Thursday, May 01, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: Great X-pectations

By Mike Prevatt

You have to hand it to the comic book crowd. As Hollywood continues to make adventure/fantasy efforts harder and harder to stomach--except the Lord of the Rings trilogy--it's the superheroes and the filmmakers they inspire who are saving the genre from certain death. Not every one is a winner, not even last year's mega-grossing yet unresonant Spider-Man. But they usually warrant the curiosity that often surrounds such projects--as long as Batman & Robin's Joel Schumacher has nothing to do them.

In 2000, with Nicolas Cage threatening to serve as Kryptonite to the proposed Superman revival and Warner Bros. putting the kibosh on any new Batman flicks, X-Men was to be comic land's next big cinematic hope, and it didn't disappoint. Armed with a proficient script, brought to life by an intriguing array of characters that rarely betrayed their sketched likenesses, X-Men delivered to critical and commercial success. How? Its think tank, including director Bryan Singer, figured out how to blow shit up without dumbing down the rest of the film. More, please.

That same seesaw act works for Singer's sequel X2: X-Men United. There's more than enough special effects and cartoonish conflict to wow moviegoers looking for it. Yet the narrative not only makes sense (in and of itself, and with respect to the comic and original movie), it occasionally parallels our own international travails.

The flick starts with an embittered mutant named Nightcrawler, who sneaks into the White House and nearly maims the president. Seems there are still mutants who would rather kill off the human race than try to deal with it peacefully--as the X-Men, or those possessing the "X-Factor" gene, advocated in the first movie.

Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart, as reliable as ever) is investigating this Nightcrawler character, whose actions threaten to unleash more anti-mutant persecution by the U.S. government--encouraged by the hawkish Gen. William Stryker (another fantastic, evil turn from Brian Cox). He tries drugging prisoner Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Ian McKellen, more playful here than as LOTR's Gandalf) to extract information, and, after a raid on the X-Men's HQ, captures Xavier so he can access Cerebro, a computer-of-sorts that keeps tabs on the mutant population. This provokes an unlikely alliance between adversaries Xavier and Lehnsherr, who realize they must unite to stop Stryker's genocidal plans.

Amid the madness are some young mutant kids (Anna Paquin as Marie/Rogue) coming of age, which is interesting, and an exploration of Logan/Wolverine's past and his yearnings for Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), which are not--especially given Hugh Jackman's tendency to overact.

The blockbuster success of film adaptations of comics depends on their crossover appeal with the general public. Though there are minor subplots and details that only your comic-geek buddy will appreciate, X2 doesn't load its story with so many inside references that the rest of us are lost. Singer and screenwriters David Hayter, Zak Penn and Daniel Harris allow time for backstory and explanations--giving clarity for the rest of us who grew up hunting down Ken Griffey Jr.'s rookie card rather than the comic book issue where Superman eats it.

Singer is also careful not to bombard too much of the film with content reflecting current terrorism-related issues. Stryker seems a dead ringer for Attorney General John Ashcroft, and his proposed Mutant Registration Act reeks of invasive laws such as the Patriot Act. To stack any more similarities would be pandering, and Singer ultimately remains loyal to his source material. It's a smart move--for a fairly smart, summer adventure movie.