HAD HIGHER "X"-PECTATIONS FOR THE SEQUEL

Rating: 9/10 (9 May 2003)

5/9/2003

WARNING!! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!! DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET!!

Still with me? Good.

"X2" is one of the best superhero movies ever, but it's not as good as the first film from three years earlier. Whereas "X-Men" had a better story, better music (I missed Michael Kamen's music in this, even if John Ottman had moments of great music in "X2") and a chance to get to know the characters, "X2" does not.
We're automatically thrown into the action with the sequel with an attack on President McKenna (Cotter Smith) by the later-revealed-to-be-brainwashed blue-skinned, teleporting mutant Nightcrawler (played by Alan Cumming). But the film has no recap of what happened in the last film, despite some mentions of previous events in the first film. Like when Cyclops (the under-used but cool-to-watch scene stealer character is played again by James Marsden) tells his fiancee, Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, back again with a MUCH bigger role) she's been different ever since Liberty Island (an event from the first film), but if you never saw the first film, these kind of examples make you wonder what the characters are even talking about.
For those of you who've never seen the first "X-Men" film from 2000 or know the characters from the Marvel Comics series, you WON'T understand what "X2" is about at all. It's sad, but true. And the fact we have at LEAST 20 characters vying for screentime doesn't help.
We have the X-team team divided into different plots that connect together eventually: An attack on the Westchester X-Mansion by Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox, nicely playing an evil role) causes the students to flee and Logan/Wolverine (Hugh Jackman, again rightfully playing the lead role just as cool as before and with berserker rage to spare) helps the "junior" X-Men flee to the Boston home of Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, back again in a larger and cooler - excuse the pun - role) with Iceman's girlfriend Rogue (the underused but cool Anna Paquin, back for the sequel) and the Anakin Skywalker like member of the group, the hot-tempered Pyro (nicely played by Aaron Stanford, though his Australian character has no accent in this film).
Storm (Halle Berry, who has a bigger role as well) and Jean recruiting Nightcrawler to the team after an encounter with him at a Boston church.
Meanwhile we have Cyclops and the X-team's founder Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart, sadly with a minimal role in this) visiting Xavier's ex-friend and X-Men enemy Magneto (the wonderfully enjoyable Sir Ian McKellen, back again in another memorable turn as Magneto) in his plastic prison, before Xavier and Cyclops are abducted by Stryker's assistant Yuriko Oyama/Deathstryke (Kelly Hu, with no character background whatsoever but has a knack for kicking the stuffing out of male X-Men members).

Cyclops is brainwashed while Stryker uses the wheelchair-bound mutant Jason 143 (Michael Reid Mackay, better known as the Mummy in "The Monster Squad" and Antonio Diego, the man who becomes Bane in "Batman and Robin") to trick Xavier into using Stryker's own version of Cerebro (why I won't give away).
Even Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, slinking around in all her prosthetically covered, blue-skinned glory) gets a bigger -- and better -- role as she returns for this film, by helping supply something necessary into breaking Magneto out of his plastic cell.
But come on! The film has too much forced humor, whether it's regarding mutant powers or Mystique extending her middle finger to Stryker after she exits by sliding away into another part of his hideout. The plot could've been a bit better, especially since so many characters get lost in the shuffle (especially Deathstryke, Xavier, Rogue, and, above all others, Cyclops). And while the cameos are a nice touch (like the perfectly-cast but Russian-accent less Daniel Cudmore as the metal-skinned Colossus in the X-Mansion, or Steve Bacic as Dr. Henry McCoy as he talks to a "Dr. Sebastian Shaw" on a TV set in a bar sequence), they're either not mentioned by name or are too brief, leaving some moviegoers easily confused.
The biggest disappointment is that some characters still don't get the chance to strut their stuff or remain underdeveloped. Xavier has moments where he shows his powers, but he's not given much else to do. Cyclops has like, what, fifteen minutes or so on-screen in the two-hour plus film? But when he is on-screen, Cyclops steals the show, whether it's his fight scenes with his eyebeams or the moving mourning scene while in the X-Jet (I won't spoil what happens for those who haven't seen it yet).
And even poor Rogue STILL does NOT have her comic counterpart's powers (flight, super-strength and invulnerability), only her draining-the-thoughts-and-powers-of-others-by-skin-to-skin-contact power, which she only uses like three times in the whole film. You'd think they'd at least try to incorporate some of it into the second (especially since Fox promised in a 2000 interview she'd get her new powers in the second film), but doesn't.
However, it does have its good points. The costumes, make-up, visual effects and sound are better. The cast that DOES get explored give great performances (especially Janssen's turn as Jean Grey and Cumming's memorable turn as Nightcrawler, which are tied for the second best performances only to Jackman's Wolverine). And the ending practically screams "sequel!" (fingers crossed, especially since the likes of Daniel Cudmore, Famke Janssen, Alan Cumming, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Aaron Stanford, Shawn Ashmore, Patrick Stewart and even Kelly Hu have signed on for a third film). Heck, even Bruce Davison returned in this film as Senator Robert Kelly (but how, you'll have to see).
This is the sequel that could have been. It's full of eye-candy and cool fight scenes (especially Deathstryke versus Wolverine). But an under-developed story, too many characters mixed with under-used characters, and a lack of a better musical score do not a film make. I even missed Sabretooth (Tyler Mane) and Toad (Ray Park), who were Magneto's other two Brotherhood of Mutants henchmen from the first film, who are not in this. They were contracted to return, but since they had so many characters already, maybe it's best they weren't in this film.
But still, at least "Spider-Man" delivered action, story, character development AND great music.

Where's "X3" when you need it?