X2: X-Men United - 05/02

[Wolf]

[IMG]images/stor/xmen.jpg[/IMG]
X2: X-Men United (2003)

Synopsis: Mutants continue their struggle against a society that fears and distrusts them. Their cause becomes even more desperate following an incredible attack by an undetermined assailant possessing extraordinary abilities. The shocking attack renews the political and public outcry for both a Mutant Registration Act, and an anti-mutant movement, now led by
William Stryker. A vocal, wealthy, former commander for the Army, Stryker, is rumored to have experimented on mutants. Stryker's dubious mutant "work" is somehow tied to Logan's/Wolverine's mysterious and forgotten past. As Logan/Wolverine searches for clues to his origin, Stryker puts into motion his anti-mutant program--launching a severe attack on Professor Xavier's mansion. Magneto, newly escaped from his plastic prison, proposes a partnership with Professor Xavier and the X-Men to combat their common and formidable enemy: Stryker. With the fates of Xavier, mankind, and mutantkind, in their hands, the X-Men face their most dangerous mission yet.

Statistics:
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Sequel, Rating: MPAA PG-13: sci-fi action/violence, some sexuality and brief language, Runtime: Not available,

Cast & Role:
Patrick Stewart - Professor Charles Xavier
Hugh Jackman - Logan/Wolverine
Ian McKellen - Magneto
Halle Berry - Storm
Famke Janssen - Jean Grey
Anna Paquin - Rogue
James Marsden - Cyclops
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos - Mystique

Crew & Credit
Bryan Singer - Director
Lauren Shuler Donner - Producer

[Wolf]

Oh yeah! I've been looking forward to this sequel. Watching Wolverine is reason alone to see the movie.

[spegs]

*camping out in line....just me and the friendly homeless guy*

[John]

I never saw the first one. I take it it's worth seeing?

The Mazda RX-8 commercials bug me because of their grammatical error: "What's one thing every X-Men needs?"

Helloooo, it's an X-Man, if it's singular.

[pardog]

In many ways, comic superheros are more human than real humans.
Case in point:
Peter Parker, known and loved as Spiderman, not only has to deal with his own adolescence, the death of his uncle, and not being able to summon the courage to talk to the woman he loves, but also, the amazing abilities given to him by that spider.
Stan Lee himself points out that Spiderman's struggles to learn how to use his remakable abilities are synominous with all of our struggles to get through puberty.

Anyone who is familiar with the X-Men from more than just the movies will be able to tell you all of the mutants have had struggles with life as they realize they are different from the "norm".
Logan/Wolverine is just as likely to kill his friends as his enemies when he goes berzerk. Does that remind you of the sometimes violent mood swings we all experienced as we became men and women?
Nightcrawler is physically intimidating with his blue skin, yellow eyes, and pointed tail. Was there a person in your high school who was much larger physically then everyone else?
Rogue cannot even touch another human being without possibly killing them. Okay, I admit I do not have a correlation in real life for this one.

In the X-Men movies, and the comics, mutants are hunted, punished, feared, and cast out for mearly being different.
That, I feel, is the greatest lesson X-Men teaches: Different does not mean better or worse. It just means different.
Unless, of course, the person can fly or jump great distances, walk through walls, move things with their mind, if any part of their body is made of or can become metal, if they can change what they look like, or if they can read and control other peoples' thoughts. Those people must be hunted down and elimiated at all costs.

PS - Oh, yeah, by the way, I love the X-Men and will see X-2 as soon as my second mortgage clears so I have some money to go to the theater.

[spegs]

John,

(I'll just pretend that last post doesn't exist...)

Yes, I thought the first X-Men was pretty good. Especially if you like movies like Spiderman or (the first) Batman. Lots of good, clean, mutant fun. I thought Hugh Jackman did an especially good job, but then, I could have been biased by his hotness.

Anyway, definitely see that before you see X2. I'm thinking it will help to know the back story--but who knows how much rehashing this one will do.

(P.S. I never read the comic books....just a normal Jane-off-the-street's opinion)

[John]

I'm tempted to see it. I hear that Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is naked except for body paint, so that's a big draw.

[lobeck]

In answer to your question, John...yes, the first one is worth seeing. We have it on DVD, and it's one of the ones we never get tired of watching.

I doubt we'll see X2 in the theaters, but I'm pretty certain it'll be in our DVD collection as soon as it is released...

[Wolf]

I never read the comic books either, but I did watch XMen, the cartoons when I was a kid.

John, I would definitely recommend that you watch the first one if you plan on watching the second one. It does not have a lot of action scenes but the story is really good. Some of the lines are cheesy, but it's to be expected from a comic book hero movie.

For me, Xmen is all about Wolverine.
Okay, I like the others too.

[nofx242]

Big X-men fan have about 150 issues from around 160 - 300

The first movie was very good, even though there were alot of flaws from the comic, but they did it in a good way. One of the best comic adaptaions to the big screen. I will be seeing it this weekend