|
Quote of the Moment
|
|
"No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, it's the ones I love who will always be the ones who pay. I want a life of my own...I'm Spider-Man no more!"
- Peter Parker, Spider-Man 2
|
|
|
|
|
Rating:  out of five
Written By: Kelvin Hui
The X-Men are back in this blockbuster sequel, the next chapter in this franchise, which kicks off the 2003 summer movie season with a bamf! Yes, that’s right a bamf. For those of you who don’t know what that word means, it is essentially used in the comic books to describe the sound that a certain mutant makes when he utilizes his special powers. It was absolutely X-citing, X-ilirating, X-treme, and X-traordinary! Wow…I believe I just used every word starting with ex that I could to describe this movie. It’s one of the most highly anticipated movies of the year for many people including myself. It made everyone wait three entire years for it to be released after the original came out so naturally the question is was it worth the wait? You’re darn tooting it was! I saw the movie last night at Silvercity with my best friend Ben, my sister, and her friend. I’ve heard many people say that it’s even better than the original which I can completely understand since it was indeed amazing but I’m not sure I’m in agreement. Of course, every movie has its problems and minor setbacks including this one but I’ll talk about that later. There isn’t anything bad in this movie to stop you from going to the theatre for a great cinematic experience, which this film is sure to provide. There are many things to talk about in this film so let me now begin with this review.
The X-Men are mutants, a new breed of humankind and the future of evolution, which has finally emerged. They are the Children of the Atom, homo-superior individuals gifted (or is it cursed?) with strange and fantastic abilities simply by virtue of their genetic makeup. The X-Men first appeared in X-Men (Vol. 1) #1 in the year 1963, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Marvel Comic book series. The movies are an adaptation of the comics and follow them somewhat faithfully, but of course there are bound to be many differences. The movie begins right where the first one left off, only a little bit of time has passed since we last saw our favourite group of superheroes. The first scene is set in the White House, once again continuing the political aspect and storyline that the movie has. The action begins right away with an awesome fight sequence featuring one of the newest mutants to join the team, the acrobatic Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) who has the ability to transport himself from place to place at a dizzying speed. He attacks the president of the United States and the news of the assault causes a public outcry against mutants, including renewed support for the Mutant Registration Act. When William Stryker (Brian Cox), a military leader, hears about the attack he sees his opportunity to persuade the president to allow him to put the first steps of his secret and grand plan into execution. Stryker soon puts into motion an offensive on the X-Men mansion and school, which is located in Manchester, New York to eradicate the "freaks." The time has come for those who are different to stand united.
Now what is all the hype that you have been hearing, reading, and seeing about the new X-men movie? There are so many good things about the film that it really does deserve the buildup that it has received but more importantly in the end it lives up to the X-pectations that its fans and moviegoers have of it. The sequel has more action, mutants, and is on a larger scale than the original one. Here are all of the good things that the picture has going for it: absolutely amazing special effects, a terrific cast that portrays complex characters, epic action sequences, a great sense of humour, well-written dialogue, good directing, and almost everything else that makes a movie worthwhile. As you can see I’m a little bit positive about the film. To start off, in a movie such as this, the special effects are a necessity and they play a large part, there has to be many FX shots in it. The graphics are sooo cool; it really does show the imagination of the makers of this movie and the incredible technology that enables them to do it. For every mutant and their special power, there is a different special effect for them that is usually really neat. This is especially true for Nightcrawler; his transportation ability is simply awesome. The effects really do bring the film to life and catch our eyes because you have to pay attention to some of them, which we’ve never seen before.
(The Mazda RX-8 will be my first car…I wish!)
The cast is truly large and good with quite a few big stars and up and coming new actors/actresses in this film. Most of the main characters that were in the first film return for X2: X-Men United with a few new roles just to keep things interesting and surprising. Now I would like to list the main mutants of the movie, get ready for a run-on sentence (deep breath): Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Storm (Halle Berry), Magneto (Ian McKellen), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden), Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), Pyro (Aaron Stanford), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and finally Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu). Whoa! Now that’s a long list of characters! There are even some neat cameos by some other mutants such as Jubilee, Colossus, Shadowcat, and Siren. This actually kind of turned out to be a negative thing as in the first movie but I will discuss this problem further later. Nevertheless it is a great cast; there are even several Academy Award winners and nominees in there. Oh and I have to say that it’s one of the best-looking group of actors that I have ever seen assembled in one movie before. Both the men and women are attractive in it what with their leather uniforms and revealing clothes. Hugh Jackman leads the men with his sexiness (not that I would know or anything? but he’s the manliest with his physique and toughness. I think every lady is really beautiful and sexy in her own right but Kelly Hu was very attractive in this movie with the business suit, the glasses, and the leather suit. Every time I saw her on screen I just went gagagagagagagagagagagagagagagagagagaga…well I think you get the idea. Besides she’s Chinese and I have to support her…man we are taking over the world! Oh another thing that I really like about the film is that they have some diversity in it; finally we get to see some Asian people in a movie!
The characters in the film are all complex and really all of their stories are quite sad, they’ve all faced adversity in their lives. Wolverine has no recollection of his past, which is very frustrating and even frightening. Rogue can not even touch another person, which means she will never truly be able to experience things that we can like handing hands, hugging, kissing, or making love. X-Man Cyclops will always have to wear his ruby-quartz sunglasses or visor; he’ll never be able to see anything with his own two eyes. It’s all very sad and it reinforces the idea that these gifts really are curses, although some mutants marvel in their special abilities. Once again Hugh Jackman does a fantastic job portraying the rabid Wolverine with his rough around the corners personality. He let’s his character Logan be tough while still being sincere and sensitive especially when it comes to a certain woman in his life. All of the returning players do an okay job in my mind but it’s the newcomers that really stand out. Nightcrawler has a very cool look a la Mystique and I like the fact that he really is a gentle religious person who prays, it’s just a different character. Iceman is a returning character but his role is enlarged in this chapter and he ‘s very cool. Get it? Cool? Ice is cool; oh man that’s funny stuff. Once again Lady Deathstrike is a very beautiful lady and she is basically a female version of Wolverine. She also has the same powers and her body is laced with the indestructible metal Adamantium hence the nails. But I saved the best for last; the most X-cellent addition that was made has to be Pyro. He is a great character to play against Iceman not only because of the obvious reasons such as ice vs. fire but also because the two (both actors are Canadian) are almost opposites, one being good and the other acting evil. Pyro is brimming with attitude making him an absolute arrogant jerk and hothead. Get it? Hothead? Fire is hot…okay that’s enough. Anyhow, he’s X-tra cool and says one of the best lines in the entire movie: “You know all those dangerous mutants you hear about on the news? I’m the worst one." He proceeds to use his personal lighter and the ability to manipulate fire to blow up police cars and people. Darn…no wonder girls like the bad boys!
(Speaking of the cast, here are some of the main characters in the movie.)
My goodness there were many action sequences, some were shorter and others were longer but they were all good. Some scenes were also more entertaining and intense than others but that’s the way it’s supposed to be. In particular the fight between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike was amazing, absolutely vicious and ferocious, it left me wanting them to continue combating much more than they actually did. I felt that it was a little bit on the short side but maybe I’m just being greedy in wanting more. They were very evenly matched since they both had the same mutant powers and Adamantium lining in their skeletons. I like the fact that the woman totally kicked the man’s bum all over the place and I’m sure many other women did as well. The opening sequence was hard to beat because it was really good as well, I just love when the president’s security guards are flying all over the place in slow motion, once again great effects. When the school is invaded by Stryker’s military, that was also intense, even a little bit frightening because it was in the dark when they were attacking all of the mutants. There were quite a few surprises along the way as well, but I won’t spoil any of them for you here.
One great thing about the movies is that they always have a good sense of humour, whenever there isn’t an action sequence it usually is a comedic scene or where there’s some joke in it. There isn’t one person who is the funniest. I think most of them are humorous, but if I had to choose it would have to be Wolverine. He just has so much attitude and is charming in his own way. Of course the way that the actor/actresses portray the characters are important but most of the good dialogue and humour is from the script. One scene where a cat sneaks up on Wolverine prompting him to release his claws on the pet is amusing especially when the cat starts licking them. Also all of the action sequences and ideas of how things will come to be in the movie are from the writers but of course everyone working on the film is important. The script is good and it does have well-written dialogue, the conversations between X-Woman Jean Grey and Wolverine are interesting. There’s also many subtle looks and things that you may not notice but they’re there to develop the characters. For X-ample, when Pyro looks at how happy his friend’s family is in the picture and is clearly jealous, prompting us to think that the young cool bad boy has some familial issues. Also there are still looks of infatuation from Rogue to Wolverine, which her boyfriend Iceman notices. Last but certainly not least is the direction that is needed in every movie to be good. Bryan Singer directs his vision for the X-men and does a fine job, his imagination is great. I would have never come up with some of the things that he has in the past. He’s the one working behind the camera and is in charge so he really does control everything, including helping the actors portray their characters the way that he wants them to.
(Aaron Stanford, from a nerd in Tadpole to Pyro in X2…sigh the life of an actor.)
I mentioned in the beginning of this review that this movie has its own problems and minor setbacks like any other movie. The first negative thing about the picture is a problem that was also in the original and that is the characters. More specifically, the real problem is that there are too many players in these movies because the superheroes are in a group not by themselves like Spider-Man, Superman, or Batman. In the first movie it was already a problem and there were less characters in that film than there are in this one. Therefore there are more subplots and less time for character development or even things to do for some characters. For example, Cyclops wasn’t even in the movie at all he had so little screen time and it didn’t seem like X-Girl Rogue or X-Boy Iceman got too much action…no not that kind of action you sick pervert! It also seems that quite a few of the mutants were underutilized in the movie including Storm and Professor X. Whereas in a movie like Spider-Man for X-ample, there is time to truly tell his story properly and he has time to grow as a character but that’s not the case here. Once again Wolverine develops the most in this film but most of the other characters stay in the dark including the newcomers. There was no development for Lady Deathstrike whatsoever; I mean she only had one line in the entire movie and not even a good one at that!
There are also quite a few subplots and a lot of things happening throughout the whole movie. You have the love triangle between Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops, the relationship between Iceman and Rogue, character development for some of the actors/actresses, and of course the main storyline. How could they fit so much into one movie? The running time is surprisingly long; I had no idea that it would be so lengthy. It is approximately 144 minutes whereas X-MEN was comparatively short coming in at 104 minutes. It isn’t exactly in the same range as Lord of the Rings but it is nowhere near short either. This was definitely one minor setback to the film for me, it did seem to drag on a bit at times there’s just so much happening. I thought that they could have done some things quicker but it was the filmmaker’s choice to make it that length. To be absolutely honest, it was a little bit tiring to watch the film because it’s overlong, there are too many subplots and storylines to follow intently. A couple of other small things is that it had more violence, more sex, and more profanity. When Wolverine first kills one of the soldiers of Stryker’s military I was very surprised. My friend Ben and I looked at each other and we both said, “Did he just kill him?!" then he continued to kill several other soldiers. These things weren’t really necessary but I suppose they don’t make too much of a difference to me, I’d rather have it cleaner though.
To conclude, I would have to say that this movie was an absolute blast from start to finish to watch, it was pure fun to watch every moment of it even if it was a little bit long. At the end of the movie I still said, “Wow that was really something else?to Ben, my sister, and her friend, we were all in agreement that it was a wicked movie. I truly enjoyed this movie and I would recommend it to anyone who asked me how it was. With its absolutely amazing special effects, a terrific cast that portrays complex characters, epic action sequences, a great sense of humour, well-written dialogue, good directing, and almost everything else that makes a movie worthwhile it was really a film worth waiting for. This must have been a hard movie to make; it had to be difficult to complete all of the action sequences and the special effects that are in the movie. I commend the filmmakers for doing such a good job and it’s not their fault if they make a couple of mistakes. I know that this movie is going to do X-emplary business at the box office and hopefully X2: X-Men United will be better than The Matrix Reloaded since that movie stinks…By the way I’m joking, that film is going to be amazing as well! I’m looking forward to the inevitable third chapter of the series X3 or X-Men 3, which will be released in a few years, hopefully it will be just as good as the previous two!
|
|
| | |
