Mutant Family Relationships vs Special Effects

Rating: Null/10 (10 May 2003)

I'll call it "X Men 2: X Men United," but I don't remember seeing the subtitle in the credits; I more remember the key letter in Fox network constantly turning into "X Men" during the barrage of ads on the TV.

Turns out I should have re-viewed the prequel "X Men" because this picks up exactly where the last one left off and there's many references to previous happenings (hmm, what was that about those scars?) -- but then I was the oldest person at the morning showing.
Director/story writer Bryan Singer has learned the lesson of successful comic book/super heroes' movies that it's the relationships stupid, though the kids in the audience do get restless during the scenes and dialogue that appealed to me (like the mutants looking longingly at warm family photographs with one who is about to "come out" to his parents) more than the predictable special effects (after all, what were we supposed to think would happen to a super secret hideaway built under a huge concrete dam?).

There are a lot of good actors slumming here (Brian Cox's and Hugh Jackman's accents slip at the start but get stronger), giving the sidelong glances, sexual temptations, and repartee more gravitas than they were written with. Jackman also committed a lot of time to a trainer and nutritionist to develop that non-CGI body that fills the screen quite charismatically -- and aids the joke when he sardonically explains his teaching role at the school for the gifted.
While the women get crucial plot points, the actresses don't have a lot to do; not much Famke Janssen can do with her telekinetic Phoenix power but scowl or Halle Berry cloud over her eyes as the weather gets Storm-ized. I'm sure these women would have had more ideas about mutant foreplay to respond to the ongoing guy-to-guy running query to Iceman on how he and Rogue (of the lifeforce squeezing power) manage their budding romance than "We're working on it."
Alan Cummings leaving everyone in the blue dust of his teleporting mutant is fun and cool (and I enjoyed his repetition of his origins that reminded me of a running gag in "Due South." )
I did find a couple of plot points confusing, but could connect my own dots.

The music never stops pounding, but then it was written by the editor.