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Advance review of X2!!!
by Md. Fuad Zain
While The Crow and Blade were respectful hits at the box office, it took the success of X-Men to really get Hollywood's attention that a movie adaptation of a comic book series must be done with utmost care and reverence to the original materials. Since X-Men, Marvel Comics' other prized properties like Spider-man and most recently DareDevil have been immortalized on celluloid to the relief and delight of most of their fans. Even before X-Men was released, talks of a sequel was hot and now, we finally get to see X2.
It is three years later. Xavier's School for Gifted Children is doing well. Magneto (Ian McKellen) is imprisoned in a plastic cell. Logan (Hugh Jackman) is still struggling to remember his past. Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is nowhere to be found. The Mutant Registration Act failed to materialize to the relief of mutants in the United States. Yet they are still feared and despised. They are allowed only a the slightest bit of tolerance, if at all.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Then a nasty attack in the White House by a mutant threatens to tip over the fragile balance, putting mutants everywhere once more at risk.
It is up to Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the X-Men - Wolverine, Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Pyro (Aaron Standford) and a new member called Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) - to uncover the mystery
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) behind the assault
and save the world once again.
2003 will be remembered as the year of a dozen sequels. X2 is the first one out of the gate that delivers the goods in spades. Still at the helm is Bryan Singer, who didn't direct another film since X-Men. Working with a script by Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty based on stories by David Hayter and Zak Penn, Singer invested heavily this time around on character development and back story which the original movie, though exciting, lacked. Yes, this means the movie is more than 104 minutes long and all the better for it.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) The script does have an emotional bottom end that is unexpected for a successful franchise.
Having more material to work with, the entire cast played their characters for real, evoking real empathy, disgust and amazement throughout the film. For sheer ball-busting terror, Wolverine and Lady Death Strike (Kelly Hu) take the cake.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) There is nothing like having sharp adamantium appendages to hurt somebody.
Perhaps her Oscar win did give her more screen time for Berry whose character, short-shafted in the first film, finally comes to life. Stewart, McKellen and Brian Cox as Stryker, did their thespian best in delivering marvelous moral counterpoints in the story.
There are many memorable scenes in X2, beautifully shot by Newton Thomas Sigel who was the DP for X-Men.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) From the White House attack to the siege of the X-Mansion to the final battle, all of the action sequences were beautifully realized.
The CGIs, mostly done by Cinesite, are topnotch eye-candy; it's too bad that Cinesite couldn't stay on to be much of a contender in Hollywood's visual effect industry. John Ottman, who served as editor and composer for X2, paced the story brilliantly and crafted a great score that complimented the story and Michael Kamen's original composition. The sound design, as expected, has the trademark of a big-budget summer movie. It is fully enveloping and seamlessly realistic. Just listen to the intensity of Wolverine's claws coming out and the BAMPF! effects.
At the end of the production note, Bryan Singer said that X-Men felt really like a preview to X2. After having seen the movie, I would concur. X2 is exponentially better than X-Men. This is a sequel that would appeal not only to its comics fan base but also to mature audiences who crave for a real story underneath its summer-sheen effects extravaganza. You don't have to see X-Men to enjoy X2. Best of all, it makes you crave for a third X-men movie while you get back in line to enjoy a second screening.
X2 aka X-Men 2
Sci-Fi/Action, Color, 2003
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Anna Paquin, Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Kelly Hu, Shawn Ashmore and Aaron Stanford.
Language: English.
Sound Format : Dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS
http://www.x-men-the-movie.com/
by Md. Fuad Zain
While The Crow and Blade were respectful hits at the box office, it took the success of X-Men to really get Hollywood's attention that a movie adaptation of a comic book series must be done with utmost care and reverence to the original materials. Since X-Men, Marvel Comics' other prized properties like Spider-man and most recently DareDevil have been immortalized on celluloid to the relief and delight of most of their fans. Even before X-Men was released, talks of a sequel was hot and now, we finally get to see X2.
It is three years later. Xavier's School for Gifted Children is doing well. Magneto (Ian McKellen) is imprisoned in a plastic cell. Logan (Hugh Jackman) is still struggling to remember his past. Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) is nowhere to be found. The Mutant Registration Act failed to materialize to the relief of mutants in the United States. Yet they are still feared and despised. They are allowed only a the slightest bit of tolerance, if at all.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Then a nasty attack in the White House by a mutant threatens to tip over the fragile balance, putting mutants everywhere once more at risk.
It is up to Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and the X-Men - Wolverine, Storm (Halle Berry), Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), Cyclops (James Marsden), Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Pyro (Aaron Standford) and a new member called Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) - to uncover the mystery
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) behind the assault
and save the world once again.
2003 will be remembered as the year of a dozen sequels. X2 is the first one out of the gate that delivers the goods in spades. Still at the helm is Bryan Singer, who didn't direct another film since X-Men. Working with a script by Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty based on stories by David Hayter and Zak Penn, Singer invested heavily this time around on character development and back story which the original movie, though exciting, lacked. Yes, this means the movie is more than 104 minutes long and all the better for it.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) The script does have an emotional bottom end that is unexpected for a successful franchise.
Having more material to work with, the entire cast played their characters for real, evoking real empathy, disgust and amazement throughout the film. For sheer ball-busting terror, Wolverine and Lady Death Strike (Kelly Hu) take the cake.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) There is nothing like having sharp adamantium appendages to hurt somebody.
Perhaps her Oscar win did give her more screen time for Berry whose character, short-shafted in the first film, finally comes to life. Stewart, McKellen and Brian Cox as Stryker, did their thespian best in delivering marvelous moral counterpoints in the story.
There are many memorable scenes in X2, beautifully shot by Newton Thomas Sigel who was the DP for X-Men.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) From the White House attack to the siege of the X-Mansion to the final battle, all of the action sequences were beautifully realized.
The CGIs, mostly done by Cinesite, are topnotch eye-candy; it's too bad that Cinesite couldn't stay on to be much of a contender in Hollywood's visual effect industry. John Ottman, who served as editor and composer for X2, paced the story brilliantly and crafted a great score that complimented the story and Michael Kamen's original composition. The sound design, as expected, has the trademark of a big-budget summer movie. It is fully enveloping and seamlessly realistic. Just listen to the intensity of Wolverine's claws coming out and the BAMPF! effects.
At the end of the production note, Bryan Singer said that X-Men felt really like a preview to X2. After having seen the movie, I would concur. X2 is exponentially better than X-Men. This is a sequel that would appeal not only to its comics fan base but also to mature audiences who crave for a real story underneath its summer-sheen effects extravaganza. You don't have to see X-Men to enjoy X2. Best of all, it makes you crave for a third X-men movie while you get back in line to enjoy a second screening.
X2 aka X-Men 2
Sci-Fi/Action, Color, 2003
Director: Bryan Singer
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Anna Paquin, Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Kelly Hu, Shawn Ashmore and Aaron Stanford.
Language: English.
Sound Format : Dolby Digital, DTS and SDDS
http://www.x-men-the-movie.com/