story.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Bryan Singer’s sequel to his X-Men is a much more accomplished effort,
as it all but gives up trying to make sense out of its far-fetched story
and instead reaches for one thrilling special effect death defying scene
after another. Again these Marvel Comic superheroes do their thing and
confront that ‘mutant problem’ with style, but the film feels lighter
and because of the amazing visuals is easier to watch. It’s probably a
bit confusing if you’re not familiar with these comic book characters and
the superpowers and issues they have, but the film does a nice job of taking
you full-blast into the action and clearing things up on the run. If you
stay with it and all you’re looking for is to be entertained and are not
bothered that it’s all hokum and the battle scenes are muddled as far as
what’s the objective, then X2 delivers big time. The costumes are eye-catching,
the special effects are dazzling, the action is non-stop, and there are
many appealing human touches and social statements made. One of the more
sexy characters is covered in blue scales, who has the ability to change
shapes, Mystique (Romijn-Stamos). The almost naked painted lady is asked
by the new mutant character added to the sequel, German accented and psalm-chanting
Nightcrawler (Cummings), “Why not look like everyone else?” Mystique replies
“Because we shouldn’t have to.”
The film immediately holds your attention by its startling opening.
The blue tattooed and devil-tailed Nightcrawler barges into the White House
and can’t be stopped by the Secret Service as he teleports from different
rooms until he confronts the president in his office. While Nightcrawler
is leaping around strains of “Dies Irae” from Mozart’s Requiem is playing,
which was a nice aesthetic touch. Nightcrawler’s purpose is not only to
give the mutants a bad name but to deliver a message to the Bush-like president,
warning him to accept the outcast mutants and overlook that they are different.
His daring confrontational act calls for an end to such mutant prejudice
and the government’s war on eliminating them. He protests in particular
that their right to privacy is violated with the Mutant Registration Act.
Later Nightcrawler will return to the White House in another terrorist-like
raid and warn the president to do the right thing because the mutants are
watching him. A voiceover that opened the film, tells how mutants evolved
with a tremendous genetic leap that made them special from other members
of society and how they are growing in number. There are thousands across
the world (it seems like this film has cast half of them).
Some of the other main mutants who are worth noting.
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) releases painful adamantium alloy claws
from his knuckles when ready to fight, and possesses amazing healing powers.
His powers were improved mechanically in experiments he doesn’t remember.
The facially mutton-chopped, cigar chomping, Wolverine suffers from
stress, anger, and memory loss, but is a true mutant hero ready to kill
for the good of mankind. Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) is telekinetic and
capable of acting heroic. Storm (Halle Berry) can bring on the weather
(but she can’t act). Rogue (Anna Paquin) is into sucking the life out of
someone and stealing their personality. Bobby is the Iceman, turning most
anything to ice. He is trying to develop a romance with Rogue, despite
certain technical problems. Pyro manipulates fire if given a light, which
can be hurled as a weapon. Cyclops (Marsden) wears dark glasses and his
eyes can fire laser beams. He has a crush on Dr. Grey, as does Wolverine.
Well, you get the point. They all have some unusual deadly super gift and
most have a few psychogical problems to deal with.
The wheelchair-bound Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart),
the world’s most powerful telepath, has opened in X1 an alternative school
for these gifted youngsters in Westchester County, New York, and still
runs it. He has trained the mutants to use their gifts to help mankind.
His arch-enemy is that smutty Magneto (Ian McKellen), who turned against
him because he wishes for his fellow mutants to gain power for themselves
over the world.
The new villain introduced specially for X2, who wants to destroy
the mutants, is the maniacal human General William Stryker (Brian Cox).
His reason for being obsessed with such a blinding hatred is because his
son Jason was a mutant in Xavier’s school and was not helped but made to
turn against his parents. Because of Nightcrawler’s White House security
breach, Stryker is allowed to round up the entire mutant population, good
and evil. Stryker forces, the imprisoned in a plastic cell, Magneto to
tell about Xavier’s school and about Cerebro. Stryker is abetted in his
cause by a defector kung fu adept and adamantium clawed mutant, Yuriko/Deathstriker
(Kelly Hu). Magneto’s cooperation with the government results in evil agents
attacking the school and making the gifted flee for their lives, while
the good professor is kidnapped.
There’s also a somewhat amusing subtext about homophobia. The mutants
who “come out” run the risk of family rejection, and are subject to hate
crimes. When Bobby and his fleeing classmates visit his folks in their
Boston home, he finally tells them he’s a mutant and the school for the
gifted isn’t a prep school. His mom asks, “Have you tried not being a mutant?
His caring Mom is still unaware being a mutant (gay) isn’t a choice. The
comparisons of mutants to gays is furthered when Magneto and Xavier get
into a campy row over social and political issues, where mutant could easily
be substituted for gay. Also, for comic relief check out how Sir Ian eyeballs
the teen mutant boys.
The film left an opening for another sequel. After all, locating
the Cerebro device and clearing up the rift between the straight world
and the mutants is no small task. All the action outcomes seemed perfunctory,
anyhow. It just seemed a chance for the mutants to show off their powers,
and at times offer us a humorous pun or two. Nothing matters as much as
how playful the film was, and how cool the action went down. In future
installments, we will see if humans can accept these freaks of nature and
if a mutant romance can become real. Hey. It’s not bad for a comic book
story to reach for a more sophisticated aim, such as railing against prejudice.
But there’s still only an embryo of a story emerging, as everything is
on a childishly cartoonish emotional level rather than intellectually satisfying.