X-Men 2
The X-Men find themselves having to team up with Magneto and Mystique to help save mutant kind after a military leader named William Stryker kidnaps Professor Xavier in a bid to utilize his phsycic powers to rid the Earth of all mutants.
The story itself is interesting enough and provides plenty of thrills but the narrative is slightly chaotic, with the movie lacking a certain flow. The script is good but occassionally feels slightly muddled, as if the writers are juggling too many story lines, but it's never really a problem, still, it could have been slightly more polished and better organized.
The characters are all here but the main focus is on Wolverine and Jean Grey. Cyclops doesn't have a whole lot to do here but his presence is felt throughout the movie. Storm on the other hand serves very little purpous here, she isn't an essential part of the story, her only purpous being to conjure up a storm when the script requires it. Magneto, Nightcrawler and Mystique though are fascinating in this film, Nightcrawler's action scene at the very beginning is superb and probably the best of all. Not to say that characters like Wolverine don't kick ass too, when he's not being his usual grumpy self he's beating the living daylights out of attackers, slicing them to pieces menacingly. There are also newcomers such as Pyro, who can control fire but is slightly reckless with his powers and Iceman/Bobby Drake who is struggling with his relationship with Rogue.
Action wise this movie doesn't disappoint, some action scenes may be far too short but they are so frequant that it's forgivable, not to say that they are too frquant though, there is a decent balance between action and dialogue, hopefully keeping everyone happy. The special effects are nothing short of breathtaking, but they never take centre stage. The fight scenes are well choreographed, especially the one between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike/Yuriko, where both characters take a hefty beating.
The acting is rather a mixed bag, Halle Berry doesn't live up to her potentail, possibly because the dialogue she is given is completely stale, Rebecca Romijn Stamos, James Marsden, Patrick Stewart, Kelly Hu, Anna Paquin and Brian Cox are all good but the best performances come from Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen and Alan Cumming who shine within their roles.
Bryan Singer's direction is perfect and the score from John Ottman, who worked with Singer on The Usual Suspects, is wonderful. The movie was quite long but still managed to leave me wanting more, the ending was very dramatic and also quite touching. It's rare to see an action movie of this calibur with such heart and soul and such meaning but Singer has certainly pulled it off. People who won't like this movie are those who don't like X-Men in the first place, if you've never read the comic or at least seen the cartoon you will probably be lost if you watch this, but that's ok, this isn't a movie for you, it picks up where the first one left off, with little introduction, so the audience is expected to be familiar with the X-Men universe, and the more you are the more rewarding the experience will be. If you liked the first movie then you will love this, it improves over it's predecessor in almost every way. X-Men 2 boasts style and substance and is a brilliant action movie and a fantastic comic book adaptation, fans will not be disappointed.
Rating- 8/10 |
