Author: EVula
Date: 5/19/03
Rating: 9.5
Movie Rating: PG-13
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Ah, it was well worth the wait. For those of you living under a rock for the past few months, the second X-Men movie is out, and it's even better than the first one.
This movie has everything that the first one had, just lots (LOTS) more of it. Lots more mutants (familiar faces and, in some cases, familiar names), lots more powers being shown off, lots more action... it's just a lot more to like. :)
Here's the plot: Striker is a bad guy, trying to eliminate mutantkind entirely. Because of an attempt on the President's life by a mutant (Nightcrawler), he's given permission to storm the mansion. The X-Men are split up, some of them (and their students) are kidnapped, Magneto breaks free, Magneto and Mystique have to join forces with the X-Men... yeah, that's all you need to know.
There are scores of new mutants in this movie. The ones from the last film (in no particular order: Professor X, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Iceman, Magneto, Mystique) are still kicking around (no idea what happened to Sabretooth and Toad). In this one, however, there are a slew of new faces, although most of them only get a small amount of screen time (pretty much just cameos during the scene where the soldiers break into the mansion). The most obvious ones are Colossus (the metal guy) and Siren (she's the chick that screams... VERY loudly...). Shadowcat makes a short appearance in this film too, and Pyro has a much larger role (different actor, too). There is also Lady Deathstrike, in a role totally different than in the comic books. In a scene where Mystique is accessing Striker's files, there is a list of known mutants; I was able to catch Gambit and Multiple Man's names on the list, and there is a scene where someone is talking on TV about the mutant issue; the doctor talking is Hank McCoy, better known as the Beast from the comic books. Also, Mastermind (I think that's his name... he was a member of the Hellfire Club in the comics) makes a much-altered appearance in the movie.
The movie itself is a great action comic movie. The first one was primarily a way to introduce all of the necessary characters in their new environment (ie: different from the comic book setting). With that out of the way, we're allowed to see the X-Men do what they do best: whip ass. And whip ass they do. We get to watch Wolverine slice and dice pesky soldiers, we get to see Jean do more than lift light-weight medical supplies, Nightcrawler's teleportation animation is awesome, Mystique kicks ass in her highly smooth way... There is an awesome fight scene between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike; both have adamentium claws, both have healing factors, and both rip into each other enough times to kill a dozen normal people. It's wonderful. :)
Alrighty, for all you serious movie fans out there, waiting for me to talk about the cinematography and character analysis and what have you, I have one question for you: why are you reading this? I don't do serious reviews, and you should know that by now. Silly people.
Summary: go see this movie. Even if you didn't see the first movie, this one stands on it's own well enough to not confuse you as to what is going on.