Review of X2 (2003) by Brycen K — 25 Nov 2013

Of the five X-Men movies released thus far, this one is my favourite. Maybe due to the addition of Brian Cox (Manhunter, Braveheart, Nuremberg, Super Troopers, Killzone, Troy, Trick 'r Treat, Red, Red [Yep, two movies called Red]) as an actor, or to Nightcrawler (above) as a character, because they're both bloody brilliant. More likely it's due to taking the set-up and originality already garnered in the first film, and then upping the quota and learning from mistakes, while still keeping on the great themes and effects.

The characters (of which there is a lot) were handled much better than the original. Kudos to Singer for managing to bring every actor back on board to play the same characters. On characters, I'd ike to point out my "annoyance" paragraph from my X-Men review, stating how easy it was to hate all the angsty characters. Well, they've most certainly seen to that here. The film jumps forward a bit and everybody has a chance to settle down, as well as the length of the film to grow.

Three years is quite a long time in terms of effects, particularly CGI, which the film excels at this time around, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be long enough to learn how to come up with convincing wire-tricks, as this is still a fault in X2. But it's a marked improvement.

I liked seeing Wolverine get around to killing in the film. I don't expect an Super Hero movie to satisfy the gorehound in me or anything, and I'm also not one of those guys who's only interested in watching an action film for the violence, but when a guy naturally evolves from birth to become a perfect fighter, then volunteers for an experiment to turn him into an indestructible living weapon, and the film isn't about him fighting against his destiny of conquest or some such, then it's pretty unbelievable to give him a Batman-complex of no-kill-rule. Just sayin'.

Again the film totally screws with the comics, and in turn is screwed by Origins: Wolverine, but that's not what I'm here to judge (although I do have trouble seeing why the same people that made the X-Men films would back Wolverine. It makes no sense to me to purposefully rape your own franchise).

As I stated before, Brian Cox as Col. William Stryker and Alan Cumming as Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler were both stellar additions to the already strong cast, making up a much more likeable film based on comic-book characters, which is no small feat. Though with the addition of these two new characters, the film once again severely lacks in the characters of Storm and Cyclops. While I never really cared for either, and Cyclops' absence is explained, and his end scenes make up for it, Halle Berry gets virtually nothing done as the weather-controlling mutant. It's not a case of "coulda just done this" either, the film is already quite long, and there's really no room for her in the script, so she ends up as more of a plot device, sort of thrown in to be helpful in situations because they forgot to make use of her.

Seriously, Stryker and the US President are trying to win a war against the mutants, Magneto and Mystique are trying to win a war against the humans, Professor X is trying to stop the war from happening, Wolverine is searching for answers about his past, Pyro is trying to find his place in the world, Professor Jean Grey is struggling with controlling her growing power, Cyclops and Lady Deathstrike are being used by their enemies against their friends, Rogue and Iceman are trying to figure out how to continue their doomed relationship, Nightcrawler is the God-loving mutant with a demon-appearance, trying to fit in with the X-Men. Despite so many characters going in so many different directions, they totally pull it off, and then, there's Storm. SHe's sort of... not.

So that was a big qualm, as Halle Berry's quite a talented actor (sidenote; apparently you're not supposed to say "Actress" any more, 'cause, it's like, to do with prostitution or something? I dunno). But, those things aside, it's really quite good. Don't think this means you can just watch this one and leave it at that though! Another... well not "problem" per se, but something that could plausibly be a negative, is that I can imagine X2 would be crazy difficult to make sense of without watching X-Men first. And after you've watched X2, you're gonna want to watch The Last Stand, trust me... Too bad I don't own it =| Yet! What to review until then?...

78%.

-Gimly.