X2 and that means twice as good.

Rating: 8/10 (14 May 2003)

What does this movie have in common with LOTR and star wars? Easy right, they are all examples of sequels that finally live up to the hype of the prequal and this is a good film.
I paid to see the first movie and was so disappointed a formulaic plot which does nothing to excite and very 2d characters acting through scenes that always left you wondering why they bothered. Ive heard it said that the first film in all three above examples introduced the characters. I have to question if 2 hours of introduction isn't a little excessive. If at the end of the Film your feel let down by the false expectations set by trailers you may not come back for the sequel. I believe the 'Introduction theory' is an excuse for shoddy film making or film making without real direction. There have been so many truly great one off films which didn't require a 2 hour intro to characters to set you up for the real film. Another point that should be made is that most of the time spent building characters in the first film revolves around Wolverine and in the sequel the director seems to have realised he's not the most interesting of X People and has downgraded his amount of on screen time, so the intro film seems to have been somewhat of a waste of time. It is also a shame that Professor Charles Xavier doesn't feature more he is a bit part in the first film and although Patrick Stewart is given more scope it is much the same in the 2nd.
Anyway enough critique what about X2??
As if to disprove my own theory of not going back for more when you've seen a bad 1st attempt I paid up and again prepared Myself for another slow moving plotless and probably ultimately unfulfilling experience. Can you tell I was in a very positive state of mind?
Spoilers below.
So yes I have to say I enjoyed it. Ian McKellon as Magneto has the best scene. His aid Rebecca Romijn as Mystique injects his Gaoler with a some form of soluble iron. Magneto extracts the Iron from the Blood of his Gaoler which itself is so gory it deserves a higher certificate. He then uses the Iron to break his cell and then to form a flat disc on which he stands and floats across the moat his cell is located on to the doorway. Here he turns the iron into pellets which he uses to break the glass door and kill his guards, its all truly great and in fact I wanted to see more of his escape it seemed rather dull to switch back at this point to a scene in a domestic house with Wolverine and rouge and some family rejection plot surrounding a minor character Iceman (who no matter how hard he tries isn't cool), Bryan Singer definitely missed a trick there. The cell scenes are somewhat reminiscent of Silence of the lambs, Red dragon( why?) and Manhunter. I suppose you can only film a locked up a Brit in a set number of ways ! Alan Cumming as the night Crawler aided by having the best mutant powers available to the imagination and great computer generated imagery has the opening scene to himself. Breaking in to the US president's office beating up all his security guards before being shot just before stabbing the said president and having to make a quick escape. We discover he is in fact being controlled and is actually a rather Camp (Alan Cumming isn't that good an actor) German Christian unhappy clapper of a mutant. But who is controlling him?
No its not a Jedi mind trick its Willam Stryker, a Government baddy with predictably bad intentions. Yes Stryker is so bad and evil he wants to destroy the mutants in a very 'Wipe them out wipe them all out' kind of way. His reasons for this are somewhat convoluted apparently he's become twisted because he has producing a mutant boy of his own and cant stand the thought of it, mutants and himself all being in someway linked. I didn't really think this was needed he could have just been a nutter and it would have worked just as well. Stryker, as we find out, through the course of the film is also responsible for Wolverine. Chemical experiments, mad genius, Dr frankinstien etc etc. Its nice to see the characters especially the female ones being given a more central role and it pays off. We get more depth from the female actors and although there powers are somewhat predictably touchy feely. Storm is Mother Nature, Dr jean grey is a psychic obsessed by her emotions (which she can't control) and rouge whose powers only work when she touches another mutant. Even so the use of there powers is cleverly leveraged into the lime light and in Dr Jean Grey's case generates the set up for part III.
So the film was a success in my eyes a good plot some real character development and great effects that were backing up the great ideas and not attempting to make a film of effects. Should you see the first one? probably but hover over the fast forward button then go see X2 and enjoy.