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Comic book aficionados are having a field day this year. Daredevil was released mid-winter, and now the second installment of X-Men is here. Titled X2, the story moves so slowly at times, the audience may start thinking "Ex-It." The usuals are back, which are Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Patrick Stewart (Dr. Xavier), Halle Berry (Storm), Ian McKellen (the bad guy, Magneto), Famke Janssen (Jean Gray), James Marsden (Cyclops), Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (another baddie, Mystique) and Anna Paquin (Rogue.). New characters are added to the group, with Kelly Hu playing an evil version of Wolverine, Aaron Stanford as a naughty Pyro and Shawn Ashmore as the nicer Iceman.

The basic premise of X-Men is that there are mutants among us who have incredible powers. Dr. Xavier runs a special school (under the guise of being a prep school) to help the young people control their power and live among humans. Others (Magneto is one) believe humans and mutants can't and shouldn't live together. Mutants should reign, and that's all there is to it. Of course, the government has to get involved, and so we have Brian Cox as Stryker, who has his own axe to grind against the school. He wants mutants destroyed, period.

In the first film, Magneto was captured and contained in a glass cage (can't have metal near this guy). Rogue has eyes for Wolverine who had eyes for Jean who had eyes for Cyclops. In this movie, Rogue has settled into the school and chums with two guys, Iceman and Pyro, but Wolverine still has eyes for Jean who eyes Cyclops. Someone has tried to assassinate the President, and this someone is decidedly a mutant, having black leathery skin, yellow eyes, sharp teeth, long pointed tail and the ability to go through walls. It is at this point that one of the puzzling things about X2 happens, and that is the dead walk among the living. Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison), who was dispatched in the first film, is now strolling through the Capitol. Throughout the film, it is confusing to figure out who is alive and who is being impersonated by the wily Mystique, a shape-shifter. Now, it turns out that the walking, teleporting black gargoyle (Nightcrawler) is in fact "Kurt Wagner," who left a German circus to come to America, quotes scripture and carries a crucifix. You just never know.

Special effects are fairly well done, and the startling effect of secret agents protecting the President from an invisible "something" is imaginative. Then we have the X-plane that Storm pilots (housed under a field at the school), Wolverine's knives hidden in his hands, and Mystique's shape-shifting. There is a wonderful fight between Wolverine and the lady finger-slayer. Each has healing powers, so they could literally fight forever. Magneto has an ingenious way of getting a weapon while in a glass cage. Laboratories are hidden in underground facilities such as beneath a dam, and you know what that means: "what's that 'crack, drip, drip, drip' sound?"

The drama, as such, in X 2 involves Wolverine trying to remember his past. Does a dog tag mean he was in the military? Or something else? Will Iceman's parents ever accept him? Will Dr. Xavier crack under torture? What is Cerebro, anyway? This question brings up another question, because X2 introduces audiences to the younger mutants, can mutant animals be far behind?

Frankly, I haven't read the "X-Men" comic books and have come to the films as a novice. X-Men, the first film, flowed well and introduced the audience to the characters. X2 doesn't have an even flow, and jumps around like the Nightcrawler on caffeine. When the action slows, the actors have meaningful looks at each other. What are they doing? Reading minds?

What can we learn from this film? People come in all shapes and sizes. Accept everyone for who they are, and don't judge a book by its cover. People can work together for good, and friends take care of friends. Family is an inclusive word that throws a blanket over anyone near enough to be helped. The X-Men mutant family will have to bond because there were enough hints tossed about that a war is on the horizon. Perhaps this will be explained in the next film, and surely there will be another; after all, Wolverine still doesn't know who he is.

Copyright 2003 Marie Asner
Submitted 5/4/2003

The 2003 summer movie season is upon us with the release of X2 the highly anticipated follow up the 150 Million plus grossing X-Men. The film continues the story of a band of genetic mutants known as The X-Men who find themselves battling a fearful and mistrusting society as well as fellow mutants for better understanding of their kind as well as their very survival.

Based on the hit Marvel comic series, the film directed by Bryan Singer, X2 revolves around an attempt by Colonel Stryker (Brian Cox), to eliminate the mutant threat by invading the training school and home of the X-Men and their leader Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). This direct attack on the mutants adds fuel to the fire as Charles's old friend yet recent enemy Magneto (Ian McKellen), now has proof to his long standing theory that mutants must fight the humans for survival. Until now, Xavier has always believed that humans and mutants could co-exist in peace and has trained his students in this philosophy as well as the enhancement of their talents. Magneto has always believed that mutants must fight to survive, and that humans are inferior and has surrounded himself with followers who share this belief. Naturally this conflict of interest has lead to skirmishes between the two sides as well as an increased fear of mutants from a human population caught in the crossfire. As if the attack on the academy was not enough to complicate the lives of the X-Men, Magneto has escaped from his high security prison and a mutant assassin has made an attempt on the life of the President making a tense situation even more volatile as fear and paranoia regarding mutants is now at an all time high.

Faced with a battle on several fronts, the X-Men join forces with Magneto's troops in a reluctant alliance that is necessary for the survival of their kind as well as for the very human race. What follows is a dazzling mix of special effects and action as the two sides battle Stryker's legions and each other with the very real threat of genocide hanging in the balance.

There are some fine performances in the film especially those of Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as the shape shifting Mystique and that of Alan Cumming as the Bible quoting teleporter Nightshade. The two characters add energy and humor to their roles that makes them stand out from the majority of the cast save Hugh Jackman's standout performance as Wolverine.

This is a much more serious X-Men than the last adventure as people are killed along the way upping the violence from the traditional comic book style yet none of it is overly explicit. My biggest gripe with the film was that there were several long gapes in the film where little was happening and that talents such as Hale Berry, Patrick Stewart, Anna Paquin, and Ian McKellen were not given much to do with the screen time they had. There were flashes of great moments such as Roque (Ana Paquin), confronting Magneto for the first time since he tried to kill her in the last film, and a bizarre love triangle involving Wolverine that has to be seen to be believed, yet as a whole, X2 left me wanting more. I know with so many characters in the story it would be difficult to develop them all, and X2 does a nice job expanding on the roles of some of the smaller characters from the comic and past film, yet it simply does not add up. I think that with a tighter script and more attention to the details this film would have been truly great. That being said, X2 is an entertaining summer film that should delight fans of the past film and the comic. If you can get by a few plot holes, then you might find yourself having a good time.

Gareth Von Kallenbach 5/4/2003

I was never into comic books when I was growing up. Not that I was one of the cool kids, but my geekiness ran towards board games and role-playing games. My friend Garth is still into comics, and he's followed the X-Men saga from its earliest days. So if I tell you that Garth liked X2 much more than I did, you might have an idea of what type of movie it is.

Following on the first X-Men movie, Magneto (Ian McKellen) is locked up in a plastic cell, while Professor X (Patrick Stewart) is back at his school for the gifted, gifted mutants that is. There he continues to instruct the young ones, refine the old ones, and do his best to keep the peace between humans and mutants. Unfortunately, not everyone is doing the same. Enter Colonel Stryker (Bryan Cox), a rabid military man who has a plan to wipe out the mutants Once And For All, and it's up to our band of heroes to save the day. The rest of the movie follows from that action-story premise.

X2 rewards the faithful in many little ways. Apparently, it's full of in-jokes. The theater I was in was full of snickers and even guffaws at various points. I laughed occasionally, too, but not with the frequency Garth did. The movie also amplifies and even twists the long-running comic-book narrative. One character named Pyro, who's apparently a bad guy in the comics, is introduced in X2 as a "good" character who will eventually turn to the dark side. I say "apparently" because I'm only going by what Garth told me. For my money, he just seemed like a petulant teenager with a thing for lighters.

And this gets to what might be the biggest difference between my perspective and Garth's. X2 has so many characters--ten returning from the first movie and four new ones--that it doesn't have time to do more than hint at character development. We see Wolverine struggling with his "daddy" problem, we see Jean Grey trying to choose between her romantic pursuers Cyclops and Wolverine, and we see Rogue and Iceman trying to consummate their relationship despite Rogue's unfortunate power to suck energy out of anyone she touches. But given how many storylines there are, the movie can only show each character's tale for a few minutes. That's also true with the new guys. My Christian friends were thrilled that we see a genuinely religious character join the band (Nightcrawler). But his faith struck me as stereotypically Catholic; deeply ascetic, he tattoos diagrams on his skin for every sin he commits. Maybe his faith will transcend the stereotypical in future installments, but here there wasn't enough time to have him do more than say the Lord's prayer.

I found this rushing between characters, with little serious storytelling for any of them, frustrating. Garth, on the other hand, thought it was marvelous. But Garth, you see, already knew these characters. He had read about them countless times in the comic books. For him it was enough just to see them realized on screen, follow their quirks, and see what new nuances they exhibited. I didn't know them well enough to notice any nuances much less enjoy them. I was stuck with the story, and that follows the now-predictable, second-installment pattern.

The second-installment pattern can best be seen in much better movies like The Empire Strikes Back and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Those films, like X2, are much more somber than their original movies. Good guys seemingly die as our heroes struggle to fulfill their mission in the face of almost overwhelming odds. That they will succeed in part is foreordained (this is Hollywood), but it's also inevitable that their success will be tempered with longing and loss. In that sense, I guess I should be grateful for a blockbuster that isn't resolutely chipper, but X2 still has the whiff of duty. There's little joy in our mutant band's success, and the movie's 130 minutes comes and goes. I didn't look at my watch, but I occasionally wondered what the weather was like outside.

How are the special effects, someone asked? Pretty good, I guess. Some of Mystique's morphing effects are the best I've seen, but the fight sequence between Wolverine and Deathstrike is almost embarrassingly bad. Have we learned nothing from our Hong Kong brothers? And the climactic scene involving a ship and a flood of water seemed strangely inert to me, though I again must point out Garth thought it was awesome.

But my biggest disappointment about X2 is that my two favorite actors from the first film--Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen--spend much of the movie in a zombie-like state. It's hard for even the best actors to show off their chops when they're in a trance. The other actors are all suitable. Hugh Jackman, as Wolverine, is on hand to lend his brooding good looks, while Rebecca Romijn-Stamos transcends her good looks with some nice reaction shots. Alan Cumming adds a welcome comic flair to his Nightcrawler
portrayal, while Famke Janssen and James Marsden (Jean Grey and Cyclops) undermine their characters' importance with mediocre acting. Garth came out of the movie theater thrilled and wishing the third movie was coming out next weekend. I didn't have the heart to remind him that third installments (Return of the Jedi, Batman and Robin, etc.) are almost always worse. 

J. Robert Parks  5/5/2003