Martybear (X-Men 2)
X-Men 2
Directed by Bryan Singer
Story by Zak Penn, David Hayter, and Bryan Singer
Screenplay by Michael Dogherty, Dan Harris, and David Hayter
When I think about what an X-Men movie should be there is no doubt in my mind that it must strike a delicate balance. Social relevance must be weighed against preachiness, the size of the cast needs to be balanced to allow for proper character development, and I’d like to see some distinctly “X-Men” content blended with some new material to create something suitable for the big screen.
Somehow X2: X-Men United managed to do all that despite being nearly crippled by the same creative team that put together the first movie (which was an unmitigated train-wreck). It seems that they learned from their mistakes. David Hayter had a lot of help working on this one, both from professional writers and from the fact that the script borrows somewhat liberally from “God Loves, Man Kills” (arguably Chris Claremont’s quintessential work on the X-Men). I’m still a little pissed about Wolverine’s size and accent, but I’m more willing to forgive it in this installation since it maintains continuity. It’s a shallow justification to be sure, but it gets us through the movie.
What really impressed me was Nightcrawler. I’m biased, I admit it. Nightcrawler has been my favorite character since I was a kid, and his introduction to the series made me all stupid and giddy. It was great to see him teleporting around and acrobatically kicking ass. In fact, I wish I liked this movie less. I might have more lucid and entertaining things to say about it.
So let’s talk about some bad points!
X2 falls into two separate and equally distasteful traps that plague the X-Men in all its’ incarnations from print to animation to silver screen. The first is that the cast is quite simply too large to allow for every character to play an important role in the film. Storm seems to drift in and out of the movie with no real purpose other than piloting the jet, despite being a ‘central’ character. Even with this glaring oversight the film throws in cameos for Beast, Colossus, Artie (and if Artie is around I’m forced to assume that Leech is nearby), Shadowcat, Jubilee, Siryn and a kid who I can only assume is supposed to be Douglas. Add on top of that teasing at the possibility that we might see Gambit, Multiple Man, Cannonball, Husk, Psyche/Mirage, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Proteus, et cetera, et cetera, ad nauseam, and we’re left practically dizzy with the amount of characters trying to get in on the action.
The second trap is far more insidious and even harder to avoid. Since it’s built on the Claremont model of human-hating mutants vs mutant-hating humans with the X-Men stuck in the middle trying to please everyone, ultimately it’s Magneto that comes out looking like the most empathetic character in the lot. This is unfortunate considering he’s a genocidal madman.
My main complaint, however, is that this movie is obviously a middle-child. There’s precious little introduction to the characters, so if you’re not familiar with them you’ll most likely be a little lost. Plus it ends on a fairly obvious and cheesy cliff-hanger, and if you’re familiar with the saga of the X-Men, the reference is even more painfully obvious.
Overall I enjoyed X2 despite its weakness as a stand-alone film and that it seemed a little choppy in places (probably due to an oversaturated cast). Bryan Singer’s visual strength lends itself well to comic-book adaptations, and the film really does look like a graphic novel.
Review by Martybear