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X-cellent

I recently saw the latest instalment of the X-Men saga, named rather unambiguously X-Men 2. I rather liked the first X-Men, which was rather a surprise given that I think the history of translating comics into movies or TV is not a happy one.

Although Batman proved rather good in its first few outings, it then got progressively more dreadful… Judge Dredd was a travesty, I despised the entire Superman series, loathed Spawn, hated The Phantom and Daredevil had nothing to commend it other than the fact it had Jennifer Garner in it. Ok, The Shadow was almost rather good… almost, Tank Girl was in parts so surreal as to be fun and in other places so bad it was good, and Spiderman was really quite good indeed… but clearly the odds are that comic-based productions will prove to be turkeys.

So X-Men 2 would not have surprised me if it had been far less impressive than the first one, but that is far from the case. The excellent cast remained rock solid and the story, whilst hardly Tolstoy, was entirely adequate. Although like the first movie, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine stole the show, it would be hard to fault anyone else’s performances. The whole thing sticks with what worked last time and adds some nice touches, such as an angst-filled German teleporting mutant who looks like the devil but turns out to be one of the good guys. And then there is the always superb Ian McKellen’s Magneto, who this time… ah, but then I don’t want to give away the whole plot.

Go see it… well worth your popcorn money.

11 comments to X-cellent

  • Daniel

    The Shadow… “almost rather good.” Puhlease… almost as bad Batman 4… “almost” but not quite though.

  • Nah… the visuals were superb, plus I love the era The Shadow was set in.

  • S. Weasel

    Huh. They must’ve released this one simultaneously in the UK and US – something they seem to be doing more often lately. It’s on my To Do list (somewhere between painting the kitchen ceiling and learning to play Lady of Spain on the banjo).

    But, my goodness, how could you leave Spiderman off your superhero film list? A touch heavy on the syrup in spots, maybe, but definitely a good and faithful comicbook film.

  • He did include Spiderman–bottom of the second paragraph.

    I think the reason so many of those comic-book movies are bad is that they don’t bother with a decent director. If you look at the good ones Perry mentions, they all have good directors: Tim Burton for the first two Batman films, Sam Raimi for Spiderman, and Bryan Singer for X-Men.

    Perhaps Ang Lee’s upcoming “Hulk” movie will also turn out okay.

  • The trouble with the Batman movies is that Warner Brothers decided that the movies would be a hit with any director and any star, and because the third movie was a hit (but in my mind a bad movie) the fourth one became a joke. Tim Burton cast Michael Keaton in the first couple of movies for a reason, but nobody realised this later.

    As for Batman and Superman, the movies were made by Warners. There is no studio in Hollywood that is better at ruining good material.

    Why is it that in a movie and comic book universe that contains characters with impressive abilities like controlling the weather and psychokinetically diverting the water from burst dams, the character with the highest profile is someone who has three inches of metal come out of his hands. It doesn’t seem that impressive, somehow.

  • S. Weasel

    Ken – oops! You’re right. So he did.

    Michael – I think it’s because people just love rolling the word “adamantium” around on their tongues. C’mon – say it with me. My bones are made of adamantium!

  • Bruce

    Well, Wolfie also has self-repair mechanisms so robust as to amount to near-immortality. Which is pretty cool.

  • Harry Payne

    It seems that Brit comic adaptations come off worse than American ones.

    I have a fairly close acquiantance who helped on the SFX for Dredd (mainly the robot from the ABC wars). He had high hopes for the film, especially as Stallone spent his time in his trailer alternating between the script and a stack of back issues of 2000AD.

    Unfortunately, half an hour of exposition ended up on the cutting-room floor, and Sly felt he had to distance himself from the resulting turkey with rather dumb comments like, “They said it was a comic, but I didn’t find anything funny in it.” Suuure, and American comics like Spider-man and Batman were a barrel of laughs. Every time.

    If they’d done Tank Girl as a straight animation it would have been better. It just didn’t catch the anarchic feel of the strip; again, where it tried (Stan Winston’s prothesis for Booga) it was cut out.

    The signs for Thunderbirds are not encouraging. FAB1 is not a Rolls-Royce (not even a BMW version thereof), Alan Tracy is a 12-year-old brat instead of a 21-year-old stock car racer, and someone on the film is quoted as saying, “We didn’t want to hire Gerry Anderson” (working in the same studios at the same time on his “Captain Scarlet” CGI) “because we had too many people already.” Approach with caution.

  • I’m going to raise a hand in defense of Judge Dredd. Sure, the decision to have Stallone remove the helmet was awful, but everything apart from that really evinced the feel of 2000AD. The Hammerstein robot (admittedly from a different strip) and the Angel Gang were perfect visual representations of the strip characters. The fact that they chose to base the plot on the Judge Cal storyline, mixed with the Rico story, cannot be blameworthy: they were easily the two most popular stories of the early years.

    The main problem was the same problem that has bedevilled Star Trek and Doctor Who in recent years. The fans expect too much continuity, and the general public can’t understand any of it. So the films/TV movies often fall between the two stools. it takes a rare talent to square that circle. X-Men did it. So did Spiderman and early Batman. Part of the problem, I have to say, is when fans get too much influence in the design of the first film…

    Eat Judge boot, perp!

  • Julian Morrison

    The reason IMO wolverine gets the big attention is because he’s the “every guy” character (think homer simpson with claws, without belly) to whom the buying public can relate.

  • I saw an interview with Stallone about Judge Dredd, and in the interview it was clear that Stallone got the satirical qualities of the character far better than did the studio marketing the movie, if nothing else. I don’t think the final movie showed this very well, sadly.

    Oh, I like Wolverine. (I think Hugh Jackman is perfectly cast, too. You can even hear his Aussie accent once in a while 🙂 The character has a lot of charm. But let’s face it, the bit with the claws is pretty stupid.

    My bones are made of adamantium!

    Yes, you’re right. It does sound cool.