The best superhero movie of the year

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2003)

Just this past week, I went to see both "X2" and "The Hulk". In many ways, these movies are similar: Both are based on Marvel comic book superheroes, and both try to make a fun action film with serious themes. However, I thought "The Hulk" was by turns boring, depressing, overly-stylized, overacted, stupid, badly written, and relied too much on sub-standard computer animation. In short, it wasn't much fun. "X2", however, was by turns thrilling, well-acted, uplifting, and relied mostly on the Oscar-winning and Oscar-worthy set of actors hired to play the various roles. In other words, it is an unusually good film of its type.
The main focus of the film is Nightcrawler, played with unusual pathos and restraint by the normally flamboyant Alan Cumming. He is a blue guy with a pointed tail who can turn himself into dust and then re-appear at any space within a few feet. He is also a devout Catholic and a German expatriate, and he gives moral weight to the story. As the film opens, he is engaged in an act of civil disobedience that nearly kills the President of the United States. This act is connected to an attempt (I can't say how without spoiling the plot) by William Stryker (Brian Cox at his most evil since he was the "original" Hannibal Lecter) to commit genocide against all mutants with the blessing of the government. As the film goes along, Nightcrawler teaches the other X-Men about the power of faith and love being a sensible and equally potent alternative to the power of rage and fear. He also forms a close emotional bond with Storm (super-hot Oscar babe Halle Berry).
Stryker's plan eventually means raiding Professor X's school for mutants & kidnapping all the students, as well as Professor X (Patrick Stewart) himself. The remaining X-Men then have to unite with Magneto (Ian McKellen in too small a role) & Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, hot as ever) to free the professor.
I will say nothing more of the plot except that (*spoiler alert*) one of the main good guys dies at the end, which is something rarely seen in big-budget blockbuster series such as this one. In fact there are a lot of unusual things about this film that I liked. Particularly, the moral tone about faith, love & tolerance trumping fear, anger and prejudice. I also liked the fact that there was lots of good acting and--with the exception of the X-Men jet--the computer special effects didn't look like computer special effects. I just hope the series can keep it up and "X3"--unlike another 3rd film of a long-running sci-fi/fantasy series that also eventually featured Patrick Stewart--will not be about how the mutants all make a voyage to somehow preposterously resurrect their fallen comrade. 8 out of 10.