College Downtime Movie Review
Written by Hollowman - March 7th, 2005

X2: X-Men United (X-Men 2) (2003)

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Brian Cox
Director: Bryan Singer
Rated: PG-13
Rating: * * * 1/2

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One of the great things about sequels (if they’re done right) is that the opening of the story is out of the way and the possibilities of deeper stories and larger character development can take place. Oh yeah, and there’s more time for bigger and better special effects (especially if the original does well enough at the box office that the studio gives the makers more time and money to do so).

“X2: X-Men United” is one of those sequels that is done right and greatly surpasses its predecessor. In the movie, we are shown the beginning of the actual war between humans and mutants. William Styker (Brian Cox) is a leader of a special ops team whose purpose is to study and find a way to eliminate all mutants. He is able to invade Professor Xavier’s school and kidnap a handful of young mutants while others are able to escape. Some that do are Rouge (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shaun Ashmore), and Pyro (). They are able to do so with the help of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), who has returned to the school for more help in figuring out his past.

Anyway, Magneto (Ian Mckellen), is freed from his plastic prison he was put in at the end of the first movie, and is still bent on mutant supremacy. Jean Grey and Storm are joined by a teleporting mutant named Night Crawler (he looks a lot like the Blue Demon mascot of DePaul University). Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Cyclops (James Mardsen) are also taken captive by Stryker’s team. Finally, half way through the film, the available X-Men must team up with Magneto and his henchwoman, Mystique (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos) in order to rescue the others and stop Stryker from attempting to wipe out the entire mutant population.

So there’s the basic plot, but director Brian Singer is talented enough filmmaker to take the X-Men into a much deeper and meaningful story. The original movie was just about the basics of prejudice and anger. This sequel is more about its characters and their own personas. The main character of course being Wolverine and we watch him struggle to piece together what he has forgotten about his life. A large part of it is answered with a connection with Stryker, but for those who haven’t seen the movie yet, I won’t spoil it. The love triangle between Wolverine, Jean Grey, and Cyclops is amplified, even though Cyclops is hardly seen in the movie at all. The relationship between Xavier and Magneto becomes a bit more personal as they talk in Magneto’s prison. And even Storm (Halle Berry) is given much more depth than the original (probably because a lot of her scenes in the original were cut due to her bad African accent).

The only thing that Singer struggles with is the mass amount of characters. Though the film dives deep into its heroes and villains, there are still so many to attend to. Thought focused mainly on the Wolverine story line, the film tries to juggle with all everyone in the line up, but it still comes out on top. “X2: X-Men United” is an excellent installment of the X-Men series and an even better for the Marvel comics turned movies.



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