"Have you ever tried... not being a mutant?" (mini-review)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a trip to EB Games (Electronics Boutique) with Chris, where he picked up a copy of an X-Men game for the Playstation. Each time we play it I get a hankering to watch one of the movies. You can find my mini-review of the first X-Men movie here. Last weekend I watched the second instalment, X2: X-Men United. And let me just say, these are comic-book heroes at their finest.

Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects) once again directs, bringing his unique and incredibly exciting style to the table. X2 is one of those rare sequels that manages to outshine the original. And the first one itself was quite good. X2 reunites us with all our favourite mutants from the first film; Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), Cyclops, Magneto (Ian McKellen), Mystique, Storm (Halle Berry), they’re all here. Including a few new faces, including the extremely cool Nightcrawler, who features in the movie’s sensational opening scene.

X2 is an enjoyable film to watch, merely for the action sequences. But it also goes a long way toward developing many of the franchise’s popular characters. We get more than a glimpse into Wolverine’s origins, which play into the movie’s main plot. We also get to see Pyro and Iceman begin to come into their own, with the former struggling to decide between the honourable X-Men, led by Professor X (Patrick Stewart), and the hell-bent-for-war Brotherhood, led by Magneto. During an especially exciting attack on the X-Men headquarters we are given peeks at a number of the comic’s other popular heroes.

Presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic video, X2 looks great. And with a DTS 5.1 soundtrack it sounds even better than it looks. The 2 disc DVD set also comes with a number of bonus features and commentary. I watched the special features a long time ago and I seem to remember they were pretty good. It’s really hard to remember though. Let’s be honest, special features aren’t really THAT special. Unless they’re Lord of the Rings special features, but that’s a whole other story.

If you liked the first X-Men movie, you’ll love the second one even more. If you hate movies about super heroes and mutants, you should probably avoid this one. Unless you are obsessed with Hugh Jackman (I won’t mention any names…Shauna), in which case you’ll really enjoy a couple of Wolverine’s flashbacks.

Blog-note: I don’t give ratings (out of 10) for mini-reviews. The mini-reviews are intended to just give a brief overview of the DVD and my general thoughts and feelings about it, as opposed to a more in-depth look the film. If you really, really need a rating from me post a comment and I’ll come up with a special rating just for you.

Indestructible, adamantium covered trivia for X2: X-Men United.