2nd 'X-Men' far better than the first

By Marshall Fine
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

X2: X-MEN UNITED (Rated PG-13) Four Stars (Excellent) The sequel to 2000's hit comic-book movie is deeper, richer and just plain more fun than the first film, capturing the emotional complexity of the comics while providing bigger and better action. Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming. Directed by Bryan Singer. Twentieth Century-Fox. 135 minutes.

Think "The Empire Strikes Back." Think "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." In a summer loaded with big-ticket comic-book movies, "X2," the first one to reach theaters, sets the bar at an admirably high level.

It's not just that this movie, directed by Bryan Singer, is more chockablock with eye-popping visual effects and thrilling action sequences than the first one, though that's true. Nor is it that Singer depicts more mutant superpowers, though that's true also.

Rather, it's that Singer has a whole movie to work with here, unlike the original film. That 2000 release felt cramped since Singer required so much exposition and backstory to introduce his characters and create his universe that the plot couldn't kick into gear until the final half-hour.

Singer and his three screenwriters springboard from the long-running Marvel Comics series in ways that are breathtaking and heart stopping. They create a multifaceted tale with an emotional richness that viewers seldom associate with the phrase "comic-book movie."

The setting is still the not-so-distant future: a world in which mutants, humans of uncanny powers, are a part of the landscape.

When a pointy-tailed mutant with midnight-blue skin attacks the president in the name of mutant freedom, the president authorizes a stern response. He sends a ruthless government agent named Stryker (Brian Cox) to round up the kids at the mutant school run by Prof. Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart).

Stryker, however, has a hidden (and personal) agenda: to rid the world of mutants. To do so, he enlists the unwilling assistance of the imprisoned Magneto (Ian McKellen).

The film also revisits the simmering and unspoken attraction between X-Men Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen), who is engaged to Scott (Cyclops) Summers (James Marsden). And it returns to Wolverine's quest to learn about the past he can't remember, including the experiment that grafted unbreakable metal to his bones.

For good reason, we equate comic-book movies with empty, flash-bang exercises in computer-generated imagery and mindless action. But the three writers here — Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris and David Hayter — seem less interested in the action than the subtext: the effort by a high-handed majority to control and eradicate a minority it finds undesirable.

It's a metaphor for intolerance through the ages, most egregiously practiced by the Nazis against the Jews. But put in any type of intolerance you prefer: against blacks, gays, Muslims or any "others" deemed unwanted and expendable by small-minded types frightened by anyone different from themselves. The metaphor still works.

The script examines the other side of that equation as well: the desire to strike back, to return hatred for hatred. In that sense, Stryker is the flip-side of Magneto, who believes that the mutants, rather than submit to discrimination or attempt peaceful coexistence, should instead use their powers to rise up and rule over humans.

Don't get the wrong impression: This isn't a movie with a lot of touchy-feely talks about brotherhood; that's why they call it subtext. It's just that this movie has more on its mind than superpowered butt kicking.

Still, there's no denying that those superpowers drive this film. When "X2" bursts into action (which it does early and often), it rocks — and rocks hard. Singer skillfully weaves together plot and action, making the latter more coherent and just plain spectacular than in the first "X-Men."

Fans will love that Wolverine gets to unload on far greater volumes of bad guys here (with a level of violence, but not bloodshed, that may startle parents of younger children). Jackman brings a snarly wit and soulfulness, along with muscular litheness, to the film's centerpiece role.

But he's nearly upstaged by the newest addition to the group: the blue-skinned Nightcrawler, played to perfection by the always marvelous Alan Cumming. Nightcrawler also has the coolest power in the film, appearing and disappearing in puffs of blue smoke as he transports himself from spot to spot.

McKellen's Magneto has a dry, imperious wit, which offsets Stewart's saintliness as Professor X. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets deservedly expanded screen time as the shape-shifting Mystique, while Aaron Stanford makes a strong impression as another new mutant, Pyro.

For anyone who came out of "X-Men" saying, "OK, now tell us a real story with these characters," the director delivers, far exceeding what anyone could have expected in a movie that will please movie fans and comic freaks alike. "X2: X-Men United" will have you cheering in your seat.

Rated PG-13 for profanity, graphic violence, adult themes.