X-Men 2

[avram]

After the play, my folks drove us over to my place, and Chris and I hung out for a while then saw the second X-Men movie. I liked this more than the first, mostly because it just felt more like an X-Men story than the first one did. More superhero action, more interaction with the traditional X-Men backstory, more actual characters from the comic. More behind the spoiler warning....

• Damn, that opening Nightcrawler action sequence kicked ass.
• Nice shots of Kitty and Colossus during the raid.
• Every time Jean pushed her powers and we saw flames in her eyes, I could see the plot of the next movie being set up.
• They did a good job of giving all the major characters cool stuff to do.
• The ambiguous sometimes-ally, sometimes-enemy nature of the relationships among the mutant groups was well-handled. (Mark Millar does a good job with this in the Ultimate X-Men comic, too.)
• I didn’t much like how Jean “died”; if she could fix the plane with her mind, why couldn’t she do it while staying on the plane? If she was powerful enough to split the water, shouldn’t she have been able to just levitate the plane with herself on it?
• Did you notice that very faint outline of the Phoenix symbol on the water at the very end?

Comments

[camfangrrl.livejournal.com]

The "why did Jean leave the plane" question is all over the place, but the most credible answer I've seen is that the plane would be unable to operate with her on it if she was using her powers to enough of a degree to hold the water back. The key is in the opening scene at the museum. It's there that she starts feeling her, shall we say, new capabilities, which she dismisses as a headache, but you can see how she disrupts all the electronics in the place, with the monitors going wonky. The same was true for the plane, you saw how everyone was trying to get its functions working and failing. So she saw that it was better for her to get out of the plane, and stop disrupting its electronics, and while out she could split the water and give everyone else a way to escape.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

That does make sense, though I wish they'd made it a little more explicit. It was good to see Phoenix , though. Back on the same hand, drowning just is *not* as exciting as being done in by radiation.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

I'm just thinking X3: Phoenix Must Die! is a rocking title for a movie.

Of course, Phoenix generally entails Hellfire Club, which is never bad.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Going in, I wasn't sure I could see Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, but I loved it! He's always one of my favorite X-Men. (Though I wasn't sure where all that touchy-feely stuff between him and Storm was coming from. I was happy to see Kitty and Colossus too, and would have liked to get more of them; a scene between Kitty and Kurt would have struck me as more natural. Ah well, maybe in X3.)

[avram]

They needed to have him getting close to someone so they could have that "faith" scene at the climax, and I guess they wanted it to be a woman so they could hint at the possibility of romance, and Jean was busy with her own plotline (and her relationship with Cyclops, and that thing she's got with Wolverine).

Are Rogue and Iceman dating in any of the x-books? I just read Ultimate X-Men and Grant Morrison's New X-Men, and I don't think Rogue has shown up in either of them.

I'm wrong!

[avram]

Rogue shows up as part of the Weapon X project in Ultimate X-Men.

Nightcrawler and Romance

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

A large part of Nightcrawler's personality when he was introduced was that he was a friendly but incorrigable flirt, who considered himself a very dashing lady's man. This certainly seems to have changed in more recent versions, but I took Nightcrawler's interaction with Storm (and speculative look at Mystique after she says, "We shouldn't have to") in that lady's-man spirit.

[mneme]

I loved the opening Nightcrawler sequence -- scary as heck, and a nice intro to -why- much of the world is scared shitless by mutants.

I missed the phoenix symbol on the water, I think, though I was looking for something like; will have to see the movie again (darn! :).

I liked the fact that unlike the comic, Wolverine Killed People.

I though that Iceman was -way- underused; I know they're inverting him (along with Rogue) relative to certain other X-Men (um...Logan and Ororro are back-dated), but based on the power and control he's shown so far, it seems concievable that he could at least -try- to something about a raging river, even if they had him fail and Phoenix take over.

I also found the reasons she needed to get off the plain a bit hard to follow, though if they were trying to hint that full use of her powers was tech-disruptive, that might explain it (as well as the lack of control -- she might be able to lift the plane...but for how long? A: she doesn't know, which is a problem).

If I were setting things up, I'd make the next movie "X-Men: Phoenix", and the -fourth- "X-Men: Dark Phoenix", (especially since the full DF story includes whole organizations that haven't been introduced, like the Shiar, the Blue Region, Mastermind; even if they change things around, they seem to like keeping the scope of the X-Men stories, and it involved the destruction of -worlds-), but who knows what they're thinking?

[avram]

I could see them introducing the Hellfire Club, but the Shi'ar seems like a bit of a stretch for how they're doing things.

And in a way, they've already introduced Mastermind -- did you notice that Stryker's son, the guy who seduces people by projecting illusions into their minds, was named Jason? Though I don't see how he could have survived the collapse of the dam without aid from some other mutant; maybe Magneto could have stealthily yanked him out.

I'm wondering if they're going to introduce the Sentinels at some point.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

I thought Jean had to get out of the plane so she could actually see what she was doing with both the plane and the water, and focus accordingly. Missed the Phoenix symbol on the water, and I was looking for it.

I thought it would be cool if Iceman had tried to freeze the water, succeeded for a few seconds, and then the water broke through, because there's a lot of it and he's not strong enough, and -then- Jean did her thing. Did you catch the significance of the book Magneto and the Prof are reading?

I liked how the relationships are established rapidly when Wolverine returns. Reminded me of the Powers/Rathbone Zorro, where there is a complicated love pentangle in a 90 minute movie, which is packed with action.

I liked the fact that there were casualties. Wolverine killed, and I find it hard to believe that none of the cops Pyro attacked died. That said, I am wondering if it is disingenous to have that line about casualties "on both sides" when only one mutant died, however beloved. Or were there other casualties I missed? Oh yes -- Lady Deathstrike. And one could count Stryker's victims as, well, not casualties per se, but wounded. And I think Jason's being counted as a mutant casualty, though we didn't see him die.

I do wonder why Wolverine didn't just finish Stryker off, but hey, not in front of the kid.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Nitpick: I believe "casualties" include wounded, but I'm not sure.

I caught the two references to Once and Future King, but I'm not sure what the intended point was. Suggestions?

[snippy]

Just my guesses: One, both Magneto and Professor X see themselves in the book, but Magneto sees himself as correcting the Merlin figure into someone who *uses* his power, while X sees himself as Merlin coaxing all the Arthur-mutants to learn empathy and how to rule (their powers). Two, in the book Arthur learns to think by being turned into other creatures: a bird, a fish, and so on. Kinda mutant-like.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Causalties = wounded? I wasn't sure.

mnemex had to point this out to me. Forget the plot of the book. "Once and Future King". Think Phoenix.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

Casualties = dead + wounded (I think)

It must be something more than a Phoenix reference. Magneto was reading the book in his cell, when there was no reason to be thinking of Jean Grey in particular.

"The Once and Future King" by T.H. White

[(Anonymous)]

Yea, I thought it was interesting that X-Men would reference "The Once and Future King" which is about Merlyn, King Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table. I don't think it was a Phoenix reference. It may be that Magneto and Jean-Luc both see themselves as the Merlyn character leading King Arthur. Or it may be that they see themselves as King Arthur leading the Knights of the Round Table.

Re: "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White

[avram]

I think you're taking it far too literally.

In Magneto's case, it's the title. He wants to subjugate humanity under mutantkind, and with him as the head mutant -- the future king.

In Prof. X's case, it's a reference to Arthur sleeping beneath a hill, seemingly dead, but ready to rise again at some future date. That's Phoenix. (Prof. X doesn't know this; it's a wink at the audience.)

Re: "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, but I think Prof.X did know that Phoenix lived. It appears that he sensed that she was still alive.

[kiya]

Okay, now I've seen it, so I can read this entry. ;)

Yay! I got Colossus's name right. (My Marvel continuum knowledge is awfully, awfully spotty, though it's better than teinedreugan's; when I asked him if that was Colossus he said he didn't know.)

When it ended, he sort of said, "Well," and I said, "Wasn't she Phoenix, for a while?" I may have to see it again and see if I can pick out the symbol.