levitating the ship with the other, and not only that, but also being able to use Charle's mind to say goodbye and not enabling Nightcrawler to teleport, while ALSO controlling the ship by her own...yeah, she IS very powerful, she just forgot it...how could that happen? Couldn't she levitate herself along with the ship to get the fuck out of the danger? I'm kinda being nit-picking here, but I can't stop, because I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to find this moment incredibly convenient just to have the Phoenix in the next movie (which, is no surprise, didn't work well). (SPOILERS END).

X2 is an awesome early example of great comic book movie that tends to get overlooked at times. We must not forget the ones that actually teach how to be bigger and better. One of my favorite comic book movies of all time. We'll see if Days of Future Past can exceed this movie's awesomeness.