X2:
X-Men United, directed by Bryan Singer,
takes many of the famous comic book characters into
the White House. One of the taglines is "First,
they were fighting for acceptance. Now, they're battling
for survival." A voiceover at the beginning reminds
filmviewers that evolution has produced beings that
look like humans but have superhuman powers; soon,
Smithsonian Museum visitors are informed that the present
human race emerged from a marriage between Cro-Magnons
and Neanderthals. X2 begins
where X1 left off, with Magneto
(played by Ian McKellen) already captured by human
authorities. A school, presumably for the gifted, run
by Charles Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart), the
planet's top telepath, as before enrolls mutants who
learn how to live with non-mutant humans. Most mutants,
led by Xavier, believe that they can help the planet
on an equal basis with humans, using their powers,
but Magneto wants mutants to rule. In other words,
Xavier is the equalitarian, Magneto the imperialist,
providing models that filmviewers will analogize to
Democrats versus Republicans, Colin Powell versus Donald
Rumsfeld, Europeans versus Americans, or whatever,
though some of the very young audience may interpret
the conflict as one between children and adults. The
conflict among mutants is suppressed for most of X2 because they are threatened by General William Stryker
(played by Brian Cox), now retired, who is bent on
eliminating mutants from the planet; his son is a mutant
whom he has disowned. Stryker, who comes across as
a latter-day Nazi, plans a pretext for the genocide
(or mutantcide). Accordingly, early in the film, renegade
teleporting mutant Nightcrawler (played by Alan Cumming),
having been brainwashed by Stryker, tries to assassinate
U.S. President McKenna (played by Cotter Smith). McKenna
then supports Stryker, at the advice of his incompetent
sycophantish advisers, favoring the Mutant Registration
Act (which recalls the Alien Registration Act of the
McCarthy period and the current equivalent, the Patriot
Act). Stryker then arrests Xavier and all his students;
he hopes to use another alien turncoat, Yuriko (played
by Elsie Hu), to control Xavier, who in turn will telepathically
kill all mutants. (A subplot, with adopted children
in mind, has Wolferine (played by Hugh Jackman) searching
for his birthparents. In another subplot, Iceman (played
by Shawn Ashmore) comes out to his parents as a mutant,
though the reaction to his heartbroken mother is as
if he were gay. In actuality, he is gay!) Accordingly,
when Magneto escapes captivity, the mutants unite to
stop the planned annihilation. (The appropriate tagline
is "The time has come for those who are different
to stand united.") One approach is to eliminate
Stryker, the other is to appeal to the president directly,
but the outcome is not in doubt; clearly, the mutants
have to survive so that X3 will
be at the box office next year. When the threat is
over, the previous quarrel among mutants resumes, just
as onetime U.S. allies Saddam Hussein and the Taliban
became characterized as monsters after they were left
alone to carry out their own agendas. Adults attending X2:
X-Men United should be advised that many
small children will not always understand the dialog
or perceive what is happening and hence will talk repeatedly
during the film to ask the meaning of what is going
on; however, that distraction may at least keep adults
awake in case they are bored by how the mutants occasionally
masturbate their unusual powers or become confused
about their roles. The many obvious analogies in the
movie, which serve as agents of political socialization,
prompt the Political Film Society to nominate X2:
X-Men United (which mistakenly is not
called X-People United) as
best film on human rights and best film on peace for
the year 2003. MH
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