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Written by: Zak Penn and David Hayter & Bryan Singer (story), Michael Dougherty & Dan Harris and David Hayter (screenplay)
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Shawn Ashmore
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
When anti-mutant Colonel William Stryker kidnaps Professor X and attacks his school, the X-Men must ally with their archenemy Magneto to stop him.
Verdict
It's not as thought provoking as the first movie that explored mutants and civil rights, or at least not as subtle. A human stages an incident to provide an excuse to target all mutants. The twist of this movie is the X-Men and Magneto teaming up, but the second half of the movie focuses on action set pieces. The hope is that the big finale will cover for the deficiencies.
It depends.
Review
An action packed opening features Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) attacking the President of the U.S. using his ability to teleport to infiltrate the Oval Office. As always, there are those that want to use the incident to detain all mutants. It's deceptive reasoning. One person committing a crime never signals everyone of a gender, nation, or socioeconomic group being criminals. It's rooted in fear and wanting to retain power. Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and his students just want to live normal lives. The inherent issue is the power mutants possess. They could over throw humans if so inclined as Magneto (Ian McKellen) indicated in the first movie. That's why humans remain skeptical or even fearful. There's no way to know which mutants will side with Xavier or Magneto. Magneto's experiences have led him to believe that humans won't stop until all mutants are incarcerated.
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| Hugh Jackman plays Wolverine |
Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) continues to search for answers about his past, and tensions are high between he and Cyclops (James Marsden) over Jean (Famke Janssen).
The villain in this movie is Stryker (Brian Cox). He orchestrated the attack on the President so he could then stage an attack on Xavier's school. Wolverine is a one man wrecking crew, but even he can only do so much in fighting off a military assault. Stryker has a personal vendetta against Xavier, blaming him for his son's fate. Stryker's son is a mutant, and he wants to use Xavier as a weapon. The remaining X-Men must team up with Magneto to save Xavier and all mutants.
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| Rebecca Romijn, Ian McKellan play Mystique, Magneto |
It seems like Stryker builds a Cerebro in a rather short time. It's a massive piece of equipment, and this movie makes it look like it's constructed in an afternoon. There's just no way. Just designing it would take an extensive time investment. It's also quite convenient that Wolverine is searching for his past and Stryker is at the root of that. In the same facility that has Stryker's Cerebro, Wolverine finds the room where he was injected with admantium. The tank is still there filled with water, the admantium is still bubbling, and there are even x-rays on the wall. It looks like it's fresh from when Wolverine was transformed, but even if it was another mutant after him the facility looks much too fresh. Does Stryker keep this room ready to go in the off chance he finds a mutant willing and capable of withstanding the process? We then get what is essentially Wolverine fighting himself, another mutant with similar powers. There's no concern over who's going to win. This is Wolverine after all.
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| Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen play Wolverine, Jean Gray |
The first movie's strength was exploring the civil rights issues of mutants. This suffers from the usual sequel bloat. We get plenty of new characters with very little development. The first half introduces an interesting idea with a false flag strike. The second half is nearly all fighting, a series of action sequences that's light on story. The big finale feels hollow, a shock without much substance.
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