“You are a god among insects. Never let anyone tell you different.”
Continuing my series of reviewing the movies from the X-Men franchise, I’m here with X2: X-Men United. Once again directed by Bryan Singer, this 2003 movie follows Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and the rest of the X-Men, as they discover the truth behind Wolverine’s past and save their professor. With even better reviews than it’s predecessor, the movie is renowned for being more ambitious than the previous and being a benchmark for other comic book movie sequels to follow. The movie made a lot of revenue, making over $400 million worldwide on a budget of $110 million. Just like the first movie, it was the ninth highest grossing film of it’s year. This film made the expectations for sequels so much higher, and it was undoubtedly better than the first. Let’s get into it.
First, the Good
There’s a lot of good when it comes to this movie, I love so much of it. First of all, the opening scene is phenomenal. Anyone who knows anything about the X-Men knows Nightcrawler, so seeing him on the big screen for the first time was great. Not to mention, they did his teleportation effects so well. The choreography of Nightcrawler’s teleportation through the White House was done flawlessly, and also left us wondering why our beloved hero is attacking the president.
It was over all really nice to see the large cast of the X-Men expand, especially with the scene where the students are escaping the mansion. This is one of my favorite parts of the movie for so many reasons. The built up suspense and worry for the students is one thing, but in addition seeing the student body was awesome. An issue I’ve always had with the original animated series is, there’s no students. Well, other than the main X-Men, that is. Really glad they fixed that with this movie and also X-Men: Evolution, my personal favorite X-Men TV show. Going back to the movie, it was nice to see Kitty, even if it was for around 5 seconds. Colossus in particular was awesome, leading all (but 6) of the students to safety (although I would’ve loved a Russian accent). Bobby and Logan bonding at midnight was sweet too.
All the cast did exceptional, especially Ian McKellen as Magneto and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, who gets spotlighted even more this film. On the villains side of things, Brian Cox was easily hateable as William Stryker. Seeing how he lobotomized his own son is truly horrifying, and also the countless experiments he’s done on helpless mutants. As for Magneto, he and Mystique joining the team to stop Stryker was nice to see, even if it was for selfish reasons. The bloody scene where Magneto rips the iron Mystique planted in the security guard is visually incredible, maybe not so much for the guard though.
“You should have killed me when you had the chance!”
Pyro was also a standout in the film. The radio scene was pretty funny, and he contrasted Bobby well. Obviously we all knew he’d join Magneto’s side, because Pyro can’t be a good guy. It just wouldn’t make any sense. I wish they would’ve made him Australian, and I wish his fire would’ve made shapes, but for budget reasons it makes sense why they didn’t go that route. The last villain I haven’t covered, is Lady Deathstrike; a villain I’m very conflicted on. For one, we really didn’t get to know her personality as all, since she was being controlled by Stryker. However, just because she didn’t have any depth doesn’t mean she wasn’t a good character. Deathstrike was completely hardcore, with the fingernail claws and crazy knuckles. Her fight with Wolverine was choreographed to perfection, and her death by boiling adamantium was so satisfying and left me almost pitying her.
Another thing I liked about the movie is how they made Cyclops controlled. While I really wanted the franchise as a whole to use Cyclops (as a good guy) more, it was intense and emotional to see Scott and Jean have to fight. That whole third act was perfection, the double-crossing from Magneto and Mystique, Jean vs Scott, Wolverine fighting Lady Deathstrike.
Another thing I’m conflicted about is the Drakes. It was cool to see Logan, Rogue, Bobby, and John go to Boston and Bobby having to “come out” to his parents, but their reactions pissed me off, especially Ronny. They don’t have to support mutants, but calling the cops on them was too far. A cop instantly shot Logan, if he didn’t have a healing factor, the Drakes would’ve caused Logan’s death and their son’s imprisonment. I know it’s just a movie, but their behavior still bothered me, and they showed no remorse.
Now, the Problems
This movie is insanely good and there’s very few problems that actually matter enough for me to cover them, but there are two blaring ones.
First of all, I absolutely and forever will hate the love triangle. Did Jean seriously kiss Logan back? I feel like they disrespected Cyclops so hard with this story, and I’m really just not a fan of it at all. I’ll never understand why the filmmakers wanted this to be a thing, if anything it should just be Logan having a crush on Jean.
The other issue with this movie is Storm. I really, really like Storm, but she’s really underutilized in this franchise. The only major scene she had in this movie was her bonding with Nightcrawler, which was actually really nice to see. However, she didn’t really do much other than that. Just saying, she could’ve easily saved Jean at the end. The movies are definitely afraid to use Storm because of how OP she is, similar to how they have to find a way to immobilize Professor X in every movie.
Final Thoughts
This movie is a really, really good sequel and definitely better than the first movie. I had a blast watching this, and while there are a couple of glaring issues, they’re overwhelmed by the sheer amount of amazingness this movie has. I’d give it an 8.7/10.
