Overview:
The story continues with everyone’s favorite characters from the first X-Men, but this time it is much better. A new plot, more characters, and a storyline that continues to grow into a potential third film, X-2 United rocks. Although the film has been released in spring, it boasts all the requirements for an early summer blockbuster.

Review:
Since I saw the previews for this movie I knew I had to see it. Despite some of the problems I had with its predecessor I was quite excited to see the follow-up of the film that sparked a rash of comic book movies for the next few years. Not only were there the same bad ass characters, there were new ones. If anyone knows the X-Men from the comic books, they know that there a slew of really interesting characters that could be fleshed out on the silver screen.

This time Professor Xavier and his follower’s aren’t fighting other mutants, they have to fight for their right to live. A secret government plan is underway that jeopardizes the existence of all mutants. Its up to the X-Men to track the program down and stop it at all costs.

I really liked this film. The plot was excellent and the creativity was fantastic. The opening scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie with an incredibly cool fight scene with one of my favorite characters, Kurt Wagner (AKA: Nightcrawler) in the White House. With the same characters from the first movie, their own storylines continue as well. Wolverine continues to search for information about his past in the wilderness, while Iceman and Rogue try to develop a cumbersome love life (Those who know something about the series get what I am saying).

Hostilities increase between humans and mutants as people march in the street for some sort of mutant registration laws. Upon reflection of this film, it holds primary subjects of racism much like that between Caucasians and anyone else. In the opening credits of the film, a voice over proclaims that one of the worst traits that humanity has is the inability to share the earth, let alone anything else. Several times in the film, fear of mutants results in enormously crowd-pleasing fight scenes. One in particular is the scene in a Boston suburb, between a fire wielding mutant and the local police.

One of my favorite aspects to United is the different characters and the way their powers are illustrated. Magneto (control over anything metal), Pyro (commands fire), Lady Deathstrike (female counterpart to Wolverine), and Mystique (ability to imitate anyone) along with several others all used their talents in several exciting action sequences. Despite the use of computers to create spectacular effects, some characters lack character development. Mutants like Colossus have little screen time; even though the audience saw a glimpse of Colossus mutating into his comic book form. For that matter, what happened to Gambit? Where did everyone’s favorite Bayou livin’, Creole speakin’, card throwin’ X-Man go? Even though Gambit wasn’t in the first film or this one, X2 was still great.

Acting:
After I saw X2: United, I wondered if there were any qualifications that female mutants had to meet in order to go to school in the upstate New-York mansion. I only came to one conclusion; they have to be smoking! Almost all the female X-Men including Mystique and Lady Deathstrike were drop dead gorgeous. Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Kelly Hu were all very easy on the eyes. Not only that, but they were good actresses as well. Some of them however, had few speaking lines and stayed mainly to fighting sequences (which they did well). But that’s okay, we still love them anyway!

For this film there seemed to be a large amount of big name actors. Those listed above as well as Sir Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, and Hugh Jackman. All of these actors and actresses did an excellent job. However I feel that Ian McKellan stole the show. He is just the perfect fit for Magneto. He looks crafty, brooding, and holds an air of aristocracy and intelligence that befits his character. There was some character development, and some may complain that there wasn’t enough, but it wasn’t needed. Even if you knew nothing about the X-Men world the intro explained everything.


Directing:
Bryan Singer once again pleases audiences with his cinematic artwork. His earlier works include The Usual Suspects, Apt Pupil, and of course X-Men. Singer has an eye for shots and scenes that can give any critic a run for their money. For example, the scene in the Weapon X facility with the grimy operating room with strange markings on the wall gave off a washed out experiment feel that had gone horribly wrong. Singer also picked some excellent locations to film. If you want to know more, go see X-2: United.

Final Thoughts:
This movie was so cool; plain and simple. I enjoyed the first film quite a bit, but United has all that and more. I give this movie four and a half planets. Even though it had a few moments of cheese, they can easily be excused for the basic fact that, IT WAS AWESOME! Add X-2: United to your list of must see movies, it has action, comedy and plenty of amazing fight scenes with incredible graphics. I can only hope that we can anticipate a sequel to these two movies.

Jameson Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Planets


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