Rating: Summary: Bryan Singer makes a difference! Review: Just flipped through the previous reviews, they all gave a high credit to the movie ahead viewing it. I can ensure you guys, you are damn right. I have seen the movie this morning, among the first round of preview showings. It deserves all the hypes and the man is Bryan Singer. He had once again re-invented the genre into an blockbuster with sophisticated plot in ensemble casts. It is of course action/FX packed: the opening sequence of nightcrawler alone kicking [butt] along the assasination of the president and it is a lot more epic. It is just breathtaking. But action asides, there are right enough of the storytellings of each character development, where they ar flowing smoothly in between all the action scenes. The editing is superb, you will be fed with couple mins of storytellings and then 4 or 5 mins action scenes. What is the major element distinguishes X2 to other superhero flicks is its not an intelligent-insulting blockbuster, the story is political while playing on the main theme of the conflicts between different groups of human being. It is certified as 12A in the UK, but I am just wondering that a 12 year old kid may not fully understand the whole story. It is not just evil and good, its about conflicts between different interests, the historical alliance of the X-men and their nemesis led by Magneto added more interesting layer to the story. Bryan Singer is the man behind all this, he is the director and executive producer, and involved in the screenplay as well. He is really good at ensemble movie, without the financial boundary this time, he is capable to pull everything apart and pull them altogether again, and his mastery of mystery and suspense in this movie ar as good as in his classic 'the Usual Suspects'. Another thing is to put into the right thing in the right time, every mutant with their own speical feature, they are more than fully utilitzed under the setting at the right moment coincided with their own character, sometimes very well assisting the character development, e.g. Pyro's furious fire attack which unveiled his personality and hinted his fall in the dark side at the last part of the film. It will be a crime not to give credit to the scoring, John Ottaman is back to his collabation with Singer. His scoring makes the movie a classic, makes it more like a Two Towers than a Spider Man and Singer is the man who makes the difference.
Rating: Summary: excellent Review: As hard as it may seem X2 was better than the first one, Awsome action scenes right from the beginning.
Rating: Summary: X2 - Too Many Mutants Spoil the Sequel Review: You've all the heard the saying that too many cooks spoil the broth. . .well X-Men 2, or to give it it's proper title, X2, has the same problem.Having seen the trailer, I was full of hope for this film, but sadly it's just not as good as the original X-Men movie. It's not a bad film at all, but it could and should've been so much more. X2's main problem is that it has too many main characters. Where as in the first film, you had Xavier, Jean Grey, Cylcops, Wolverine, Rogue, Storm, and Magneto and his small band of baddies, this time you've got all of the orginal good Mutants, plus a whole raft of new ones. . . and it's just all too many. Apart from Hugh Jackman's Wolverine, who has the most screen time, none of the other main cast get much of a look in. Halle Berry and Famke Jansen are woefully underused, James Marsden's Cyclops barely features, and Patrick Stewart's role is so small and undemanding, he looks like he faxed in his performance. They could've used a mannaquin, and no one would've noticed. However, along with Jackman, the real star of the film is Alan Cumming's teleporting mutant, Nightcrawler. The opening scene with Nightcrawler attempting to asassinate the US President is nothing short of astonishing FX wise, and is bordering on being truly original. But the much heralded fight between Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike is disappointing. Shot in the dark, it's difficult to see what's going on. . .maybe a nod towards the audience friendly rating the film wanted to achieve. The main cause for cheer is the excess screen time given to Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who gets to appear as "herself" for a short scene. . .much happiness from all the men in the cinema! Sadly, the plot is nothing original. . .Crazy army General tries to wipe out the mutant population. . .seen it all before, I'm afraid. Brian Cox as General Stryker isn't anywhere near nasty enough to be the villain, and once again, Ian McKellen takes the gong as head baddie, even if he starts to chew the scenery while not seeming to have a clue what the film's about. Overall, X2 is just about held together by Jackman's charisma and screen presence. Another sub-standard, Star Trek: Nemesis-esqe performance from Patrick Stewart puts a slight dampner on the whole film. Stewart apparantly wants nothing more to do with Jean-Luc Picard, but he can't seem to stop playing the USS Enterprise-E captain. Maybe this says something about Stewart's acting range. The visual effects are excellent, and the action set-pieces are impressive, but in this day and age, that comes as standard with this sort of film. The dialogue is clunky and could've been written by a complete screenwriting novice. The only shock you'll get from X2 is the death of a much loved character by the end of the film. . .a depressing indication of what may be to come in the likely X3.
Rating: Summary: I have seen X2 before is came out in theaters! Review: I saw X2 one week before it was coming out in theaters. It was the best movie i have ever seen. It is over 2 hours long. There was something sort of bad, Jean Grey dies at the end. The ending is very weird. You have to see this movie. And, the beginning of the movie as Nightcrawler attacking the white house and trying to kill the president. Later, Magneto, Mystique, and Pyro escape out of the military base.
Rating: Summary: A Fair Review Review: Before I even begin, I have to stress out my point that this is a review of X2 as a stand-alone movie. We all know that this is a sequel, but to give a fair review, I have to write about this film without having to compare it to the first installment. The whole plot of the film zeroes in on a military officer named Mr. William Stryker. His disappointment in life lies in the fact that his son is a mutant. Therefore he goes out on a mission to destroy every living mutant on the planet. We also learn later on in the film that it is this character who was responsible for the creation of the X-Men character, Wolverine. Because of this sudden appearance of Mr. William Stryker, the X-Men and the other mutants Magneto and Mystique are forced to join forces whether they like it or not. New X-Men characters are introduced in this film and are given more character depth- namely Iceman (a.k.a. as Bobby Drake), and Pyro. Iceman has the ability to create all forms of ice either with a simple touch, or one breath. Pyro has a similar power, the difference is that he can manipulate fire in all forms and use it to destroy his enemies. His weakness is that he can only control the fire, he cannot ignite it. Patrick Stewart, James Marsden, Halle Berry, and Famke Jemsen all come back to reprise their roles as Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, and Dr. Jean Grey. The same goes with Ian McKellen and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as Magneto and Mystique. In X2, the title can't be more apt because despite their differences in opinion about how to deal with the human race accepting the mere existence of mutants, they are uncomfortably forced to unite to defeat their enemy, Mr. William Stryker. I find this film impressive because a lot of comic book characters have been turned into movies such as Superman, Spiderman, Batman, and Daredevil. However, director Bryan Singer manages not to create a film that is not too comic booky, silly, or downright stupid. It has a PG-13 rating because kids are not going to totally absorb the lesson in this film. Children may walk away wishing they had extra-ordinary powers and become X-Men as well, but they still won't be able to grasp the whole genesis of X2- with the exception of the (no pun intended) intellectually gifted kids. Some of the characters of this film are given a lot of character depth; which is imperative in every film. My disappointment in X2 lies in the fact that I its one hour and 55 minutes of screen time, they still fail to give character development in Cyclops, Storm, and Mystique. We delve deeper into the psyche of Wolverine and why he has all this rage exploding inside him. We also are entertained into how Iceman's family reacts when they learn that their son is a mutant. I was laughing when Iceman's mother asks him, "Have you ever tried...not being a mutant?" This can very well be a metaphor for homosexuality- mothers asking their gay children if they could convert to heterosexuality, which is an impossible feat. All in all, X2 is an entertaining, sci-fi action flick that surprisingly makes you ask questions about yourself- was there a time that I was considered a misfit but I still felt better about it? Was there a time that I feared someone because he or she had something out of the ordinary?
Rating: Summary: You just can't be prepared for this... Review: Ok, I've watched it. The movie release date here in Brazil was April 30th, and as a long time fan of the Children of the Atom, I was in the front row of the very first screening. I liked X-Men: The Movie, of course it lacked some action, but it was all forgiven because not only it had to estabilish the scenario and present the characters, wich took a good hour and a half off the movie, but also the budget with wich Bryan Singer worked was very thin. Now, with the introductions out of the way, and with MUCH more money in hands, I tought Singer could finally give his vision of the Mutants wings. And he did. And oh, we are SO not ready! Not only this movie rocks the previous one, it has excelled in most every aspect. Characterizations are simply perfect, There is at least 500% more plot going on, it's darker, it's more violent, it's more thrilling, and it builds up all the way to a spetacular ending that will leave you [begging] for the third one. Not all of the characters being announced play a major part. The new characters with the most screen time are Nightcrawler, Stryker and Yuriko. There's much more screen time for Pyro and Iceman, also. As for the others, they are more like cameos, but will nonethless make all fans jump and cheer on their seats. The acting is superb, even those who didn't quite make into their characters on the first movie redeem themselves in this sequel, the most notable case being Halle Berry. Her Storm is much more profound, and it uses much more of her powers throughout the flick. Hugh Jackman manages to be an even better Wolverine than the first movie one, and he makes the whole audience gasp in one of the best scenes in the movie, when he goes berserker and shows some spec ops what a badass he can be when he's [mad]! Magneto and Charlie are superb, and Nightcrawler is absolutely amazing. And man, I could go on and on about how this movie ROCKS, but I'm pretty sure everyone will agree with me after the movie ends. In short, this is the best superhero movie EVER made, and one of the few that are not directed toward teenagers. This movie is comic book fantasy with a very serious treatment, and any fan like me knows that the Uncanny X-Men more than deserve it. I can hardly wait for X3!!
Rating: Summary: X2: Xcellent (Warning: Spoilers) Review: I have been privileged to be one of the first few to watch X2 before it's actually shown in the US. Being a comic and X-men fan, I definitely can say that this was not "sophomoric" or a bad follow-up. In fact, I was not disappointed by this movie, just like Two Towers was for The Fellowship of the Ring. Yeah, sure, Bryan Singer jumbles the characters and story arcs around but I think he has done such a fine job of "maximizing" all these plots and sub-plots such that he is able to make a more acceptable and mainstream understanding of the overall theme. What's more, he has put on so many layers which made the texture of the story and the movie richer and grander. So despite the negative news on the set, all their efforts, I believe, paid off with the end result. I am specifically pleased at how Bryan Singer handles the beginning of the Phoenix saga. Most of us fans have been waiting for this story arc to finally come to the big screen. To be honest, I was saddened when I saw the first few X2 trailers since it didn't show any indication that they would be using the possession of Jean Grey. Boy, was I wrong! The only thing that I didn't like was James Marsden's acting! It was good enough that they kept him out of the movie most of the time but when he would go on screen it was hilarious. Anyway, if you've chosen to read this review, don't blame me for ruining your surprise. As for those who accidentally read the spoilers, well, sorry and hope you still get a kick when you see the movie. Here's looking forward to X3 and hope it comes very soon because I'd definitely would love to see Dark Phoenix toast a planet or too! So to all Americans, on May 2 and the coming weekend, please make X2 gross higher than Spiderman (which is definitely a far less inferior film than this one).
Rating: Summary: X-factor Review: Buoyed by the phenomenal success of X-Men, this sequel to the titular mutant heroes is surprisingly faithful to its source as an allegory. Director Bryan Singer reteams with his first ensemble of characters including Prof. Xavier (Patrick Stewart), Storm (Halle Berry), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Cyclops (Marsden) and Jean Grey (Janssen) with nemesis Magneto (McKellen) and Mystique (Stamos) while building up the history of the compelling Wolverine (Jackman) and introducing teleportic Nightcrawler (Cummings) and menacing Lady Deathstryke (Kelly Hu) as the assistant to military general Stryker (Brian Cox) who plans to invoke the Anti-Mutant Registration Act and eliminate them. X-Men 2 establishes itself in full throttle with canted CGI-action scenes including the exciting escape from the X-Mansion as well as the climactic showdown at Alkali Lake. Singer deftly avoids overcrowding and sculpts each character with dimension and emotions while impresses upon audience with a portrait of misfits and xenophobic alienation, that gains renewed resonance with post-911 era. The struggle of good versus evil becomes increasingly blurred with Xavier and Magneto confronting the enemy with different intentions. X-Men 2 fuses comic fantasy with gripping characterization, particularly Jackman's anguished performance as Wolverine and McKellen's sardonic lines, that easily gives this thriller the definitive X-factor.
Rating: Summary: 2 thumps up Review: I looooove this movie its worth it. The type of action i just like very much. You hurry and watch it your self, don't wait!
Rating: Summary: The war...is here! Review: I just saw this movie today here in San Salvador, El Salvador, God knows how we got to see it 3 days before it hit theaters in the US, but we got it! I will not bad mouth X-men 1, but I what I WILL say is that 2 is soooo much better. I guess it has to do more with the fact that we see so many more special effects, with the mutants using their powers every minute or so, and a lot of action going on. I really liked the scene were Pyro goes after the Boston cops who go after the gang while in Iceman's home, and when Wolverine gets shot in the forehead (cool part). Not being an x-men fan (besides the movies, that is), it was also really cool to see Magneto and the chick who turns into anyone she wants cooperate with the good guys...for a while. I won't spoil it for you, so I won't tell you who dies in the end, but I will say it's really cool to see what Magneto can do with a couple of what looks to be ball bearings... Anyway, it was a great flick, and I'm looking forward to seeing it again, might even want to go for the DVD once they come out. I kind of wished one could have an "instant cassette" like in "Spaceballs" and be able to own it even before the movie is finished...I liked it so much. When is 3 coming out?
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