Review: X2: X-Men United
Perhaps here, at long last, is a comic book movie franchise that isn?t destined to completely suck.
Right from the first sequence, X2 snags you: Nightcrawler, in a manner as exhilarating as the Matrix Reloaded trailer that freaked you out before the film, warps, melts, and kicks ass in America in way too cool lizard-demon fashion. It?s the kind of explosive setup that leaves you with a clenched-tooth smile, forces an involuntary grip tightening on your poor beleaguered seat arm, and leaves you breathless in anticipa?
...tion.
It?s just a shame that all of X2 can?t be that good. This is a movie of great strength, with action scenes that smack you sideways, and a sense of character development and humanity that surprises you with its intelligence. It?s also a movie of unfortunate weakness, and the cracks in the structure are made all the more obvious in light of what?s holy and good.
Where X2 shines most obviously is in the action scenes: The first special effects stunt spectacular is topped and re-topped by what comes later (Wolverine vs. Lady Deathstrike, Magneto and the Iron-Filled Security Guard, The Mass Exodus From Mutant School). Where it also r0xx0rz is in its maze of character development. It was a strength of the first film, too, the ability to set up a year-spanning relationship with two lines of dialogue and a glance or a scowl?to condense 800 million billion issues of wordy Chris Claremont comic book soul into a scant twenty or so syllables. Magneto and Wolverine, Iceman and Pyro, Cyclops and Jean Grey, Mystique and Nightcrawler?all of them obviously have history, even if you?ve never picked up a comic book in your life, and even if most of it is implied. Hooray for a movie that has 800 characters to juggle, one-hundred and eleventy million action sequences to orchestrate, and still finds time to orchestrate everything with a bit of heart.
What I find most odd, though (and what proves to be the movie?s biggest flaw) is that it spends so much time on stuff that doesn?t really matter?uninteresting villainy by way of William Stryker, Cerebro-based mind games with Professor X that drag on and repeat themselves after repeating themselves. The evil plot this time is a little less ridiculous than the first one?s ?let?s make everyone a mutant!? silliness?but it?s still not a good evil plot, per se. It?s easily the film?s most forgettable element, and any sequence dwelling on these proceedings is where everything slows down
X2 drags a little in parts?but so what? It?s as good a mainstream comic book as has ever been made, better than the original on several levels even if it could have used more time in the editing room. These are characters you can care about; here there be smart socio-political undercurrents you can go home and think about. All that and laser-firing, fireball-shooting, tornado-generating crazy mutant blue people to boot.
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