X2: X-Men United

May 27, 2006

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 134 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

X2 is better than the first X-Men movie in every way, and is nearly a perfect sequel. It’s bigger than the original without feeling longer, and they didn’t waste time introducing us to characters we already know. Plus, when they did introduce new characters they pretty much just breezed on by and kept the action going.

X2: X-Men United X2 starts off with NightCrawler doing what he does best, kicking ass via teleportation. But why is he trying to get to the President? That’s a mystery to be solved later, and we don’t do spoilers.

Meanwhile, back at the X-Cave, Wolverine returns to seek more answers about his past from Professor X. “No young Jedi, some answers you must find for yourself. Be strong and all will be made apparent to you.” Wait… I’m getting confused.

The best part about X2 is that it feels like you’re walking into a story that’s already started, and when the movie ends you know for certain that things aren’t over yet. The real trick is that the writers managed to do this without you feeling lost at the beginning of the movie, and without getting pissed off at a cliffhanger at the end. That takes true skill.

Casting is excellent of course, and the original cast has returned for this movie. This could be a problem in the future though as I’m sure the cast members are going to demand hefty raises after this movie, and we all know Patrick Stewart has a history of doing this. When a movie has so many “main” characters, can a series possibly survive under the weight of those egos and salaries? I hope so as I’d hate to try and get used to new actors.

Fox has already been toying around with the possibility of spinoff movies for some of the characters, and Wolverine would be an obvious choice here as he’s already getting most of the screen time. Would spinoffs work? I think so, but then they’d need to keep the solo character to a minimum for the next X-Men movie. Can you imagine it if they managed to make this plan work? Wolverine movie one year, Storm the next, X-Men after that, followed by Cyclops, etc.

Oh, one last thing. Mystique is the ultimate woman. Period.

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Brian Cox, DVD, Famke Janssen, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman, PG-13, Patrick Stewart, SciFi