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X2: X-Men United
The second instalment in the X-Men series introduced a number of new mutants most notably Colossus and Beast. Although, to be fair, both were nothing more than cameos and Beast was present as his original identity, Dr Hank McCoy. Also introduced, and this one was a little more confusing, was Nightcrawler. I was always under the impression that Nightcrawler was a bad guy and while he wasn’t involved with Magneto, seeing him on the side of the X-Men just didn’t seem to fit.
X2: X-Men United, continues the story of the war between humans and mutants. In the blue corner, fighting for the destruction of all mutants is William Stryker, and in the Red Corner, fighting for mutant supremacy and if possible, the destruction of humans, Eric Lensherr, A.K.A. Magneto, and the brotherhood. Of course, no title fight would be complete without the guest referee, Charles Xavier and the X-Men, including your favourite bad-boy, Wolverine.
Fortunately for us, the dodgy movie watcher, this battle involves things blowing up, young mutants getting corrupted, other young mutants trying to get corrupted and failing, and Wolverine getting into a couple of awesome fights scenes, with much Adamantium claw action.
Dodginess
If the rules about dodginess that apply to comic book films are revised slightly, the ones that apply to sequels of comic book films have to be made a lot stricter. It is not alright to merely have the same amount of dodginess as the original. No it has to go beyond that. Unfortunately for X2, it is no dodgier than X-Men and as a result only rates 3 on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man scale. This doesn’t mean that it’s not dodgy, far from it. all it means is that it didn’t live up to the additional dodginess expected in a sequel. As far as dodgy moments are concerned there are many, but the one that sticks out in my mind is Magneto breaking out of the prison. Yup, Magneto standing on a metallic disc with two iron balls orbiting him while he flies across the empty space is by far the coolest visual in the film.
Rewatchability Rating
Where X-Men can be watched by itself, X2: X-Men United really needs to be watched as part of an X-Men marathon. You can watch it by itself, and it will be entertaining, but only if you have watched the entire trilogy, otherwise there will be too many references to the first film and too much foreshadowing that you’ll miss. Nevertheless, it still manages to rate a 4 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
There are times when I regret ever having started this section, not because the scripts are bad or because a lot of dodgy movies have wooden acting. I regret it because a lot of the time the memorable quotes in dodgy movies require the visual input to make an impression. Fortunately, X2: X-Men United has one that stands alone reasonably well, especially in light of the title fight analogy used earlier. “Sharing the world has never been humanity's defining attribute.”
Final Thoughts
X2: X-Men United is a worthy successor to X-Men. And while it doesn’t really stand on it’s own, knowing that it is the second in a trilogy gives it that something extra that it needs.