Cast: B+
Plot: A
Special Effects/Stunts: B
Similarity to Comic: C+
Director: Bryan Singer
Comic Company: Marvel
Stars: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman
Rating: PG-13
See the IMDB page
See the Rotten Tomatoes page
My favorite thing about this movie is that it is exactly like the first one. They didn't have to replace any characters or actors, the general plot of the movie is the same but expanded, and they didn't ruin it with poor special effects or CGI. A lot of this can be attributed to keeping the same director (a rarity among Superhero movie franchises) but it must have been an incredible team effort with every person on set doing their job just the way they did it three years earlier.
The Good: Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen steal the show again by turning in great performances as Professor X and Magneto. Hugh Jackman, fully bulked up, did even better in this movie as he played not only the tough guy role but a mentoring one as well. James Marsden did well as Cyclopes, although the comic character lacked all of the emotion Marsden brings to the table. Halle Berry and Famke Janssen had bigger roles as did the actors who played Iceman and Pyro, Rogue's role though seemed a bit smaller surprisingly. I'm glad the didn't bring back Sabretooth or toad either, their characters brought the first movie a cartoon kind of effect.
The plot was amazing again. I can't get enough of this whole mutants vs. humans plot line, and how they tangle it with politics and Xavier and Magneto's relationship. They went deeper into it in this movie, starting with the attack on the president and ending it with the military trying to copy cerebro for their own sinister plans. The special effects were strong again as well. They weren't better or worse than they were in the first film, and they also had the same amount of CGI, meaning they didn't pull a Spider-Man and mess with the CGI in every moive.
The Bad: I was actually impressed by the few plot holes this movie had. One big one was Senator Kelly. His character died in the first movie and since then he has been impersonated by Mystique. I feel like impersonating someone as important as a senator would require a lot more than just a few appearances, what about his family? His secretary? Wouldn't they notice?
If you look closely, you can see that Magneto has several opportunities to escape his plastic prison cell. The book he is reading has metal corner covers, Stryker has metal glasses, and there are some other things as well. But instead of using any of that Magneto ends up ripping the iron out of a dude and creating a little metal balls and using those? That just doesn't make sense and I'm not sure that's even possible, even for a person who can manipulate metal. It is, however, pretty darn cool so I'm going to let it slide this time.
The Interesting: They erased Halle Berry's accent. She apparently was foreign in the first movie and American in this one. I understand though since they gave her a bigger role with more talking parts, it's probably not easy talking seriously in a different accent.
This one probably isn't fair to bring up, and probably belongs in my review of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but I'm going to say it anyway. In this movie when Wolverine gets shot in the head he passes out then wakes back up perfectly fine. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, however, when he gets shot in the head (in almost the exact same place) he passes out, wakes up, and forgets absolutely everything. In my book if you get shot in the head you die, and if you don't you better have the same results every time it happens.
Conclusion: This movie is great. If you liked the first one this one will definitely satisfy your thirst for more. It's like a carbon copy, super consistent, and should be a blueprint on how to make a sequel.
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