Hollywood loves movies like this for a number of reasons. They have a built-in fan base from the comic books and their stories need not be any more complex than a string of special effects sequences. X-enthusiasts are here to see which character’s ability gets them out of which tight situation. Will Storm (Halle Berry) change the weather? Will Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) use telekinesis? Will Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) use her shapeshifting? Will Pyro (Aaron Stanford) just burn everyone? In the case of “X2,” the effects are as good as every other movie with its budget, but nothing really remarkable.
There are also enough characters that you’re bound to like some of them. Alan Cumming, who was so good in “Titus” and “Eyes Wide Shut,” plays Nightcrawler not as a fierce assassin but a confused, lost little boy. Famke Janssen uses a similar approach and fills her telepath with hesitancy, vulnerability, and uncertainty; the two of them probably avail themselves the best of anyone involved. All that is expected of Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart is to behave regally and Britishly, and to read their goofy dialogue like it’s Shakespeare. Sir Ian is wry and smirking about the whole affair, and uses just the right motion to tap the magic helmet that keeps people from reading his thoughts. As Wolverine, Hugh Jackman appropriately growls, snarls, fumes, puts out cigars on his palm, and pops his neck after his magic recuperative powers squeezes a bullet out of his forehead.
Movies like this benefit from not being airtight, and “X2” kids itself more than Sam Raimi’s recent “Spider-Man.” The girl superheroes stay beautifully made-up while living for days out of a jet airplane, Wolverine always maintains the same degree of unshavenness, and Captain Picard’s elegant three-piece suit is nicely pressed even after he’s been kidnapped. Maybe it was ironed while he was wearing it. Alan Cumming is a movie German, which means he knows enough English to convey long, convoluted thoughts, but doesn’t know words like “hello,” “thank you,” or anything else you would learn on side one of a Berlitz tape. Other questions pop up; is Mystique naked or wearing a body suit? If she’s wearing a body suit, how is it able to share her chameleonic powers? If she’s naked, why aren’t certain orifices visible, and does she have a subcutaneous sports bra? What is certain is that while a sitting Magneto delivers a big speech, she’s standing right behind him so that her chest takes up as much of the frame as his face. Young men who don’t consciously notice this will certainly remember this speech of Sir Ian’s.
Having said all that, let me also add that I’ve never been overly fond of superheroes. I can like, but seldom love, stories about people born with magic powers, who have magic parents, who are driven by fate or destiny or whatever. This isn’t a rational discomfort at all, because anyone with a routine knowledge of sociology will tell you that most of the aspects of our lives are determined for us, by the socio-economic strata into which we are born, and that doesn’t bother me. But when a character’s personality becomes subservient to their particular ability to do violence…I don’t know. It makes me wary.
P.S. The movie has a small part for Welsh actor Peter Wingfield, playing one of the normals, who look so sorry and inadequate in these kinds of movies. But that’s okay, because Wingfield played the 5,000 year-old immortal Methos on “The Highlander” television program. He is also, according to IMDb, a studio-quality saxophonist and flutist, holds an advanced-level stage fighting certificate, ran the London marathon in three hours and eight minutes, and is a former national trampoline champion. All this without super powers.
WHAT MY DAMN WIFE THINKS: As superhero movies go, the concept is interesting, the plot is good, the execution is well-done, the action sequences are exciting, and the art direction and cinematography are perfectly good. My one big problem with both movies, that prevents me from enjoying all those other things as much as I ought to, is the total lack of character development. Alan Cumming, as Nightcrawler, is developed to a reasonable extent, but everyone else is given only a few basic facts, and I had trouble caring about any of them.
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