The X-factor for any sequel is how it measures up to the original.
Grade: B+
"X2: X-Men United" measures up marvelously. Not only is it much better than the first movie, but it stands so well on its own that you don't need to have seen its predecessor. Relieved of the responsibility of introducing a dozen or so characters (though there are some additions here), "X2" is at full-throttle from the very first scene: an assassination attempt in the White House.
The perp, if that's what you call a blue thingie with yellow eyes and a demon's tail, is Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), a born-again mutant with teleporting powers and a strong religious streak. His attack is more of a warning than anything else, but it's enough to get the government to reconsider its policy toward mutants -- that is, evolved beings with super powers. They put the matter in the hands of William Stryker (Brian Cox), a suspiciously gung-ho ex-military man who lives to make mutants miserable -- or dead.
First up for messing with is the school for young mutants run by Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a benevolent father figure with amazing mental abilities. He's the leader of the good mutants, who include Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Cyclops (James Marsden), Pyro (Aaron Stanford) and Storm (Halle Berry). They just want to live in peace with humans.
The leader of the bad mutants, who just want to live in peace by obliterating humans, is Magneto (Sir Ian McKellen), who begins the movie imprisoned in an all-plastic cell that foils his metal-manipulating powers. However, Stryker is an equal-opportunity mutant-hater. So Magneto and his shape-shifting ally, Mystique (the bodaciously blue and beautiful Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) must team up with their "enemies" for the common mutant good. Hence, the title.
Along with Nightcrawler, there are a few other new characters. Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu), who can go one-on-one with Wolverine. A little girl whose scream is so piercing she's every spoiled kid in the grocery store times a zillion. A little boy with a snaky tongue. And Colossus (Daniel Cudmore), who can turn his body into steel. Nothing much is said about a mutant kid whose bangs and glasses recall a certain popular boy wizard, but we shall see.
The great thing about the X-Men comic books has always been how they focus on character interaction as much as on super-powered battles. Relationships that were hinted at in the first film are more developed here -- the Cyclops-Jean Grey-Wolverine love triangle or the sexually frustrated feelings shared by Iceman and Rogue. (Heavy necking could prove fatal since she sucks the power out of everyone she touches.)
Like Sam Raimi ("Spider-Man"), director Bryan Singer really connects with his super-heroes and super-villains. But when it comes to putting together a movie, Singer is not in Raimi's league. The ending, which has about three finales, comes off as exciting, but somewhat overly ambitious. The effects are far better than in the original, but they can have their cheesy side, especially when everyone is running through the metallic corridors in Stryker's lair. Finally, when Stewart gazes off thoughtfully into the cosmos, you can't help but see Captain Picard on the deck of the Enterprise.
Speaking of whom, watching the actor who plays Picard square off against the one who's brought Gandalf to life in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (McKellen) in their plummy thespian tones is a ham-acting delight. Jackman, who was supposed to be the next Russell Crowe before he made waste material like "Swordfish" and "Kate & Leopold," reminds us what all the fuss was about in the first place. Plus, he's been cosmetically improved. The mutton chops have been toned down to a kind of full-face George Clooney stubble and the Elvis pomade is now more foxy/wolf-ish. Cumming, recycling his "Cabaret" aach-tung accent as the German-born Nightcrawler, makes an interesting addition. Janssen brings smarts and sensuality to her role while Romijn-Stamos brings, well, if you've seen the previews, you know what she brings.
There is one more litmus test for a sequel. Does it make you want to see a sequel to the sequel? I say bring on "X3."
"X2: X-Men United" is the kind of movie you enjoy for its moments, even though they never add up. Made for (and possibly by) those with short attention spans, it lives in the present, providing one amazing spectacle after another, and not even trying to develop a story arc. Having trained on the original "X-Men" (2000), i tried to experience the film entirely in the present, and the fact is, i had a good time. Dumb, but good.
Like the comic books that inspired it, "X2" begins with the premise that mutant heroes with specialized superpowers exist among us. Name the heroes, assign the powers, and you're ready for perfunctory dialogue leading up to a big two-page spread in which sleek and muscular beings hurtle through dramatic showdowns.
Like all the characters in the Marvel Comics stable, the X-Men have psychological or political problems; in the first movie they were faced with genocide, and in this one their right to privacy is violated with the Mutant Registration Act. Of course there will be audience members who believe mutants should have no rights, and so "X2" provides a valuable civics lesson. (How you register a mutant who can teleport or shape-shift is not explained.)
Perhaps not coincidentally, the movie has a president who looks remarkably like George W. Bush. The film opens with one of its best scenes, as a creature with a forked tail attacks the White House and whooshes down corridors and careens off walls while the Secret Service fires blindly. The creature's purpose is apparently to give mutants a bad name, inspiring still more laws undermining their rights.
Despite all of the havoc and carnage of the first film, just about everybody is back for the sequel. Amazing, that they weren't all killed. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) still runs his private school for young mutants, Magneto (Ian McKellen) still plots against him, and there is a new villain named Gen. William Stryker (Brian Cox) who is assigned by the government to deal with the mutant threat and uses the turncoat mutant Yuriko (Kelly Hu) on his team.
The principal mutants are, in credits order, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who has blades that extend from his knuckles; Storm (Halle Berry), who can control the weather; Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), whose power of telekinesis is growing stronger; Cyclops (James Marsden), whose eyes shoot laser beams; Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), a shape-shifter whose shapes are mostly delightful; Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), the teleporter who attacked the White House; Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), who can cool your drink and lots of other things; Pyro (Aaron Stanford), who can hurl flames but needs a pilot light, and Rogue (Anna Paquin), who can take on aspects of the personalities around her.
These superpowers are so oddly assorted that an X-Men adventure is like a game of chess where every piece has a different move. Some of the powers are awesome; Storm stops an aerial pursuit by generating tornadoes with her mental powers, and Dr. Jean Grey is able to restart an airplane in mid-air.
Odd, then, that Wolverine is one of the dominant characters even though his X-Acto knuckles seem pretty insignificant compared to the powers of Pyro or Cyclops. In a convention borrowed from martial arts movies, "X2" pairs characters with matching powers, so that when Wolverine has his titanic battle, it's with an enemy also equipped with blades. What would happen if Pyro and Iceman went head to head? I visualize the two of them in a pool of hot water.
One might reasonably ask what threat could possibly be meaningful to mutants with such remarkable powers, but Magneto, who has serious personal issues with mutants, has devised an invention which I will not describe, except to say that it provides some of the movie's best visuals. I also admired the scene where Dr. Jean Grey saves the X-Men's airplane, and the way Janssen brings drama to the exercise of Grey's power instead of just switching it on and off.
Since the earliest days of "Spider-Man," Marvel heroes have had personal problems to deal with, and there's a classic Stan Lee moment here in the scene where Iceman breaks the news to his parents that he is a mutant. The movie treats the dialogue as a coming out scene, half-seriously, as if providing inspiration for real-life parents and their children with secrets.
Other possibilities are left for future installments. There's a romance in the movie between Rogue and Iceman, but it doesn't exploit the possibilities of love between mutants with incompatible powers. How inconvenient if during sex your partner was accidentally teleported, frozen, slashed, etc. Does Cyclops wear his dark glasses to bed?
"X2: X-Men United" lacks a beginning, a middle and an end, and exists more as a self-renewing loop. In that it is faithful to comic books themselves, which month after month and year after year seem frozen in the same fictional universe. Yes, there are comics in which the characters age and their worlds change, but the X-Men seem likely to continue forever, demonstrating their superpowers in one showcase scene after another. Perhaps in the next generation a mutant will appear named Scribbler, who can write a better screenplay for them.
X2: X-Men United is more than the equal of the terrific original X-Men (2000); it is better in almost every way.
On this second go-round with the popular Marvel Comics tale, director Bryan Singer and company have come up with more action, better special effects, terrific new characters and deeper emotional tones. The result is just about as satisfying as a comic-book movie can get.
The story continues the saga of the original X-Men, mutants with special powers. Some politicians want to put them all in camps, or worse. When a mutant tries to kill the president in the Oval Office, a granite-eyed military man called Stryker (Brian Cox) gets the order to launch a crack-down.
Soon, commandos swarm over the school where Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his staff nurture young mutants. The surly, sexy loner Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) has returned from a long trek looking for clues to his troubled past, and leads an escape.
Seeking help, Xavier turns to his old enemy Magneto (Ian McKellen), the rogue X-Men leader now imprisoned in an all-plastic cell where his power over metal is useless. With ingenious help from his scaly blue shape-shifting sidekick Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Magneto goes to battle with the same bad guys threatening Xavier's crew.
The action is delivered with dash and ingenuity - even humor - and very neatly executed effects. One of the best is the teleporting Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), a pious Christian with blue-black skin covered in odd symbols. He also turns out to be a fascinating character, mild and kindly inside as he is fearsome on the surface.
That kind of character detail is what makes the movie more than a mere F/X hoedown. Singer and screenwriters Michael Dougherty and Daniel P. Harris understand that supernatural talents make the characters unique, but their relationships make them familiar.
So we see the visionary Jean Gray torn between Cyclops (James Marsden) and Wolverine, although Storm (Halle Berry) is inexplicably denied any romantic life. The audience suffers along when romance between Rogue and Iceman is thwarted because her touch means death. Even bad-boy antics from Pyro (Aaron Stanford) seem born out of pain.
Sound like a soap opera? It is, but of the highest order. It races along at video-game pace, but X2 still respects the fine old art of storytelling
05-02-2003 11:30 PM
