Jump to content

X2 (film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 72.194.82.128 (talk) at 06:16, 9 January 2006. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

X2
X2 film poster
Directed byBryan Singer
Written byDavid Hayter,
Bryan Singer,
Michael Dougherty,
Dan Harris
Produced byStan Lee,
Tom DeSanto,
Avi Arad,
Bryan Singer,
Ralph Winter
StarringPatrick Stewart,
Hugh Jackman,
Ian McKellen,
Halle Berry,
Famke Janssen,
James Marsden,
Anna Paquin,
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos,
Brian Cox,
Alan Cumming,
Aaron Stanford,
Shawn Ashmore
Distributed byTwentieth Century Fox
Release dates
May 2, 2003
Running time
133 min
LanguageEnglish
Budget$110 million


X2 (promoted in some markets as X2: X-Men United or X-Men 2: X-Men United) is an American movie, first released in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2003, and in the United States on May 2. The film is a sequel to X-Men. It was directed by Bryan Singer, and starred an ensemble cast including Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Ian McKellen, Anna Paquin, Brian Cox, and Alan Cumming.

The X-Men

The film is loosely based on the 1982 X-Men graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills. In the film, William Stryker is a high-ranking army colonel who leads an assault into Professor Xavier's school to build his own version of Xavier's mutant-hunting computer Cerebro in order to destroy every mutant on Earth. The X-Men are forced to ally with Magneto and Mystique to defeat Stryker. X2 introduced Nightcrawler to film-goers, and was an even greater success than the original film, earning approx. $215 million in North America alone, making it one of the top ten movies of 2003. It was also proclaimed by many fans and critics a superior film than its predecessor.

Plot

Template:Spoiler

After a harrowing attempt on the President's life, and the revelation that the mutant Nightcrawler was involved, public pressure to pass the Mutant Registration Act increases, which would force all mutants in the nation to publicly declare themselves mutants and dictate the nature of their powers to the federal government.

File:Cyclopsfight.jpg
Cyclops defending Professor X from Stryker's goons.

An attack on Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted (labeled a "Mutant training facility"' by the media), leads to an unlikely alliance with the recently escaped Magneto in a frantic race to stop William Stryker, a military leader with a hatred of mutants, before he can succeed in his plan to destroy all mutants.

Stryker has orchestrated the attack on the President to get official approval for his attack on all mutants. He is able to control mutants with a powerful drug, and gains control over Professor Xavier through Jason, one of the professor's former students, who is able to project powerful visions in the mind, blinding a person to reality. Stryker has created a copy of Professor Xavier's machine Cerebro which, we learn, was invented by then-friends Professor Xavier and Erik Lensherr (Magneto).

File:Colossusx2.jpg
Colossus taking on Stryker's soldiers.

In the process, Wolverine learns some of his forgotten past and how his body was enhanced with a superstrong adamantium skeleton. He meets another adamantium-laced foe, Lady Deathstrike, and fights her to protect the other mutants who have been imprisoned in a secret facility by Stryker.

File:Mutantgroup.jpg
The X-Men join with Magneto and Mystique to stop Stryker.

While in the facility, Magneto becomes an enemy again and secretly escapes. In the end, Dr. Jean Grey sacrifices herself to save Professor Xavier and the other X-Men. However, there is evidence she may return, like she did in the comics, as the Phoenix.

The X-Men convinced the President of the truth behind his assassination attempt and persuade him to make a choice: Human- and Mutant-kind working together in peace or destroying each other in a war.

The basic story elements, involving Stryker's plot to use Xavier's powers against all mutants, and the X-Men's resulting alliance with Magneto, are loosely adapted from the graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills by Chris Claremont. In that story, Stryker has a military background, but is currently a religious leader whose wife gave birth to an obviously mutant infant. In a fit of rage, he killed them both and decided that he had been chosen by God to destroy mutants. In the film, his military background is moved to the foreground, and the religious aspect of the character is eliminated. Instead of killing his wife and son in childbirth, the Stryker of the film sends his son (loosely based on the character Mastermind from the comics) to Xavier to be cured of his mutation. Unable to change his mutation, and resentful of his parents, he began tormenting his mother by projecting nightmarish images into her brain, causing her to commit suicide by drilling a hole into her head. Stryker responded by giving his son a lobotomy, and extracting his brain fluid, which he now uses to control other mutants.

Main cast

Differences from the comic book

Longtime fans of the X-Men title will recognize that some liberties have been taken with the X-Men characters. While the movie need not follow all the conventions of the comic, they are interesting to note.

  • Iceman appears as a teenager and appears much younger than many of the other X-Men. In the comics, Iceman was one of the original X-Men. He appeared and left many years before the 1980s X-Men like Rogue, Storm, and Wolverine. If he were around at all, he would appear closer to Jean Grey's age.
  • Colossus is in this movie but has only a very small part and is not part of the X-Men team, only an older student of the academy. While young in age when he began with the X-Men, he was a full-fledged member for many years in the comics. In addition, he speaks with an American accent, as opposed to the expected Russian accent.
  • William Stryker is a zealot preacher in the comics, while the film's version is the head commander of the covert black ops program Weapon X. His son, Jason, is a very loose incarnation of Jason "Mastermind" Wyngarde, who was a full-grown, mentally and physically able illusionist (with no relation to Stryker) from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and Hellfire Club in the comics, but is a wheelchair-bound teenager half conscious bombarded on sedatives in the film.
  • Deathstrike, who in the movie appeared as a mutant under Stryker's control was once Wolverine's love interest in the comic books.
  • Rogue, according to the comic books has the ability of flight and superhuman strength, whereas in the movie she lacks these abilities. However Rogue only possesses these abilities in the comic books because she accidentally absorbed Ms. Marvel's powers by touching her for too long. By changing her backstory, skipping her original villainous phase, she is closer to her original basic ability.
  • Rogue, in the comic books has origins in the south, and also a distinct southern accent. This is another alteration that fans may have been aware of. It may also be noted that in the 90's series of the comics famed cartoon adaptation, Rogue and Wolverine often got into disputes. She wasn't emotionally attached to him, as the movie depicts.
  • Magneto and Professor X are American (Magneto being an immigrant), but both are shown in the movie as having British accents.

Reactions and Box Office

Just as the original film had done, X2 garnered high praise from critics and won over most of the comic book community, who regarded it as a vast improvement over the original, and it went on to make even more money at the box office than its predecessor. Some fans, however, continue to feel annoyed at Wolverine's prominence while the other X-Men, particularly Cyclops, are relegated to second string status. Wizard magazine stated it as the best comic book movie at that time of the issue was released(2003).

Trivia

  • In the scene where Mystique accesses Stryker's computer for the location of Magneto's cell, a list of mutants can be seen, many of which are from the comic books, including Remy LeBeau (Gambit), Kevin McTaggert (Proteus, the son of Moira Mctaggart), the Maximoff children Wanda (Scarlet Witch) and Pietro (Quicksilver) - both of whom are Magneto's offspring - Xi'an Coy Mahn (Karma), and Danielle Moonstar (Moonstar); the latter two are part of the New Mutants group of the X-Men. Also seen on the list was Arthur Maddicks, a Morlock in the comics; it is generally assumed that the child with the forked tongue, called 'Artie' by Storm is Arthur Maddicks in the film's universe. At first,a rubber tongue was used for this scene but the kid actor broke it during filming and for the last scene showing the tongue, a CGI tongue was inserted.
  • In the very same scene, where Mystique glances over at the other monitor and sees plans for Cerebro, other files on Stryker's computer include a folder on Franklin Richards, the realtiy-altering son of Reed and Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four, a folder on Omega Red, a folder on Project Wideawake, an operation that called for the construction of giant, mutant-hunting robots known as Sentinels, and a folder on Muir Island.
  • In the first movie Mystique's yellow eyes were due to contact lenses but in the second, they used computer animation.
  • In the scene where Mystique confronts the guard to Magneto's plastic cell in a bar, the news is on the TV by the bar. On the news is an interview with a so-called "Dr. Hank McCoy", who in the comics is the member of the X-Men known as Beast.
  • In the scene where William Stryker's thugs raid Charles Xaiver's school for mutants, students running from the thugs include Kitty Pryde and Theresa Rourke Cassidy. Theresa is the girl who screams the blood-curdling scream which wakes everyone up, and Kitty is the girl who becomes intangible, falls through the bed and jumps through several guards.
  • Many X's are hidden in the X-Men movies. One is on top of the President's door at the beginning of the movie. These X's are actually part of the architecture of the Oval Office, but they fit well in the film.
  • When Nightcrawler attacks the Secret Service at the beginning of the movie, the "Dies Irae" from Mozart's Requiem plays.
  • When Nightcrawler tries to scare away Storm and Jean Grey, he speaks German phrases: Ich bin der Bote des Teufels. Ich bin die Ausgeburt des Bõsen! The translation is: I am the messenger of Satan. I am evil incarnate!
  • Long-time fans have remarked that the ending is a bit illogical, as Jean could have lifted herself up in the air while holding back the torrents of water. In the comics, she can levitate, but in the movies, she is never depicted to have that talent.
  • A bit more obvious amount of foreshadowing of the third movie is used. Whenever Jean's powers became stronger than usual, she was often depicted as glowing with fire, which as an obvious sign of the Phoenix. Just as well, the ending shot over the Alkali Lake has a visible sign of a flying bird in its waters.
  • Despite popular belief, the car that the X-Men drive in this film is actually just a modified Mazda RX-8, and is not a Concept car
Wikiquote has quotations related to X2 (film).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=X2_(film)&oldid=34465020"