Savor these comic book movies while they're still fresh and exciting and produced by people who actually give a wet crap. Sam Raimi loves comic books and his Spider-Man clearly indicates that. Bryan Singer also clearly knows his stuff, as it must be a staggeringly difficult task to balance superheroics and actual emotional meat. That X-Men 2 is an improvement over the original is not a huge surprise; that I'm now really excited for future chapters sort of is.
We're still riding high on the Superhero Movie Wave. X-Men, Spider-Man, Daredevil, both Blade entries and The Hulk have set the bar pretty damn high. While every studio in the known universe scrambles to get their own franchises off the ground, the First Round hits a new high point with X-Men 2. (The film's title is 'officially' X2 although the studio has recently employed X-Men United as a subtitle...all of which is really very annoying.)
While Singer's original entry introduced the whole 'mutants in a generally uncaring world' theme in very entertaining fashion, the sequel ups the ante to include the possibility of a global warfare between humanity and mutant-kind. As in any worthwhile Superhero Flick, our gang is asked to save the world!
I just erased about three paragraphs worth of plot synopsis and character recaps because I realized they were pointless. Anyone reading this review falls into three camps:
1. Those who dug the original and will definitely be seeing the sequel.
2. Those who have already seen the sequel and formed their own opinions.
3. Those who read my reviews because they're my friends. Thanks guys.
What I'd most like to impart about this movie is simply this: it's a whole lot of fun AND it's a popcorn movie with a brain in its head. Those are pretty rare.
On the one hand, we have a colorful and action-packed comic book, one stuffed to the gills with shiny heroes, slimy villains, amazing gadgets and astounding explosions. On the other we have a none-too-subtle parable on the dangers of intolerance and the violence inherent in blind hatred.
The cast ranges from sublime (Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming) to slick (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Hugh Jackman) to sexy (Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin) to silly (James Marsden, Halle Berry), yet every single actor onscreen seems to fully "buy" the comic vibe. Without this sort of sincerity, the facade will crumble and you're looking at camp city.
And 'campy' is not what X-Men 2 is shooting for at all. The liberal doses of humor are all of the 'intentional' variety and the ever-present subtext (who hasn't felt like a mutant during their youth?) lends a sincere credibility to all the wacky teleporting and shape-shifting and eyeball-lasers...the good stuff! There are new villains to thwart, old enemies to reconcile with, aspiring young mutants itching for some excitement, and a few dramatic bumps I bet you won't see coming.
X-Men 2 is the sort of film that will infect the "movie addict" sickness into 14-year-olds all over the world.
If the movie seems at times overstuffed with characters, subplots and lofty concepts, that may be the case. But I'll take too much of a good thing over just enough of a bad. Fortunately, the present Comic Book Flicks are keeping the standards pretty high. It'll make those lazy ones a lot easier to spot...and avoid.
X-Men 2 is smarter, funnier and more kinetic than its predecessor, and that was a fairly fine piece of entertainment in its own right. Big-budget, crowd-pleasing, multiplex material that doesn't insult your intelligence is a rare commodity these days, so I have no problem at all encouraging you to drop eight bucks on this one. It actually does have a little something for everyone.
Following a shocking attack on the President, the X-Men must stand united with their deadliest enemies to combat a menace that threatens every mutant ...More at Buy.com
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