X-Men 2

They've done a hell of a lot right. That's my response to Singer's X-Men films; they're slick, funny, emotive and a real blast to watch. Without overdrawn character introductions and explanations, X2 launches right into seventh gear and doesn't let up.

Admirably, the film allows the majority of its characters a genuinely engaging storyline amongst the bigger picture, and although the story is not without its fault (using Cerebro as a major plot point two films in a row is like building the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi; been there, seen it before) it is certainly worthy of high praise. It's amazing that in just two films we already have a real appreciation for the relationships between such a considerable group of characters, and it is for the continued development of these relationships - and not the cool story line and action sequences - that makes me look forward to another X-film.

I would love to say that it's the casting that makes the films so brilliant - and it's true, the casting is great - but a couple of these characters have been woefully miscast. Iceman stood out for me, bringing an uncomfortable Backstreet Boy vibe to the role, and although his role in X2 is small, James Marsden just doesn't seem to have it in him to hold a commanding and authoritative position among the X-sters as Cyclops. In the first X-film he managed to at least stand beside the Wolverine with some great gags, but he's been left in the gutter for X2, and in the single scene toward the end of the film where Marsden is allowed to genuinely act, his emotional response feels awkward and forced. I am sure he is capable of more than this, and hopefully when X-Men 3 comes around he'll have more to work with. I've never been happy with Halle Berry as Storm, and she looks bored out of her skull in this film. I hope not to see her return.

Thankfully, most of Singer's new cast are admirable. The recast Pyro is great and Nightcrawler is fantastic. In fact, Alan is the only actor in the film who comes close to matching the quality of Jackman's Wolverine and McKellen's Magneto. These wonderful actors all appear to genuinely revel in portraying their characters. Janssen steps her performance up a notch too and it helps the film no end. I really hope to see her in the next film.

Ultimately, there are just a few slip-ups here in an otherwise classy and supremely entertaining film. With such an established canon of characters everyone is going to have their own opinion on how particular character should be portrayed, and for the most part X-2 does the job. Hopefully the bugs will be ironed out and we'll see a sequel of equal or greater quality in a few years. I'm certainly excited at the prospect.

2000's smash hit X-Men certainly deserved a sequel (or two, or three), especially with all the cash it made and how the first one ended. Now the X-Men are back together once again, and this time they've got some new friends, including Nightcrawler and Pyro, and as well as some new enemies like William Stryker and Lady Deathstrike (his personal mutant "assistant"/slave). This time the X-Men find themselves locked in an unlikely alliance with Magneto and Mystique (their nemeses from the first film) against an evil military scientist named William Stryker, whose main goal is to eradicate the world of mutants once and for all.

X2: X-Men United is in many ways an improvement over the first film. It's more psychological, it's longer, there's more action, more mutants, more of Wolverine slicing it up and like the first film it's never boring or drags, right from the get-go X2 is fierce and exciting. In fact, X2 is almost the perfect comic book film… almost. The one little, weak link in X2, for me at least, was Nightcrawler. Now, I like the character of Nightcrawler, but I honestly didn't care that much for Alan Cumming, he came off as a bit weak, and kind of "dorky". The character of Nightcrawler really just seems like a huge convenience to the plot; like the scene where he rescues Rogue in the X-Jet, which was oh so very convenient. But the one thing I liked about Nightcrawler, besides that awesome opening sequence in the White House, was his religious side, which I thought was interesting and made me sympathize with the character a little more.

Pretty much everything in X2 works perfectly fine, which I attribute all that success to the amazing cast (Jackman, McKellen, Stewart, Marsden, Janssen, Berry, Paquin, Cox, Romijn), and the fact that the film was written and directed by the same people who clearly knew what they were doing back in 2000, and here they show us once again they still know what they're doing, and they aren't afraid to up the ante and take it up a notch. If you liked the first X-Men there's really no reason at all why wouldn't enjoy or like X2 as much, or maybe even more than the first film. It still has those surprising moments of humor, and plenty of action, maybe even more so than the original. And like the original, X2 sets itself up for a third film; let's just hope it turns out (at the very least) as good as the first two films, if not better.

The X-Men has always been my favorite comic book, without a doubt. Spider-man is probably in second place, but The X-Men take the cake. Ever since I heard a sequel was going into the works and Bryan Singer was still on board as director, I had faith that he would do the sequel justice...of course I couldn't help but have that looming fear that something would go wrong. In the end, the film was released and of course, I wasted no time in getting to the theater to see it on opening day.

After seeing the film, I can definitely say it's been a long time since I've come out of a movie theater as happy as I did for this film. The story was absolutely brilliant and was told in the perfect manner to keep you interested. ...And of course, there are plenty of new characters and action to keep the audience in awe as well.

Nightcrawler was a truly brilliant character to bring into the sequel of the film. Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) has always been one of favorite X-Men characters, perhaps even more than Wolverine...but that's up for debate. Teleportation has GOT to be one of the coolest and most interesting ideas for a mutant ability! I was incredibly stoked to see him brought to life on the big screen, Bryan Singer and Alan Cumming did a FANTASTIC job! Next to Wolverine, Colossus has also got to be one of my favorite characters. I can't even begin to express how happy I was to see him in the film...although not NEARLY enough was done with him when there was so much potential for his abilities in the film. Oh well, there's always X-Men 3 right? The other two new characters, Pyro (John Allerdyce) and Lady Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama) were very well done as well, although not much of their character histories were explained...which is ok, there is only so much time in a film. The rest of the characters already had a firm basis from the previous film and were all executed extremely well in this sequel, my hat is off to Mr. Bryan Singer, "Keep up the good work!"

The entire cast was absolutely perfect for the film. Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Anna Paquin, Kelly Hu, Aaron Stanford, Shawn Ashmore, and Daniel Cudmore all did incredible jobs with their roles and should be proud of their work, truly fantastic.

The story in this sequel is great. I love the idea of the good and the bad having an equal threat and being forced to work together in order to save them all. The chemistry and the relationship between Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) and Professor Charles Xavier is so bizarre and interesting...and very thought provoking. There are so many interesting and well done relationships between characters in the film: Logan (Wolverine) - Scott Summers (Cyclops), Rogue - Bobby Drake (Iceman), Jean Grey - Scott Summers (Cyclops) and Jean Grey - Logan (Wolverine) to name a few. I love just watching them all interact with each other.

What it all boils down to is this, if you liked the first film, then you should definitely like this film. I'm not sure I could say I liked X2 better than the original, but I'd definitely feel comfortable saying it was just as good...and better in certain aspects (but not as a whole).

I would definitely recommend seeing this film in the theater or at least rent it when it's released, it's well worth your time. This film isn't all about super-heroes, action and fantasy, there is a lot more to it than just that and I hope you can see and appreciate that. I do hope that you enjoy the film as much as I do and thank you for reading my review, be sure to read my review for the first "X-Men".

-Chris

P.S. They better start crackin' on a X3 right away!

Also..here's some interesting trivia for ya. In the scene where Mystique is finding out where Magneto is being held she is scrolling through a bunch of names, the name above Lensherr, Erik (Magneto) is LeBeau, Remy...aka "Gambit"...nice little touch there, I didn't get a look at the other names there, but there might be more allusions there. Another cool thing is in the scene where the security guard is in the bar, there is a TV on in the background with a guy named Hank McCoy talking...Hank McCoy later becomes known as "Beast". Pretty cool huh...

Absolutely happy! That is the only word I can use to describe my feelings after spending my hard-earned money to see X-Men 2. It was worth every penny.

Firstly, the makers of superhero films such as this have an unenviable task. They have to please hardcore comic fans and casual movie fans which is no easy task. And The X-Men-with their forty years of history and continuity-are perhaps the hardest heroes to put on the big screen. Well, I've spoken to many hardcore X-fans and casual movie fans and they all enjoyed it too.

I won't go into great detail about the plot. Let's just say that The X-Men and their enemy Magneto have to join forces to combat an even bigger threat. I enjoyed this movie so much because for the first time in years, I didn't read ANYTHING about the plot or any reviews prior to viewing it. That is why I'm not going to go into great detail about the plot. Just enjoy it.

All the favourites are back including my personal favourite Hugh Jackman as Wolverine (I hope Wolverine gets his own movie franchise one day). The makers of this movie have done a great job in making sure various characters get the right amount of screen time. We'd all love our favourites to get more screentime but with so many X-Men (and women), the producers have to do the best they can; and they do indeed.

There are a few really great special effects in this movie but unlike some special effects laden movies, the plot is more important in this movie. Furthermore, the movie is much deeper and really makes you think. Marvel comics (and movies) have always been deep and many of the issues have reflected real life. This movie is about persecution and intolerance of mutants and reflects many issues from the past and the present such as Hitler's treatment of the Jews and the different ideologies of Martin Luthor King and Malcom X. In fact, many longtime X-fans have compared the X-Men's Professor X to Martin Luthor King and the evil Magneto to Malcom X. Seeing a movie like this cannot only provide a couple of hours of entertainment but make you view society in a totally different way.

This is the best superhero film since the 70's (when we saw gems such as Superman The Movie) and the 80's (when we saw Tim Burton's Batman). It was a fantastic film but it begs one question-how are they ever going to top this?

X2: X-MEN UNITED (2003) ***1/2 Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Anna Paquin, Kelly Hu, Aaron Stanford, Shawn Ashmore, Cotter Smith. Superlative sequel and a boost of hyperactive energy in the franchise's arm in the second chapter of the Marvel Comics' cult classic this time with good mutants teaming with bad to stop a bent human military advisor (hissable Cox) out to wipe out both types at any cost. Far-out special effects, new characters (particularly winning is Cumming as the blue-skinned Night Crawler) and non-stop action packaged with kinetic infectious giddiness. Jackman continues to amaze as the tormented Wolverine, Berry is given more to do as the tempestuous Storm, Janssen's Jane Grey is perhaps the most nuanced in her suddenly advance telekinetic skills and McKellen is well…magnetic as Magneto. Fun tongue-in-cheek screenplay by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris (w/ David Hayter, Zak Penn and director Bryan Singer getting story credits) keeps up with the multi-layered storyline encompassing class welfare, social strata and in general to accept one for who they are and not what they are. Well done!