Review of X2 (2003) by Jacob M — 02 Nov 2013

"Mr. Laurio, never trust a beautiful woman. Especially one who's interested in you.".

Bryan Singer's X-Men was the comeback of the superhero genre, so obviously, there would be a sequel made. Released three years after the first one, X2 is acomic book sequel that outdoes its predecessor.

The film begins where the teleporting mutant Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) attempts to kill the President (Cotter Smith), but fails. Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox), believing the mutants to be entirely evil, drugs the imprisoned Magneto (Ian McKellen) into revealing all the mutant secrets, leads an attack on the X-Mansion, kidnapping X (Patrick Stewart) and other students, and intends to mind-control X to use a second and allusioned Cerebro to kill off all the mutants for good. With the help of Mystique (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos), Magneto breaks out of prison and teams up with the X-Men in order to defeat Stryker.

Also, Hugh Jackman returns as Wolverine, who attempts to figure out his forgotten past, Halle Berry is back as Storm, James Marsden returns as Cyclops, Famke Janssen returns as Jean Grey, and Anna Paquin returns as Rogue.

New to the X-Men includes Shawn Ashmore as the Iceman, who not only controls the ice, but has a relationship with Rogue, and Aaron Stanford as Pyro, who controls fire. Well, they both made cameo appearances in X1 but they get loads more attention here in the sequel.

One of my problems with the first X-men is the lack of character development in the supporting characters, particularly Storm, Cyclops, and Jean Grey. The good news about X2 is that that problem is now over. With the many characters in this film, Bryan Singer pulled the impossible by giving every single character room to do stuff.

The cast is a real blast. Stewart and McKellen are still brilliant in their roles, even if X is mind-controlled for half the picture. I thought it was a brilliant idea for Magneto to team up with the X-Men, and McKellen stuns with his powerful voice and dominates every scene. Brian Cox makes a great villain, and his character has some intriguing and intense twists in him. While I thought Anna Paquin was miscast as Rogue in X1, here, she's more enjoyable, and was actually acting strong here. Berry and Marsden are more developed as Storm and Cyclops, with Berry having strong emotional power and Marsden providing good detail, even being out for half the picture, he's still an awesome character. Alan Cumming has a good, strong role as Nightcrawler, with excellent makeup. And Famke Janssen as Jean Grey is not only attractive, but moves the audience in her emotional scenes, particularly in the end.

But the real star of the film is Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Not only does he have that excellent star power to play a troubled, challenging character like this, but you feel for the character when he wants to figure out who he is. Jackman raises the bar in the action sequences, particularly in the X-Mansion raid and his duel with Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), who has more claws than Wolverine ever had.

Speaking of action sequences, they are definitely improvements this time around. The X-Mansion raid is tense and phenomenal, the opening attack with Nightcrawler at the White House is brilliantly suspenseful, an attack at a Boston home is excellent, a jet chase is pure adrenaline rush, and the finale was insanely incredible, featuring Wolverine's awesome fight with Deathstrike and the emotional ending with Jean Grey.

The visuals are a step up, and the score by John Ottman is one of his best, which is weird cause I don't view him as a great composer (Fantastic Four anyone?). X2's script is smart, amazing, and awesome, with the final result coming out as impressive.

X2 is bigger, badder, and more entertaining than its fun predecessor, and the visuals are awesome. Along with The Avengers, X2 has some of the most brilliant casts teaming up in an epic and awesome superhero movie.

"How does it look from there Charles? Still fighting the good fight? From here it doesn't look like they're playing by your rules. Maybe it's time we play by theirs!".