Yup today's entry takes our first dip into Marvel movie territory, back to the early days when we didn't have a slew of good to great movies to compare them against so a REALLY good superhero flick would stand out like a sore thumb.
Here's the flick that wore the crown for a good time until arguably the following year when Alfred Molina put in the performance of a lifetime as Doc Ock in 'Spider-Man 2' or when Chris Nolan debuted 'Batman Begins'.
But what was great then may simply just be average fare now. Has the once darling of the X-Men franchise suffered in quality in 16 years or does it still hold up today? Here's where I find out, so join me won't you? JOIN ME!
X2 (2003 dir. Bryan Singer)
Halle Berry gets top billing as she'd just won the Academy Award for 'Monster's Ball'. She'd undo all that hard work by starring in 'Die Another Day', 'Catwoman' and 'X-Men 3: The Last Stand'. Swings and roundabouts...
Why I bought it/Why I liked it:
When I was a kid, one franchise opened my eyes into the world of comics and in particular, one cartoon.
Whoa! hold your horses, I'm not talking about the seminal Fox Kids 1992 cartoon release of X-Men. I'm talking about one point in the infancy of Sky, possibly on the DJ Kat show on Sky One, they aired the X-Men pilot show. Pryde Of The X-Men, you know the awesome collab between New World Entertainment and Toei Animations but it had the really lame theme song? And Australian Wolverine? Anyway here's the intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1qrbAGsEOw
and for no good reason here's DJ Kat:
Burn it with fire.
Anyway, that got me psyched for the announcement of the new and much more famous X-Men cartoon series. The first episode blowing me away, I announced it to my dad. X-Men from before, but new ones like Gambit, Beast and Rogue. My dad telling me that Beast had been in the X-Men years ago but realising that I was interested in comic book characters proceded to bestow me with a gift. From the now sadly defunct Comics and Cards in St Mary's, he dropped this in front of a young Matt:
So in 1999 when Marvel UK imprint Essential X-Men stated that an X-Men movie was on the horizon, a prepubescent Matt lost his shit and couldn't wait to see it. Surely bad comic book movies he'd seen like 'Batman & Robin' were a thing of the past.
2000 rolled along. 'X-Men' came out and it was good but it was better than past comic book movies at the time (I was a bit too young to watch 'Blade' at that point), but 'X2' improved on it in all manners and set up The Dark Phoenix saga. Plus debuts of Nightcrawler, Colossus, Lady Deathstrike, if the third film was like this, oh boy, we were in for a treat...
Of course, we weren't. The franchise started tanking, sequel upon sequel upon spin-off disappointed. A reprieve came in the form of 'X-Men: Days of Future' Past but then Singer dropped the ball again with 'X-Men: Apocalypse' and with 'Dark Phoenix' this year, the once-mighty franchise, the one that started the whole Superhero genre off, died with a whimper instead of a bang...
Still, 'X2' was awesome and that's why I bought it and then never returned to it, outside of watching a Rifftrax alongside it...
If I think it'll stay in the collection:
Recently I made the claim that there's really only one great film in this franchise...and that's 'X-Men: Days Of Future Past'. A film ironically that I don't actually own as of this writing.
Subsequently, I do feel that too much time and really great Marvel Films have come and gone that make 'X2' look weak in comparison. While 'X2' was once a mighty king, now it's going to have that post Millenium feel, with awkward frosted tip hairstyles and dodgy special effects.
Not to mention Halle Berry's Storm will now try to seem more important because as stated, Halle was fresh off the Oscars, despite this essentially being the first Wolverine film. We'd taken Hugh into our hearts and now we wanted more of him. We got it, in this.
I have my suspicions that this one is going on the trade pile with Zoolander and Young Guns...
The review:
Well upon revisiting, 'X2' isn't an awful watch but as predicted it hasn't aged very well.
All the typical early 2000's tropes in a Superhero film are there, I'd completely forgotten the trademark opening credits through a wire, or a web, or some cells that Marvel was so keen on doing with these early releases.
Also what the hell were we all thinking when we wanted Logan to have 'the comic hairstyle' in the films and they delivered. He looks like a schmuck with his pointed do.
Bad camera angles, some really poorly delivered lines throughout. Halle Berry takes the lion's share of them but the script itself just lends itself to some horrible moments. Hell, it even makes two Shakespearean knighted actors look bad in parts with SHOUTED LINES.
I laughed once in this entire film and that was unintentional as the reveal of an army guy's terrible camouflage, otherwise, the intended gags didn't really land throughout.
The trio of Rogue, Iceman and Pyro pretty much just come across as Breakfast Club 2000, with mutants. Channelling their inner Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall and Aaron Stanford trying to summon his inner Judd Nelson. No one can be as cool as Judd Nelson in that film, stop trying. Their scenes are not a highlight.
The problem was all it made me think about were bad moments in X-Men comic history, like how half the mutants were killed off by the Legacy Virus but inexplicably came back. Or what the hell was Maggot and Marrow. And what the hell was Chuck Austen's run? Not really things to think while watching a movie, I grant you.
Oh and John Ottman's musical score is atrocious, some of the music he uses in scenes defies belief and took me completely out of the movie at times.
I present to you, the MVP of the entire movie. Brian Cox does it again...
On the positive side of things the movie does have a great third act which is probably why this film was so highly regarded at the time, moving at a breakneck pace, had the rest of the movie been like this, we might have had a classic on our hands.
Great performances by Brian Cox and Alan Cumming too. Cox's Styker seems to be the only well-developed character in the entire movie, delivering biting dialogue and providing logical back story and motive for his actions.
Cumming, on the other hand, does a great turn as Nightcrawler and his performance only serves to remind me how sorely missed he was in the remainder of the franchise.
Should it stay or should it go?
As much as I can appreciate the path that the early X-Men movies set, without their success back then we wouldn't have the MCU as we have it now. That being said even trailblazers can age badly and 'X2' is no exception. It finds itself at the top of the pile of films to trade in until the next film expectantly and no prizes for guessing what THAT one is.
A respectable 6 out of 10 for 'X2' but mainly for that third act and another fantastic Brian Cox performance.
Until next time, I remain,
Matt Major
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