X-Men 2: X2 Review
by Josh Gilchrist (joshgilch AT aol DOT com)July 15th, 2003
Josh Gilchrist's review of "X2: X-Men United"
* * 1/2 out of * * * *
"X2: X-Men United" suffers from the same dilemma as 2000's film "X-Men." If someone were to leave halfway through the film they'd be very excited, having seen a dark and perplex world of mutant superheroes. If someone
misses the first hour they'd walk into a confusing and boring film trying to hammer in a message on unity and tolerance.
These films, both directed by Bryan Singer, are clearly the Jekyl and Hyde of celluloid, falling apart in the second act only because the sole purpose is to please the fans of the comic book, which, let's face it, most of us aren't. Yes, there are millions of "X-Men" fans out there, scouring comic stores to find the latest issue, but compared to the amount of people that make up the movie going public, they are in the extreme minority.
There are many elements of the "X-Men" plot to make the films entertaining. The problem is that there are too things going on at once. Instead of one hero,
we get a busload of them, and the same goes for villains. Because of this, proper character development is thrown out the window. The film would have to be four hours long to delve into all of these characters. It's running time is 135 minutes, the final 70 being very grueling on the audiences patience.
The plot is very similar to that of the original film. There's a battle taking place between good and bad mutants. The good mutants are of course headed by Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) at his special school for the mutant adolescents.
Gen. William Stryker (Brian Cox) is determined to stop the mutant race, wrongly blaming Xavier and his students for an attack on the President after a mutant infiltrates the White House. This helps increase a nationwide panic and persecution of everything mutant.
There's of course a master plan to all of this, there always is. The first films villains Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and Magneto (Ian McKellan), who
is now imprisioned, return in full force.
There are explosions galore, thanks to a dangerous mutant named Pyro (Aaron Stanford) who is able to use fire as his weapon of choice. There's an excellent set up for all of these characters, until we realize that they're not even important to the story. Director Singer seems willing to jeopardize the franchise by going ahead with a subpar story, which he himself helped develop. There's too much going on here with not even close to enough creativity to pull everything together. A film with too many subplots is like a
magician with so many tricks that they're too busy trying to perfect them all instead of showcasing the best one.
The enjoyable part of the first half of the film is that it concentrates on the
films only interesting subject, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). The character's complexity, mixed with Jackman's intensity, make it hard to keep our eyes off him. He's like a cross between Luke Skywalker, having a very complex backstory, and the cocky swagger and personality of Han Solo. A movie revolving
around Wolverine would be perfect.
Once the film has the audience in an adrenaline frenzy examining Wolverine, they throw him on the back burner to examine the likes of Storm (Halle Berry), Dr. Jean Gray (Famke Janssen), and a weird creature named Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming). The only thing more boring than these characters are the
performances
the actors bring to them.
The thing we have to respect is the ability of the "X-Men" storylines to transcend the simplicity that is so common in the comic book world. This may also be the film's downfall. The audience is going to walk in expecting something dark and involving but still enjoyable to the average public. Fans of
the "X-Men" legacy are surely going to be interested because they know the material. To the rest of us, it's as if we're asked to follow along on a trip without a roadmap to help guide the way.
The difference between this and last years "Spider-Man" is that the latter is more of a universal and involving story in the first place. Nonfans can go in clueless and come out enthralled. That's the key to moviemaking, and that's the pitfall of films targeted to a specific audience. The fans may run out to see it right away, but what about the rest of us? Just like the first "X-Men" film, expect a huge opening and then an equally huge drop-off at the box office for "X2."s
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