Movie Review – X2: X-Men United
My review is skewed because I read the X-Men comics and as such draw direct comparisons to their movie counterparts.
It is my hope that turning comic books into movies doesn’t become the “new thing” as the quality of filmmaking will only turn into a parody series similar to the Batman franchise. My expectations for this sequel weren’t too high as I knew there would be an introduction of newer characters on top of the ones we already met in the last film. I think this point lends itself to the weakness in the X-Men movies – how do you make an engaging plot while throwing in a new mutant around every corner? Characters already familiar to fans of the comic book showed up in quick 30 second sequences. Others like Colossus actually received a few sentences of dialogue only to disappear for the rest of the film. (I left the movie asking where all the extra children went)
There were several pieces to the movie that only those who read the comic book would pick up (all the ?ber-geeks are yelling it’s Jean Grey you fools). It is obvious that they are attempting to build a franchise as there were many openings set for another sequel. Overall the pace of the movie dragged. There were some cool action sequences, but much like Mortal Kombat it translated into “Let me show you what this mutant can do” The exceptions of course were Wolverine (who I hope to see in his own movie) and I did like that Bobby Drake aka The Iceman received a little more screen time.
(Borrowed from Ryan’s Buffy Blog)
The Good – The opening action sequences with Nightcrawler were excellent. Some decent cinematography for the the fight scenes and his character translated on screen very well. Wolverine opening a can of whoop-ass on the military. Could have been better lighting, but hey you get the point. The family scene where Bobby’s brother rats the group out to the police. Some good dramatic tension for that 10-20 minutes. Lady Deathstrike nuff said.
The Bad – More witty dialogue please. The sequel didn’t have the great one-liners between Logan & Scott. Villains seem to die. I don’t think you can build a true rivalry in the span of two hours and settle the results with somebody getting offed. I didn’t enjoy it with the Batman movies and I don’t think it works well here. Wolverine getting punked in his fight sequence with Lady Deathstrike. Really, in the comic he is so much more the bad ass. Jean’s haircut, nuff said.
Overall – Great movie for the younger generation with an underlying message about racism & prejudice. Comic diehards like me want to see more character development and a more cohesive storyline, but we’ll still end up with the DVD.
