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| X2:
X-Men United Movie Review |
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My favorite time of year has to be the
start of summer blockbuster season. I must say, the bar has been already
set high by the first major movie to come out: X2.
X2 picks up where X-Men left off, with Magneto in jail and Wolverine
searching for answers about his past. After a mutant attacks the
President in the White House, the mutant-hating General Stryker is given
carte-blanche to retaliate. Mutants are forced to unite to battle for
their survival against this powerful mutual foe.
The first half of X2 is awesome. I can't remember the last time I heard
a theatre buzz that much in a movie. From the opening scene that
introduces Nightcrawler (the best mutant intro to date) to Wolverine's berserker
attacks, this one is pure action. It hops to different characters and
scenes, never letting us rest. They leave the main character and story
set-up aside and assume we've seen the first X-Men (director Bryan
Singer has pretty much said so).
The second half of X2, most of which takes place at Stryker's base when
everyone is together, slows down considerably by comparison. There are
still some pretty cool fight scenes, but a couple parts dragged on and
couple others seemed unnecessary to the plot, leaving me to get a little
restless. Still, the end of the movie plants a couple of key seeds for
the next X flick.
In my opinion though, X2's main strength is letting every mutant show
off their powers thanks to way more special effects in this movie.
Wolverine shows his animal-like behavior that we all know and love. New
additions Pyro, Iceman and Nightcrawler are all put on display at one
point in the movie. And we get to see why Magneto and Professor X are
the two most powerful mutants in the world with their gifts.
However, I didn't like how the Professor seems feeble for the second
movie in a row by getting duped or captured. You'd think he would sense
these things about to happen. Also, Cyclops seems vastly underused in
this one. Hell, he isn't on the screen for most of the middle third of
the movie. He should play a key role in X3 though, given how the end of
this one plays out and the next storyline they seem likely to
follow--fans of the series will know what I mean.
X2 has a rare Hollywood trait....it managed to be better than the
original.
 
- 9/10
What did you think?
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Sean
Cullin - Senior Editor
More Reviews - Click Here
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