Marvel Mondays #27 - X-Men 2 (2003)

After the runaway success of the first film, it was inevitable that there'd be a second X-Men film and sure enough, in 2003 X-Men 2 (or X2 for short) was released with the vast majority of the original cast returning (Sabre-Tooth and Toad being the only characters in the first film who don't feature in this one). Like its predecessor, it got decent reviews and did well at the box office. And also like its predecessor, I didn't see it at the time. However, having enjoyed the first film, I had high hopes for this one when I sat down to review it.

The film takes place about 2-3 years after the original X-Men (I assume) and begins with a German mutant with teleportation abilities named Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) infiltrating the White House and almost killing the President. One of the senior US generals, Stryker, uses this as an opportunity to request permission to raid Professor Xavier's school, having gained information about the facility by torturing Magneto who's still in prison following the first film. Senator Kelly, one of the President's advisors, objects to this but is over-ruled.

"Hold on though," I hear you say, "Kelly died in the first film, didn't he?" Exactly right - since the first film ended, Mystique the shapeshifter has been posing as Kelly to keep her head below the radar. However, finding out that her one-time boss Magneto is in danger prompts her to hatch a plan to spring him out of prison.

Following on from the first film, Wolverine has returned to Lake Alkali in Canada to get some answers regarding his amnesia but all he discovers there is an abandoned army base. Returning back to the school, he finds his fellow X-Men in scramble mode as Xavier has sent Storm and Jean Grey to bring Nightcrawler in to the school for interrogation while he and Cyclops head off to speak to Magneto to see what he knows.

Inevitably, with the school only guarded by one X-Man, this turns out to be the moment that Stryker's forces choose to attack. While half of the children (led by the giant Colossus) escape, another half dozen or so are captured. Wolverine manages to escape with Rogue, her boyfriend Iceman and the school's resident hothead (in more ways than one) Pyro. Meanwhile, Xavier and Cyclops are ambushed by Stryker's goons (including his sidekick Deathsnake who it turns out is basically a female Wolverine) when they go to visit Magneto and are taken into captivity.

Fleeing to Boston, the fugitives manage to find temporary sanctuary at Iceman's family's house where he "comes out" to them about being a mutant in one of the lighter moments in the film. However, his brother freaks out and calls the police leading to a stand-off between the lawmen who shoot Wolverine in the head prompting Pyro to torch them. Luckily, Storm and Jean arrive just in time in the X-Jet, having managed to capture Nightcrawler in a church.

The X-Jet is pursued by government fighter planes as the team try to get back to Xavier's school. Although Storm manages to take them down by firing lightning bolts at them, the jet is still hit by a couple of missiles and almost crashes only for Magneto, of all people, to save the X-Men having been busted out of jail by Mystique.

The team hole up for the night in the woods where Magneto reveals that Stryker has a base deep under Lake Alkali where Wolverine was exploring at the start of the film. The group find this out when Jean does a mind-read on Nightcrawler. It also turns out that Wolverine was one of the first mutant experiments carried out at the base under Stryker's supervision.

The scene is set for a big confrontation at Lake Alkali as the uneasy alliance between Magneto and the X-Men set off to rescue Xavier and Cyclops before Stryker uses the former to command the Cerebro machine to destroy all the world's mutants. This is where the film really picks up and hence where I'm gonna stop this review for non-spoiler purposes so you lot can go and give it a watch yourselves.

I have to be honest, until the climax of the film I was going to put this below the first X-Men film - however, the big climactic battle at Lake Alkali pretty much moves this up from being an above average film to a good film (and yes, I know I said I wasn't gonna spoiler it so you're going to have to take my word and watch the film to see for yourself) and keeps up the admirably high quality of the X-Men films so far. My only slight complaint here is that the introduction of several new characters does kind of dilute the storylines a bit with characters such as Xavier, Cyclops and even Storm hardly featuring at all but they at least manage to keep all the storyline threads fairly engaging and the final sequence leaves you looking forward to the third film which would duly follow a few years hence. Unfortunately, as we'll see, that optimism would turn out to be a bit misplaced...but we'll save that angst for another time.

FINAL RATING: ⦻⦻⦻⦻⦻⦻⦻⦻ (8/10)

CURRENT MARVEL FILM TABLE

1. Spiderman (2002) (9/10)
2. X-Men 2 (2003) (8/10)
3. Men In Black (1997) (8/10)
4. X-Men (2000) (8/10)
5. Blade 2 (2001) (7/10)
6. Blade (1998) (7/10)
7. The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988) (6/10)
8. Conan The Barbarian (1982) (6/10)
9. Conan The Destroyer (1984) (6/10)
10. The Trial Of The Incredible Hulk (1989) (6/10)
11. Men In Black 2 (2000) (6/10)
12. Doctor Mordrid (1992) (5/10)
13. The Punisher (1989) (5/10)
14. Doctor Strange (1978) (5/10)
15. Nick Fury: Agent Of SHIELD (1998) (4/10)
16. The Fantastic Four (1994) (4/10)
17. Red Sonja (1985) (4/10)
18. Captain America 2: Death Too Soon (1979) (4/10)
19. Spiderman (1977) (4/10)
20. The Death Of The Incredible Hulk (1990) (3/10)
21. Spiderman: The Dragon's Challenge (1979) (3/10)
22. Howard The Duck (1986) (2/10)
23. Captain America (1990) (2/10)
24. Captain America (1979) (2/10)
25. Generation X (1996) (2/10)
26. Spiderman Strikes Back (1978) (2/10)
27. Daredevil (2003) (2/10)

NEXT WEEK: The sort-of-start of the MCU as the Hulk returns to battle giant poodles. No, seriously...