The original X-Men was a fabulous, stylishly done comic-booky action movie with plenty of great action, and I must say, no matter how good the first was, X2: X-Men United completely kicks the mutated DNA right out of it.
In X2 (a great title change from X-Men 2, and a whole lot quicker to say), extremely loosely following the storyline of the famous X-Men graphic novel, God Loves, Man Kills, there is much greater mystery than in the first. The first installment was basically just giving you enough backstory into the characters' lives, and enough plot points, so that you'd be ready for X2. And I mean that, because in this sequel, the movie wastes no time explaining who the characters from the previous movie are, what they do, or where they're from...they expect you to already know. This gives the film much more time to expand upon the new characters.
The new mutants are: First and foremost, Nightcrawler, a very religious teleporting ex-German circus performer (who makes an absolutely startling debut in the very first scene); Lady Deathstrike, a female version of Wolverine; and Pyro, a fire-shooting, wise-talking student at Professor Charles Xavier's school. They're all very cool, and most importantly, very fleshed out.
All of these new characters, and all of the old ones as well, are this time around caught up in a plot by mutant-hating General William Stryker to annihilate all of mutantkind using the X-Men themselves. So he gets the plan off with one of the best scenes in the entire film, which is a raid on Professor X's mansion in which Stryker's men try to subdue all of the students and X-Men team members. There, Hugh Jackman really gets to show us how gruff he can be as the adamantium-laced star of the show, Wolverine. We also learn more about Wolverine's mystery-encompassed past in a very interesting subplot that eventually takes center stage.
Easily my two favorite performances came from Hugh Jackman as Wolvie and Sir Ian McKellen as Eric Lensherr, the Master of Magnetism himself, Magneto. Patrick Stewart comes in at a close third as Professor Charles Xavier, and all of the other actors are very good as well. The only problem in this department is some scenes involving James Marsden as Cyclops. Don't get me wrong, he does well, but in an emotionally dramatic scene for his character, he just wasn't 100% convincing (also, Cyclops is limited to about, say, 15-20 minutes screen time in this one). But, speaking of convincing, the special effects are. The special effects are great, especially during a riveting scene where Storm creates a weather anomaly to fend off oncoming military jets from the Blackbird jet.
The action scenes are wonderful and thrilling, as they should be. Some are staged very well, and others are just out-and-out "biff, bop, ka-pow", but it all works. In fact, some of the most memorable scenes in the whole thing are some truly stunning fights.
Thus far, I have to say that X2: X-Men United is the best film of the year that I have seen. It is clever, intelligent, great-looking, well-acted, and doesn't forget to throw a more-than-compelling story into the mutant mix. Haven't seen it yet? Shame on you. It is the number one movie in the world, not just America, as I write this, after all. There is a reason: It's great.
Rating: ****
Written: 5-11-03
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