As you can see from the oddly-consistent scores, I thought X2 was a mediocre film, though slightly better than X1. Not awful, not boring, just sort of there, moving from point to point as required by the plot, but never really stopping to revel in any moments, and never producing anything so cool that I wanted to stop and stare. The opening sequence of X2, where Nightcrawler attacks the Oval Office, was definitely the best thing in the movie, since it was a cool concept, and well-executed. Other things through the movie had the concept and the set up, but they never really pulled off the execution to my satisfaction. Fights that could have been awesome were just okay, showdowns that were built up to sort of slipped by once they arrived, and so on.

I'm obviously in the minority about this film, since most geeks seem to worship it, but it didn't do that much for me one way or the other.

November 29, 2003

So, Xmen 2.

I didn't dislike too much of it, other than a few very large and very stupid logic holes, and the magic used (mutant powers, if you prefer) was generally pretty cool, but I never felt very involved in the plot.  The main climax was trying to get someone to stop using a machine, and that's never very exciting in movies, plus it was very obvious that neither the "kill all mutants on earth" nor "kill all non-mutants on earth" schemes were going to succeed.  Too drastic and far reaching in consequences.

The action in the movie was pretty dumb also, I thought.  The school attack was pretty well done, with Wolverine largely-redeeming himself after being a total pussy throughout almost the entire first film, though you've got to wonder about the ridiculously trusting nature of the school; no guards, no security system, no alarms, no on-duty nurses, etc.  Somehow there are like 50 mutant children and about 7 adults, despite Xavier seeing like 50,000,000 mutants on his big round Cerebro room.

I didn't like the Cerebro room much either.  I don't remember it from the comic book, (which I read sporadically as a kid, most recently in about 1981) but it seems ridiculously overpowered.  With it Xavier can find anyone on earth at any time and control them or even kill them, if he really wanted to.  Seems way too godlike, though of course in the movie he's never actually doing anything useful with it, except when forced to by other evil people.

The only character in the movie who I really liked, in terms of how he used his powers (ruthlessly and logically) was Magneto.  I suppose Mystique should get some props here also, since she was ruthless and clever and successful, but all of the good guys were just dumb, at least most of the time.  The "pull all of their grenade pins" thing was damn smart, as was Magneto's escape from the plastic prison, and that was almost enough to make up for the ridiculous scene where he caught a falling jet later in the movie.  He couldn't target the metal in a room 50 feet away, through plastic, but he could repair the broken roof of a jet in flight 2 miles overhead?  Yes, of course.

I was also surprised that the frog guy and Sabretooth died in X1.  I thought they were just thrown out into the water in the final fight, but I'm taking the fact that they weren't around anymore in this one to mean that they were dead.  Perhaps they'll turn up in #3 and I'll be surprised and wondering where they went last movie.

As for the fights and flights and mutant powers in X2, and for the most part it wasn't overly-silly.  It's silly, of course, and you have to suspend disbelief (cops are so trigger-happy that they shoot Wolverine before he can retract his claws, but stand there and wait for Pyro to slowly throw fireballs at them) in a lot of places, but if you go along with it it's okay.

I'd say my main gripe is that it was a pretty good movie, but not a good geek movie.  There weren't any bravura action scenes, just a lot of stuff that casual movie fans would really enjoy.  I did like the very Neo vs. Agent Smith from Matrix 1 style fight scene between Wolverine and Deathstrike, though the ending of it was dumb and telegraphed by about 70 shots of the boiling adamantanium.  But the jet chase thing was just ridiculous, and the climax and final climax didn't do much for me.  It's just never that suspenseful to see people trying to stop a machine from being used, when you're sure they'll succeed, or people trying to get out of the way before a dam breaks, when you're also sure they'll escape.

And isn't that how every James Bond movie ends anyway, with a narrow escape from world destruction from a machine/natural disaster?  It's just that the Xmen went to talk to the president, rather than ending up in a life raft with a hot and willing international beauty.

I didn't think X1 was all that good, and I guess X2 was better, even though I was getting bored the last 30 minutes, ready for it to be over.  I actually thought X1 had a better ending/climax, with more suspense that the evil scheme might actually succeed, but I suppose the rest of the movie wasn't as good.  I'd give X2 a positive review, but only a slight recommendation, where I'd almost recommend it more for people who don't love action movies or comic book type stuff, and less for people who do, since they'll probably be somewhat disappointed by it, as I was.

Pre Movie Discussion

April 28, 2003

There are a bunch of new, short X-men 2 trailers on the Quicktime Trailer Site, and they are pretty good.  The Special Effects one is my favorite, mostly for the Nightcrawler stuff.  The fact that the director looks like he's 1) 17, and 2) a backup dancer for N'Sync doesn't inspire a lot of confidence, and I didn't think the first movie was very good, but I'll go see this one, and not just because Malaya wants to see it too.

My main issue with the first one was how fake most of the special powers were.  Not that they looked fake, but that they were used to poorly or randomly. Wolverine is supposed to be so bad ass and a fighter, but he couldn't hit an elephant in a phone booth despite having claws attached to his hands. His only visible special power was to heal rapidly after he repeatedly got his ass kicked since he couldn't fight for crap.  Though it came in handy since he could let Rogue borrow it the seventeen times she was nearly killed. And so on.

It looks like a repeat of that in the sequel, with the fire-throwing guy repeatedly taking several minutes to throw big streams of fire, while police with guns watch and wait to be hit by the fire. I might expect them to oh, shoot him? I mean rather than waiting to be incinerated.

It's not that I mind them having super powers; I love that.  It's just that it reminds me of how the Jedi work in SW 1 and 2, where it's clear at all times that a single Marine with a machine gun and some grenades could fight more effectively than every living Jedi put together. The comic books and Anime movies do a good job of showing super powers that are actually used along with conventional weapons, and augment them, making the superhero more effective. Rather than just able to throw fire, which is devastating assuming all the people with guns are slow and frightened and just stand there and wait to be hit.

It's just a question of writing the scenes intelligently and realistically, rather than being all overwhelmed with the shiny special effects at your disposal, and throwing logic out the window to showcase them, thus turning everyone who doesn't have them into a stupid punching bag.

Someday, my movies will be so much more clevererer. *cough*