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Poster (c) 20th Century Fox
For a while, X2: X-Men United was called simply X2, until Fox decided to add X-Men United. Even in the opening credits (which seems to have been stoles from Spider-Man), it was simply X2. This shows for the rest of the movie, also: it’s indecisive. Is it an action movie, romance, comic book, comedy?
This second installment of this popular comic book franchise has Logan, aka Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) coming back to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngesters, run by Xavier (Patrick Stewart). Wolverine has claws and can heal himself, while Xavier has extraordinary telepathy. Other X-Men (mutants) include Storm (Halle Berry), with weather controlling powers, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), with telekinesis, Cyclops (James Marsden, with a smaller role this time around), with laser vision, and Rogue (Anna Paquin), who can suck the life out of anything. New X-Men include Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), who can disappear and reappear, Pyro (Aaron Stanford), who can manipulate fire, and Iceman (Shawn Ashmore). On the other side of the law are Magento (Ian McKellen) and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), who can change forms.
General William Stryker (Brian Cox) is going against mutants, and tries to kill them all. To go against Stryker, both good and bad mutants have to team up and defeat Stryker. That’s how the X-Men United got in the name.
Put simply, X2 tries to be too many things. It has a psuedo-love story, but ultimately doesn’t seem to have one central goal. There was a love triangle between Cyclops, Jean, and Wolverine, except it’s only talked about a few times, and didn’t add anything to the plot. Also, Rogue and Iceman have some sort of relationship that adds humor but little more. In fact, if some of the subplots would have been taken out, this 140 minute movie could have been under two hours, such as another mutant like Wolverine.
Special effects dominate this movie. Obviously, they looked fake, but there were very cool. However, there weren’t that many fight scenes, and many of them were just Wolverine killing people. If some of the original X-Men were doing their schtick, such as Cyclops, then it would have been more interesting. Although it isn’t boring, it’s just not heart-pounding or exciting. The special effects were very cool, though.
Jackman does another job of covering up his strong accent, and he clearly had fun with his role, not taking it seriously. McKellen puts in another great acting job, as does Stewart. Berry and Janssen both looked hot in skintight outfits, as did Romijn-Stamos (although she was wearing nothing at all). Paquin didn’t have much of a role this time, nor did Marsden. Cox, who is now almost as ubiquitous as Amanda Peet now, was good, although I think he was coaxed into this role.
X2: X-Men United is a special effects piece that isn’t as fun or entertaining as other comic book movies, but overall you probably won’t be disappointed.
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action/violence, some sexuality and brief language.
Review Date: May 4, 2003