To start with let me say that I thought X-Men 2 was much, much better than X-Men. The scope, the special effects and the overall story easily outshone the first movie, although I did very much enjoy that too.
X-Men 2, just like the original, is about the mutants fight to be accepted by humanity. The X-men team, headed my Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), wish for co-existence between humans and mutants, while another group of mutants, headed by Magneto (Ian McKellan), want humans to be subservient to mutants.
The movie also introduces a human US government section that aims to destroy the mutant's goals, mainly by destroying or controlling the mutants themselves.
By sticking very close to the original comics and cartoons, the movie explores more into the history of the character Wolverine (one of the X-men). Wolverine is a powerful mutant who has the ability to heal himself. In his past - which he has strangely no memory of - he was experimented on and had an indestructible metal call adamantium grafted to his skeleton, making him virtually invincible. Plus giving him the ability to 'grow' metal razor-claws out of his hands. The plot of the movie, just like the plot of the original comics/cartoons, links Wolverines history to the current troublesome government section, ending in a final three-way struggle between opposing mutant teams, and the human soldiers.
The thing about the X-men ideology, in the current movies at least, is that there is no good or bad mutants or humans. Everyone has a reason for what they are doing, and most are generally acting out of a need to do what they think is in the best interests of their kind. Also, most mutants have a particularly bad downside to their so-called 'powers'. Wolverine, for example, has no memory of his past, very strong emotions (goes berserk easily, as shown in the film when he is defending the mansion from attack). Rogue cannot physically touch anyone without badly hurting or killing them. Nightcrawler (the teleporting one) looks like a blue demon and could never show himself in public without being feared and hated.
Then there are all the extras for X-Men fans. Such as a brief appearance by Jubilee in the prisons, The Beast on the TV, Gambit and the Sentinals on the government computer file. Not to mention the big change by Jean Grey at the end of the movie…
Jim mentions in his review that the X-men are too powerful. I agree in some ways, but surely the fact that there are equally as powerful, if not more powerful opposing mutants makes up for this? And the point about Nightcrawler bending the laws of physics - just to let you know, I read somewhere that he's actually supposed to be travelling the intervening distance in another dimension, hence the black fog! See! That's plausible. Kind of.
To conclude, X-men 2 is a fun movie, with many hidden depths. There are so many plots that have been put into motion by this movie (the Pheonix, Beast, the Sentinals, Gambit, Pyro's conversion to the dark side etc), that I'm expecting X-men 3 to be much bigger and better again. Admittedly, it is far from being realistic, but what did you expect with a comic-book movie?
Ratings:
X-men fans - 4/5
Everyone else - 3.5/5
Geek disclaimer: Although I admit to being a x-men fan from my younger days, most of the hidden plots in the movie were found from reading other reviews and message boards.
See also: Jim's less favourable
review
of X2
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