X2: X-Men United (Fullscreen Edition)

Love it

I bought a movie and it was a movie 5/5 stars

Stryker (Brian Cox), a villianous former Army commander, holds the key to Wolverine's (Hugh Jackman) past and the future of the X-Men. This threat re-ignites the call for a mutant registration act. Stryker starts a full-out assault on Professor Xavier's (Patrick Stewart) mansion and school. After escaping his plastic cell, Magneto (Ian McKellen) proposes a partnership with Xavier and the X-Men to combat this new formidable enemy they both have in common.

Even more so that its predecessor, "X2: X-Men United" is more of a treat for those of us weaned on Marvel Comics and know the complete back story of every single mutant superhero who pops up through the movie. When Dr. Hank McCoy (Steve Bacic) is shown debating the rights of Mutants on television we recognize he is one of the original merry mutants in yellow spandex, the Beast. During the final shot of the film we nod knowingly because our intimate knowledge of "X-Men" #101 means we recognize the strange shape and can hazard a pretty good guess as to what happens in the third X-Men movie before the credits even start to roll on this one.This film is better than the first one, which is a very good sign in the world of Hollywood where a sequel is one thing but a franchise is even better. The first time around the X-Men, the good mutants of Professor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), had to stop Magneto (Ian McKellen) and his bad mutants (the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants for those who know their X-Men lore), although there were humans trying to push a Mutant Registration Act through Congress. This time it is the ordinary humans who are after all the mutants in the world, ironically, by using mutants in the effort. In charge of the effort is General William Stryker (Brian Cox), who has found a means of extracting information from Magneto about Xavier's School for Gifted Children as well as some other ways of allowing him exercise some degree of mind control.The worst thing I can say about "X2" is that it begins with the best action sequences the entire film. A mutant gets into the White House and goes after the President (Cotter Smith) in the Oval Office. We know that this is Kurt Wagner (Alan Cummings), a.k.a. Nightcrawler, who has the gift of teleportation (apparently without the omnipresent of brimstone this time around). This surprises us because he is one of the "good" mutants, but the answer will be forthcoming. He is one of the few new characters introduced into the mix and the tatoos they have worked into Nightcrawler's make-up are superb; on the basis of Nightcrawler and Zhaan from "Farscape," there simply need to be more blue chracters on television and in the movies.Anyhow, Nightcrawler's attack on the President gives Stryker carte blanche to go after the mutants and his first target is the school in Westchester, New York. When the troops hit Xavier's school is probably the second best action sequence in the film, and we are still only a half hour into the film (the final action sequences has great significance but is considerably less spectacular). For those who remember when Marvel editor Jim Shooter put his foot down about X-Men characters doing any actual killing (e.g., a whole planet of asparagus people), it is rather surprising to see Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) slicing and dicing his way through the shock troops. From that point on the goal is for the X-Men to stay ahead of Stryker's army and try to stop his plan and save mutant-kind.There are echoes of a lot of different epic adventures from the X-Men comic books in this film. The script by Michael Dougherty and Daniel P. Harris is based on a story created by David Hayter, Zak Penn, and director Bryan Singer, who were obviously inspired by the writers (Stan Lee, Len Wein, and Chris Claremont) and artists (Jack Kirby, Dave Cockrum, and John Byrne) of the comic books. There is still Wolverine trying to get between Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Scott Summers/Cyclopes (James Marsden), as well as the sudden spikes in Jean's powers. Rogue (Anna Paquin) is trying to figure out a way of having the most tentative of physical relationships with Bobby Drake/Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), while John Allerdyce/Pyro (Aaron Stanford) is trying to figure out whether or not he should switch sides. There are a lot of characters being juggled here; Halle Berry has an Oscar and is one of the good mutants, but she does not have much to do except exercise her powers to control the weather periodically. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos gets more to do as Mystique, except, of course, you can never tell.Ultimately what makes this film less than perfectlly satisfying is the fact that the nature of the characters compels the writers to create artificial restraints. When Marvel put out the "Ultimate X-Men" comic books it proved what I had long suspected: that you can really only have one fight between the X-Men and Magneto for all the marbles because as long as he has his helmet on, the Mutant Master of Magneticism is pretty much invincible. This is proven in "X2" when Magneto finally escape; keep in mind how he does it and then come up with a reason why he does not simply go out and do that to every human being on earth. Similarly, when the troops attack the school, there is more fleeing than fighting, although the tranquillizer darts used by the invaders do not work on the armored Piotr Rasputin/Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) or Kitty Pryde/Shadowcat (Katie Stuart) with her ability to walk through walls. Granted, the important thing is to get the kids to relative safety, but Wolverine does not have to do the Horatio at the bridge act.The key to where the next film can succeed even better is contained in the climax, not only in terms of story of self sacrifice involved but also in the promise of rebirth. In other words, the next time around "X-Men" can reach operatic heights if they do any justice at all to the Dark Phoenix epic. Cross your fingers, True Believers.

Premium Nostalgia

Loved the Movie. I was glad I could re-watch all the X-Men movies in order and this was available. Just as described.

It’s really very sad to see Hollywood put their spin on classic takes of the X-Men and other Marvel characters stories. Especiallly when you read the original story in the 70’s and have the original comics…sacrilege at the least.

I'm *SURE* that violates some major law of the universe. Well, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and the rest of them are good lawbreakers, then. X-2 is excellent. It picks up where the first leaves off, but because it doesn't have to spend time doing the "set up" as the first movie did, it can get up and running right away, which it does. X-2 almost never slows down except to let you catch your breath for a moment, then takes off again.Nightcrawler is extremely well done; he was a much-anticipated addition to the cast, and he works well. The changes in his background were expected, and they manage to keep the essence of his character unchanged.Halle Berry, who seemed rather uncertain of how to portray Storm in the first movie, has stepped forward and grabbed the opportunity to play one of the coolest female characters in comicdom with both hands. NOW we see the woman that was once worshipped as a goddess, who has both beauty and a force of presence hard to rival on any count. Well done!Jean Grey and Scott Summers... we're finally getting some of the chemistry right here.Hugh Jackman's Wolverine just keeps getting better. He seems to have "gotten" the idea early on, but with the additional screen time he's managed to seriously hone the presentation.Stewart and McKellen... what a team. Both have marvelous stage presence and acting ability, and project their characters with an intensity rarely seen in ANY type of film. Xavier's warmth of character and Magneto's fanatical, Machiavellian attitude both dominate their respective scenes (Magneto's jailbreak is one of the more horrific scenes I've watched recently, even though it manages to avoid extreme gore).The overall plotline works well, drawing on several of the comic's most successful themes and characters while adding the necessary unique approach for a movie version. The ending clearly sets up for X3 what is probably the single most well-known sequence in comic-book history; the question is whether it will be possible for them to pull it off.Wonderful superhero work. I hope they can do it one more time.

100% happy 😃

This DVD is a great movie to enjoy for the whole family. Grab some popcorn and your favorite beverage and enjoy the show. I own the entire X-Men movies. It makes you want to be an X-Man and the Blu Ray version is of very high quality. Buy it now and you won't be disappointed. Highly recommend it.

Bei solchen Filmen wie X2 ist es immer sehr schwierig einen guten Anfang zufinden. Um mich ganz kurz zu fassen: Bryan Singer hat mit X2 die besteComic-Umsetzung die es bisher gab auf die Leinwand gezaubert. Nachdem ich den zweiten Teil gesehen habe, würde ich den ersten Teil von X-Men alsVorspiel von einer wilden Liebesnacht bezeichnen. Filme wie Spiderman,Batman, DareDevil, Superman usw. können gegen X2 einpacken.Was X2 auszeichnet sind nicht nur die Special Effects die eine bis dahin niezuvor gesehene Perfektion erreichen. In keinem anderen Film davor waren die Superkräfte der Helden so natürlich wie in diesem. Man guckt sich den Film an und nimmt die Special Effects gar nicht wahr, weil sie so natürlich rüberkommen. Die andere positive Sache an X2 ist die Vielfalt der verschiedenen Charaktere im Film. Jeder hat seine eigene Art mit dem Lebenals Mutant zurechtzukommen und mit vielen fühlt man richtig mit. Der Filmhat nicht das Problem einen einzige Superhelden glaubhaft darzustellen,sondern muss versuchen 20 Superhelden glaubhaft rüberzubringen.Die Story war sehr gut! Immerhin basiert sie auf einem Comic der vor einigenJahren erschienen ist. Besonders das Rededuell zwischen Xavier und Lehnsherr im Gefängnis weiß zu überzeugen. Die erste Hälfte des Films wird von Mystique dominiert, die ich mir so gut eigentlich nicht vorgestellt habe. Besonders die Szene im Zelt werde ich nicht so schnell vergessen. Alle Schauspieler kamen glaubhaft rüber. Besonders hervorzuheben sind Wolverine und Nightcrawler. Ein Dialog mit Wolverine wird man nicht so schnell vergessen: Bobbys Mom: "Bobby, wer ist das?" - Bobby: "Ehm, dass ist Professor Logan!" - Bobbys Mom: "Was unterrichten sie Professor?" - Logan: "Kunst!" :lol: Nightcrawler wusste sehr mit seiner Mimik zu überzeugen und hat in einige Szene Storm Komplimente gemacht! ;) Der Kampf zwischen LadyDeathstrike und Wolverine war leider ein bisschen zu kurz und mir hat Deathstrike am Ende richtig Leid getan.Der Film hat viel Action, diese wird aber nicht in den Vordergrund gedrängt.Wer auf anspruchvolles Kino mit Action steht, wird an X2 nicht vorbeikommen.Der Soundtrack passt sehr gut zu X2. Schade ist nur, dass es keinenTitelsong gibt. Brian Cox als skrupelloser Killer ist sehr überzeugend undman hasst ihn sofort. Der Film hat sehr viele witzige Dialoge die denschweren Stoff von X2 ein bisschen auflockern sollen. Es ist ein Film zumnachdenken und bei einigen Themen von X2 sollten man sich auch an dereigenen Nase fassen.Im Film konnte ich zwei Cameo's entdecken. Einer war nur zu lesen und derandere hatte einen Live-Auftritt im TV. Ein wichtiges X-Men Mitglied wirdsterben, welcher das ist verrate ich euch nicht. Das Mitglied wird aber amEnde wie eine Phoenix aus der Asche auferstehen!Mein Kumpel Hibiki hat dem Film 10/10 Punkten gegeben, obwohl er überhaupt nichts mit Marvel anfangen kann. Ich gehe nicht so weit und gebe X2 9,5/10 Punkten. 0,5 Punkte Abzug wegen der schlechten Jet-Sequenz von Rogue bei der Landung und teilweise etwas komplizierter Erzählung der Geschichte.Fazit am Ende:Viel zu kurz, ich will mehr!

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Fun movie to watch, great price and would recommend this movie to someone else.