Produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, Ralph Winter, Avi Arad, Stan Lee, Tom DeSanto, Bryan Singer.

Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellan, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Anna Paquin, Kelly Hu, Michael Reed Mackay, Shawn Ashmore.

The first scenes of X-Men 2 are designed to generate a state of X-citement with a surge of visuals from deep space morphing into multitudinal strands of mutating DNA under the titles. However, as the several strands of the story begin and rapidly interweave with little connection between them, excitement becomes confusion.

A major new character, the smoke-trailing, teleporting Nightcrawler, (Alan Cumming in an endearing portrayal of a tormented soul) creates so much chaos in his apparent attack on the US President that we, as well as the President’s minders, have no idea what is going on until much later. It is a dangerous thing to do to an audience, in that in trying to work out what has just happened we lose the meaning of the swiftly following action of the next strand of story.

X-Men 2 is about individuals with extraordinary powers and differences learning to work together against a mutual threat. The X-men/women must also manage their unique powers in their own lives and what that means in terms of relating both to other mutants (Wolverine and Jean Grey, Jean Grey and Cyclops, Rogue and Iceman) as well as to non-mutants who also happen to be one’s family. 

As in the first X-Men, evolution’s ‘next step’ is threatened by human forces fearing change and the unknown in the persons of Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) and William Stryker (Brian Cox) as well as from a rival faction of mutants under the humanity-hating Magneto. As Magneto, Ian McKellan revels in his power, whether latent in his plastic prison reminiscent of Hannibal Lecter, or freely manifesting his awesome metallurgical megalomania. Professor Xavier, the master-telepath (Patrick Stewart) and his school for mutants find an unlikely ally in their fight against Stryker and his puppet-mutant son Jason. All is not as it may seem, but the sudden reversals and surprises will keep fans guessing only up to a point before the inevitable foregone conclusion.

There is pleasing interaction between the older mutants, the weather-controlling Storm (Halle Berry, with a smidgen more depth than in the first X-Men), Jean Grey, the telepath coming into some far-reaching power (Famke Janssen) and the younger mutants who are their students at the school. Rogue (Anna Paquin) and Robby/ Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) are trying to find a way to relate more intimately despite the fact of his being able to freeze her and her tending to fry him by draining his energy upon skin contact. Jean Grey and Scott/Cyclops (James Marsden) seem to be inseparably paired, much to the dismay of Wolverine (a solid Hugh Jackman).

As well as there being more romance in this sequel, Wolverine is enabled to go more deeply into his amnesiac past to find out how his bones became lined with adamantium and battle with his inner bestial nature. There is a spectacular interaction between him and Yuriko/Deathstrike, (a compactly muscular Kelly Hu) whose similar adamantium structure would appear to make them ideally suited. Instead the dazzling fight between them is excitingly tinged with the possibility that Wolverine may have met his nemesis.

Special effects have increased markedly since the first X-Men and the mutants’ powers are well showcased, especially Nightcrawler’s and Mystique’s. As Mystique, the blue, reptilian-skinned shape-shifter who can morph into any likeness at will, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos is visually stunning, and even gets an intriguing scene in her natural appearance. The X-jet is superb, as is Cerebro, Professor Xavier’s mind machine that enhances his mental powers to connect every living sentient being on the planet.

Director Bryan Singer, whose classics The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil showed a phenomenal talent for psychological thriller/drama just as X-Men demonstrated his skill with the action-comic/super-hero genre, manages a difficult, pivotal element of the plot involving a projected reality from one telepath to another by a simple device (one blue eye, one brown). Obviously an X-fan, Singer, his production crew and his ensemble cast bring the mutants recognisably to life.

Appropriately enough for comic-book characters the characterisation is at best two-dimensional. While Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan are equally fine in their roles, and many of the others balance their power-wielding and self-doubting flipsides well - notably Famke Janssen, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin and Shawn Ashmore - there are some less believable performances, especially James Marsden as a rather plastic Cyclops. On the other hand, there is a memorable moment when Mystique, questioned by Nightcrawler about why she doesn’t stay in a ‘more acceptable’ shape all the time, flashes an answer dripping with venom, “Because I shouldn’t have to!”

The mutants in the X-Men comics differ from most superheroes in that they only have one ability and have to learn, or are sometimes unable, to control it, and some poignancy arises in Rogue and Iceman’s inability to switch off their power. Those who are able to control their powers, amping them up at will, are Professor Xavier, Storm, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Pyro, Mystique and Magneto, while Cyclops utilises special eye-shades to help control his annihilating optic blasts. While some are born with their powers, others have been ‘mutated’ against their will. The adaptive mechanisms each must go through to manage their difference, however, is the same. The suggestion is that the more powerful they are the more they are tempted to megalomania. It is where the mutants experience their inabilities, that keeps them somewhat more ‘human’ and acceptably egalitarian.

The basic psychology on which X-Men appeals is the conviction every adolescent experiences of being different, somehow alien and therefore unacceptable. Whereas in life we may isolate ourselves, concentrating misery and self-pity or to rebel into various degrees of anti-social behaviour, the upbeat fantasy alternative in X-Men and X-2 is to find our freakiness is a super-power. It changes the battle into a moral and ethical one between blasting our apparent enemies to kingdom come with the voltage of our hate or teaming up for the positive good of all.  The analogy is to discover the positive, creative use of what makes each of us different and to find where we belong by developing our uniqueness in a context of evolution’s inevitable adaptive probing.

© Avril Carruthers     27^th April, 2003