Wow. Bryan Singer said on the X-Men DVD bonus features how he only felt like he got to make half a movie. Although I praised him for keeping introductions to a minimum, in an ensemble superhero movie like that those will still take up enough time that the main plot needs to be fairly basic. Especially when you have a limited budget and can only shoot so many scenes.
Singer was looking forward to getting a whole second movie to really tell the story he wanted to – and man did he hit a home run!
The film grips you from the very first scene, as we are introduced to the phenomenal character of Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) attempting to kill the President of the United States. Then we see how Mystique, in the body of the late Senator Kelly, is trying to stop the Mutant Registration Bill the real Senator Kelly introduced while alive but the insidious Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox, who played every old man in early 2000s movies) has even more nefarious means in mind to eliminate mutantkind. His issues stem from his utter hatred of his son Jason (Michael Reid McKay),
and he’s brainwashed Lady Deathstrike (Kelly Hu) into being his henchwoman. This is the rare battle which unites Magneto and Mystique with Professor X, Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Rogue, Iceman (Shawn Ashmore, in a greatly expanded role from the first film), and Pyro (Aaron Stanford)…at least for now.
Things also get more complicated when Striker turns out to be the man with the key to Wolverine’s dark, unknown past.
The movie is over two hours long but there is not one boring second. Besides the excitement of the main plot, in all its complexities, we get wonderful arcs for SO MANY of the characters, beautiful one-on-one moments between various pairs of characters peppered throughout the grand plot and making the pacing perfect, a litany of stunningly choreographed fight scenes, special effects that haven’t aged at all (especially Nightcrawler’s teleportation), and terrific performances. Although Ray Park and Tyler Mane are missed, all the other major cast members from the first film return and they, along with the new stars, the writers, and the below-the-line talent, put together a phenomenal work.
At the helm we have Bryan Singer, who really shows us his filmmaking ingenuity. Too bad he couldn’t stay away from young boys and has killed his own career; we saw here what a gift he had.
*SPOILERS*
The one thing I feel the need to mention – I couldn’t believe the X-Men let Jason die at the end. I’ve seen rationalization that Dark Cerebro was falling apart, but it wasn’t doing so THAT fast. If there was enough time for Nightcrawler to come back and save Charles he could have easily taken a few seconds and done the same for Jason. Understandably, that’s much less important to them, but Jason was an innocent person who had already been through so much trauma; why did the X-Men not even give him a passing thought? This doesn’t affect my love of the movie but I had wished they’d at least explained their decision by making clear it was a mercy kill (or a mercy let-die). Regardless, Mutant 143’s story is so utterly powerful and tragic that it easily adds to the movie’s wallop.
*SPOILERS*
Fantastic!
Bottom Line: I NEVER get sick of it.
Up Next: <Shudder>
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