Back when I was in my comic book collecting frenzy…essentially my high school years when I’d read everything under the sun…there was one line of books that I never really read or cared about, but always knew what was going on because everyone else went gaga over it. I’m talking about “X-Men” and as a comic book it never did much for me. I got the message (minorities being subjugated by pervasive elements of the majority) and didn’t care about the soap opera aspect.
Somehow in the leap to the big screen I stopped caring about the “heaviness” of the message and started enjoying some of the soap. The first film, “X-Men”, streamlined the mythos down to its core and brought a rather exciting start to a film franchise. The sequel, titled “X2” on screen and “X2: X-Men United” on posters and ads, is as good as the first film…but unlike most comic geeks running around these days I’m not going to proclaim that it’s the second coming. It’s good…but it’s not great.
The story picks up soon after Magneto’s attempt to turn the Statue of Liberty into a machine that will mutate normal humans so they can “know what it’s like” (a bit silly, but bearable). Wolverine is searching for his missing past, Magneto’s in his plastic prison and all seems happy at Charles Xavier’s Institute for the Gifted. An assassination attempt on the President’s life inside the White House causes more mistrust and hatred of mutants and sends Colonel William Stryker on his own crusade to round up everyone at Xavier’s School. But Stryker has more on his agenda than that and it’s up to those X-Men that flee the attack, an escaped Magneto, Mystique and the newcomer mutant assassin, Kurt Wagner, to stop Stryker’s ultimate goal…the elimination of all mutants on Earth.
The story has an epic feel to it, but at times feels a bit rushed and has a few plot holes that will have you scratching your head. The first, and biggest, involves Wolverine returning to Alkalai Lake where he was sent to search for his past. The military base there is deserted and demolished…but Wolverine isn’t smart enough to look underground?? Yeah…okay. On top of that, the idea that when the X-Men raid the base at the end and can only find one entrance (the one that can easily be flooded by water) especially when there’s a huge friggin helicopter parked just outside another is just silly and seems to reek of being nothing more than a plot device. Luckily, the story moves fast enough to overlook most of these holes.
Most of the cast returns from the first film and there are a few additions. Patrick Stewart (Xavier), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Halle Berry (Storm), Anna Paquin (Rogue), James Marsden (Cyclops), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), Rebecca Romaijn-Stamos (Mystique) and Bruce Davidson (Senator Kelly) all have a decently balanced amount of screen time again (some have more, like Storm, some have less like Rogue). Added to this mix are Alan Cumming (Nightcrawler), Brian Cox (Stryker), Shawn Ashmore (Iceman…who did appear ever so briefly in the first film), Aaron Stanford (Pyro) and Kelly Hu (Yuriko…known in the comics as Lady Deathstrike). While Stryker and Nightcrawler have decent size parts, Iceman and Pyro are relegated to a smaller sub-plot involving Rogue that seems like it may get greater weight in another film as a love triangle of sorts. Yuriko is relegated to Darth Maul status as she’s really cool, underused and then quickly eliminated after a cool fight. Missing are Tyler Mane (Sabretooth) and Ray Park (Toad) and while both are missed there wasn’t much room for them.
The geeks get a whole shitload of cameos and in jokes. Colossus, Kitty Pryde and Jubilee put in appearances during the attack on the mansion. Dr. Hank McCoy (the X-Man known as Beast) shows up on a background TV program. And Stryker’s computer has files listing various other mutants and subplots that exist within Marvel comics (including Franklin Richards…the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman).
There are a number of fun action sequences (particularly Stryker’s attack on the school and Magneto’s escape from his plastic prison), but the end is made up of an anti-climactic action scene (in which one of the team sacrifices themselves) once the individual fights are over.
With such a large cast of characters, the potential to get bogged down or thinned out is great, but for the most part everyone serves their purpose (even if that purpose is to hold a place for a later film). With some of the stars going on to win Oscars and star in bigger films, the creative team is going to want to bring in other mutants for the next go round just to keep things fresh and keep costs down. My suggestion, spin Wolverine into his own film, kill off Xavier, put Cyclops in charge of the younger kids (Iceman, Rogue, Colossus, Nightcrawler) and bring in some new blood. Sure the geeks and fans want to see comic book stories (like The Phoenix Saga) come to life on the big screen…I want something different…along the lines of what we’ve already seen…just better. They’re off to a good start with the first two films, let’s hope it keeps up. I’d hate to see “X-Men” go the way of “Superman”.
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