If you remember my review of X-Men (2000), you may recall that I was not a big fan of the original movie. While it is far from the worst movie I’ve ever seen, I never really got into the film’s characters or storytelling all that much. It just felt kinda bland compared to other superhero movies that made a huge impact in the realm of filmmaking and it’s a shame because I have a hunch that the X-Men in the comics are possibly more engaging and interesting. Seeing as now we are taking a look at the second installment of the X-Men franchise titled X2, can this movie change my mind into believing that the X-Men are anything other than bland?
Several months after the events of the first X-Men movie, Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) is found sneaking around the white house to assassinate the president of the United States. This sets off a chain of events with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) being sent off to discover his past and Magneto (Ian McKellen) escaping his prison however when a new threat named Stryker (Brain Cox) captures Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) for his powers, it’s up to the rest of the X-Men to fight back and bring their teacher back to school.
Sadly some of the complaints I had with the original movie’s story can be said once again with this story. The story takes itself way too seriously which is not entirely a bad thing but the problem is that it doesn’t allow the characters or the film's story to have all that much personality or flair. The world-building in some cases feels restricted at points and the new locations we get to visit don’t leave that much of an impact in the long run. Sometimes the movie introduces different plot threads and character dilemmas that often then not feel pointless and are rushed through to get to other parts of the story. I know you may feel like I’m being too harsh on the story, but comic book movies have come such a long way that I was expecting something more along the lines of what we get in comic book movies today. While I respect this movie and its prequel for bringing comic book movies into the limelight as a profitable idea, I still can’t bring myself to say that this was any fun or interesting of a superhero movie.
The characters are sadly not any more interesting than they were before even despite some of them having the potential to be explored more with interesting subplots or backstories. Hugh Jackman still does his best job at playing Wolverine and while he is good, I felt like his character could have used a little more depth and understanding to make him a fully well-rounded character. Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen are obviously great in their roles as Charlies Xavier and Magneto as their commitment to playing comic book characters are evident in their performances. The rest of the X-Men characters such as Storm and Cyclops are unfortunately not any better here as they were last time. Their performances are not awful but they are sadly monotoned making them boring and almost like every other serious character you’ve ever met in a movie. Speaking of boring, the main antagonist this time is incredibly confusing and complicated as he doesn’t leave a memorable impression unlike Magneto from the last movie. I want to love these characters, while some of them are doing their best, I felt like the majority of them did not capture my interest all that much.
The cinematography can honestly be a slight step up from the previous film, but that is not saying much. The visuals of the school still bring that lifeless and dull gray and brown look that gets rather boring after a while. Like before, I would have preferred that this movie tried to look a little more colorful and vibrant like the comic book counterpart. Still, I will give credit that there are some cool action sequences such as the one Wolverine has with Yuriko, but even those action scenes were not enough to make the cinematography any more interesting.
The music was composed by John Ottman who would go on to score the music for the Fantastic 4 movies. Sadly, even though Ottman is doing his best, the score just couldn’t live up to the excitement and fun that should come from a superhero film. The only bit of music I did like though was the opening scene with nightcrawler where they play Mozart’s “Requiem”. Other than that though, the score seemed pretty standard to me.
Many people love this sequel even more than its predecessor. While I can say there were a few moments in this movie that did bring more excitement and fun, the rest of everything else in this movie just felt like more of the same that we got in the last movie with underdeveloped characters and some underwhelming cinematography. I thought that X2 would change things up and bring more of the comic book movie magic that I've seen in other modern superhero flicks. This movie has plenty of fans, some even say it's better than the last movie. I, unfortunately, say that this film is just as underwhelming as it was before and it’s gonna take a lot more effort and care to make me interested in the X-Men franchise.
(Final Grade: C)