X2: X-Men United (2003)

Wolverine: Got any beer?
Bobby: This is a school.
Wolverine: So that's a "no"?
Bobby: Yeah, that's a "no."
Wolverine: Got anything other than chocolate milk?

 Ice..Ice.. baby!

The second film in the X-Men series, X2: X-Men United directed by Bryan Singer continues the story of our mutant heroes and villains from the first X-Men, after the events at Liberty island. After an assassination attempt on the President of the United States by a teleporting mutant known as the Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming), the president gives permission for human military scientist, Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox) to raid Xavier's School for mutants. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and his team of X-Men (Famke Janssen as Jean Grey, Halle Berry as Storm, James Marsden as Cyclops, Anna Paquin as Rogue, Shawn Ashmore as Iceman, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine) then have to find the mutant assassin, only to learn there's a plot involving the extermination of mutants around the world by Colonel William Stryker. They then have to band together with their former foe, Magneto (Ian McKellen) and Mystique (Rebecca Romijin) in order to stop Stryker. But ultimately William Stryker holds the key to the mystery of Wolverine's past.

 What's better than a mutant villain? A human Villain!

One of the best comic book sequels around! I think as far as the story goes, it's actually good. Having the heroes and the villains of the first movie put their differences aside to go against a common enemy is a bit of a cliche but looking back, but it's a good cliche and a good direction for a sequel. I'm surprise there's not much to the Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants, consisting only of Magneto and Mystique, but then again, you have them team up with the heroes, there's already a good number of characters you have to follow. But that being said, this movie essentially plays out like a proper Wolverine movie cause it's very much character driven and really focuses on Wolverine and William Stryker. There's not much going on with Rogue with her social isolation issues and her relationship with Bobby the Iceman, and there's not much also going on too with Cyclops and Professor X, who pretty much wasn't around in a huge center chunk of the movie. And as for Jean Grey, her story is pretty much written to hint and set up for the next sequel. So yea, this should be called X-Men 2: Wolverine Origins.

That's right, this movie is a spotlight on Wolverine.

Action wise, well if you put Wolverine Adamantium claw action aside, there's really not much. Nightcrawler's menacing and cool teleportation fight in the White House stole the limelight in the introduction scene before he's reduced to a wimp and Mystique acrobatic take down of Stryker's guards was not only cool but humorous at times, especially when you as the audience also get caught off guard when she disguised herself as Stryker. Perhaps, the most boring fight scene is between Cyclops and Jean Grey. Somehow there's a potential to be good... you know, having the two lovebirds pit against one another and Jean is moving closer to her "Pheonix" Dark side. But it all came out pretty boring. But really, the action is best when Wolverine is unleashed. How he deals with Stryker soldiers during the attack at the school was really cool...and looks pretty painful too. Then you get the fight scene with him and Lady Deathstrike. It's like a female version of Wolverine (They haven't introduce X-23 yet), sexy yet deadly...and instead of claws, she has..nails. I guess nothing gets more feminine than that. Although Wolverine has his healing powers and indestructible claws, it's good that he has a foe that really deals him a lot of harm and pain, and brings a form of threat to him. Lady Deathstrike will then be the staple form of Adamantium enemies that Wolverine is going to have to fight with in the future movies. Think about it, the messed up Deadpool has healing factors and Adamatium swords..including an array of powers and abilities and then in the recent Wolverine movie, you get him to fight the Silver Samurai which is pretty much Adamantium steel armor. So, his fight scene with Mystique in the first movie is perhaps the most unique and interesting foe he has to fight with.

If you don't cut your nails for like 20 years and you paint them silver, you can cosplay as Lady Deathstrike.

The special effects still stands up to today. The teleportation effect that Nightcrawler may look a little dated, and you can tell there's some wiring and green screen effect. Cause now you can compare with the X-Men Origin's Deadpool's teleportation fight which came out a lot smoother. But back then, Nightcrawler's fight, flips in the White House and teleportation effects were really cool and mind blowing. A good step up from the first movie.

Even the make up is really good.. Smile! =D

Continuity wise, here's a list I've noted when watching X2:

• Remy LaBeau a.k.a Gambit's name on Stryker's computer. In Origins, he was mentioned to have escape from Stryker's island. So, Stryker certainly have kept a record of him.
• Lady Deathstrike as Stryker's bodyguard is also consistent with Stryker's character on experimenting on mutants in the past with Adamantium and mind controlling them as his puppet.
• Mystique talk to Nightcrawler about not needing to hide is consistent with Mystique's choice of not hiding at the end of First Class.
• Magneto's talk about asking Pyro to reveal his REAL name is consistent with Magneto's talk to Mystique to reveal the REAL her.

 Hey, looks it's Gambit!

 Inconsistency-

• Dr Hank McCoy is featured on the television without his beastly hair. I guess one can argue that this dude could be a different Hank McCoy. Some tease...
• The conversation between Stryker and Professor X revealed a history that Professor X once took in Stryker's son to his school.. which the story was either never bothered to be showcased in Origins or it could have took place before or after Origins. Well, we got to see young Jason frozen in ice in Origins.
• We are treated with plenty of Wolverine's flashbacks which were very and vastly different from what we see in Origins. Even the lab of Wolverine's Adamantium experimentation looked so much different from the lab we see in Origins. Even the look and the location of Alkali lake and the dam is very different from what we see in Origins. Can somebody please do a proper Wolverine origins movie?!

Hey, look it's Beast...cleanly shaven and de-blued.

Yup, this was before the series fell apart with the next sequel. This was comic book movie gold back then. It's a real pity Bryan Singer has to leave to do Superman Returns and as a result, we got a fairly moderate Superman movie (I personally don't think it's bad but it's not good either) and two bad X-Men sequels. I think this one works so well because it really explores more on our favourite X-Men character, Wolverine. It's ashamed that Wolverine's back story was then crapped all over by X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the follow up story to X2 was crapped all over by X-Men 3. But I have to say, X2 may be the best in the X-Men franchise. But there's still hope in the series, especially after X-Men: First Class and The Wolverine. I'll give X2: X-Men United, a 10 out of 10 Iceman-cooled Dr Pepper's.

Click below to view the trailer

Where's the chess playing scene?

There must always be a chess playing scene when Charles and Eric is around.

Think there's nothing wrong with X2? Think again... click below:

 

X-Men (2000)

"The war is still coming, Charles, and I intend to fight it. By any means necessary."-Magneto
"And I will always be there, old friend."-Professor X

Directed by Bryan Singer who later directed the sequel X2, Superman Returns, Valkyrie and the most recently released Jack the Giant Slayer, comes this revolutionary Superheroes movie that put Superhero back in the history of cinema. X-Men tells the story of two mutants, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Rogue (Anna Paquin) who cursed by their special mutation that gives them special abilities had to live off in social isolation until they meet Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a telepathic mutant runs a school for mutants and who believes that mutants can live among the people in the world in peace. When the world becomes fearful of a rising population of mutants, he and his team of X-Men consisting of Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden) and Storm (Halle Berry) have to go against Magneto (Ian McKellen) who seeks to bring a new threat to the human race, with his team of mutants consisting of Sabretooth (Tyler Mane), Toad (Ray Park), Mystique (Rebecca Romijin).

 Does this remind you of Iron Man 3 and the Hall of armor?

After watching the recently released The Wolverine, I decided to pick up on the X-Men series and watch it all over again. So, this is my review of the X-Men with looking through the lens of my mind that  has already been filled the background of all the previous X-Men film. This first in the series brought back a lot of nostalgia, especially reminded me of how simple and uncomplicated X-Men is, as well as what makes X-Men so loved by fans around the world. As a standalone movie, it's perfect. It essentially took out the essence of what we love about the comic book and the original animated series which I grew up with and turned it into a great comic book movie.

What does Storm do in the movie? I mean seriously. Jean Grey, Wolverine and Cyclops work a love triangle, Charles have a cause and fight against Magneto, Rogue has social isolation issue, a reflection of all mutants. Storm does what?

Although it's based on a team based comic book, it essentially follows and focuses on the character of Wolverine and Rogue. It's more character driven in the background and a setting of a bigger story, which then gives room for character development. Wolverine is introduced as a selfish bastard who doesn't give a shit about anybody and anything while being haunted with his loss memories of his past. That was the Wolverine that we've all been introduced and loved. He then developed a sense of humanity when Rogue comes into his life and in the end, became selfless and sacrifice himself in order to save Rogue, as well as being a father figure to her. Rogue on the other hand, started off as an isolated teenager trying to run away from people to finding a place in the world among people very much like her and accepting her for who she is. Professor X and Magneto played out the bigger story of which Wolverine and Rogue's story got caught up in. There's a coming war between the mutants with Professor X and Magneto taking the lead at each side respectively, one for good and the other for evil.

 Although entitled the X-Men, it really focuses on Wolverine and Rogue's story

Unlike the comic book, this movie explores a much larger theme, essentially that of persecution for being different. It's no surprise that Bryan Singer started the film in a Jewish concentration camp during World War Two. The hatred and persecution of the Jews in that era resembles the persecution and hatred of the mutants of this era in the film. It also established very quickly the reason and the background why Magneto take charge in not only being on the defensive side of the mutants but on the offensive as well. He just didn't want to see it happening all over again. Charles Xavier, on the other hand, is not only trying to prevent the war between mutants and normal people but also seeks to bring young isolated mutants, to not only give them a place of acceptance but to also develop and hon their abilities for the greater good. In some way, it does bring a relevant message to today's racism and superior/inferior complex in some country. Do you choose to be Magneto's cause in fighting back the offense hurl at you for being different or do you choose Charles Xavier's way to use your differences to not only pioneer something great into the world, but also to help others like you? Or like me, I rather be a Wolverine and be a bad ass.

What if everything that happens in the X-Men is just a game of Chess
 being played by Prof X and Magneto and everyone else are just pawns?!

Special effects wise, they are a bit dated by now but I'm still amazed by their quality. I don't know about you but Wolverine claws looked a lot more realistic compare to the recent movies, especially that of Origins which has more CG claws than real ones. Some fight scenes do come off a bit silly now, you can tell there's wire work involved in some scene, especially when Sabretooth tries to throw Wolverine off the statue of Liberty and he suddenly his momentum slowed in the air, making him appear floating for a moment. But otherwise, it's good to see real police cars get thrown up and a real train gets ripped apart by Magneto, which by today's standard would have resorted to CGI. But when it comes to the CGI, Mystique's shape shifting abilities still look impressive and the Magneto using his powers to toy with the police still looks very believable.

Wolverine is perhaps the most marketable character in the X-Men franchise,

so much so that FOX had to put two of him in this one.

Action wise, it's enjoyable. The best fight scene among all the mutant fights in this film, is actually between Mystique and Wolverine. Mystique had a playful attitude towards Wolverine and I was caught surprised with the twist when Mystique is playing the impostor. Toad's fights were full of taunt and there's a moment when he throws Storm down the elevator shaft, he swung a metal beam much like Darth Maul's double bladed lightsaber. As for its humor side, there's a comic book reference about Wolverine's yellow spandex, although by now, I wish Hugh Jackman would put on the classic yellow spandex at least once... for the fans. And I cracked up when I see Wolverine give Cyclops The Claw. Another thing that I did like and I want to comment on is the soundtrack. It's scored by Michael Kamen who gave us the beautiful score to Band of Brothers TV miniseries. His X-Men theme is reminiscence to the classic X-men animated series which I grew up with and loved as a kid.

One of the most interesting fight scenes Wolverine is in to date,

way better off than fighting Deadpool or the Silver Samurai

Like I mentioned above, this film reminded me of a time when the story is not as complicated as in today's X-Men movies. We've now been introduced to so many uninteresting mutants, this film also made me miss the main team members that made us love the X-Men series, namely (apart from Wolverine) Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Jean Grey, Professor X, Magneto and Mystique. By now we've also been treated with films that fleshed out this film's background and continues on the story of our characters in the future. There's still some jarring inconsistencies in the film's continuity when you watch it with the background of all the other stories in mind.

• Wolverine's flashbacks are so different from X-Men Origins: Wolverine. This is perhaps the most unforgivable part of the Origins to me. I really wish Fox or the filmmakers of Origin took time to watch X-Men and X2 before attempting to do a movie on Wolverine's background.
• Professor X claimed of not knowing how Magneto shield his mind, when in First Class it is established that Charles saw and knew Erik wearing Sebastian Shaw's helmet that could block Charles' telepathic powers.
• Professor X claimed that Magneto helped him build the Cerebro, when in First Class it is established that Dr Hank McCoy build the Cerebro.
• Also, Wolverine is a lot fiercer and has a don't-give-a-damn attitude in his introduction scene compare to the gentlemanly attitude he had in Origins and The Wolverine (although we can argue that he softens up during his time with the team.

I do wish FOX pays more careful attention to its details and continuity previously established in the other X-Men films. By now, there are so many inconsistencies in the film series that it becomes hard for fans to establish what actually takes place in-universe.

 If you didn't realize, Stan Lee does cameo for most of the Marvel movies

Click on Stan above to check out a Bad day for the X-Men

A wonderful, enjoyable, character driven comic book movie that reminds you what made the X-Men so special, especially that of Wolverine. This film brought out the nostalgia side of me and it makes me more excited for the next film: X-Men: Days of Future Past to be release next year. I'm tired of spin-offs, solo films and prequels, it's about time FOX get back the band together, continue on this series, and wash off the bad taste we got from X3 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I would give this one an 10 out of 10 "The Science of Physics" textbooks.

If you're wondering which book I'm referring to...

Click above for much nostalgia...