X2: X-Men United (2003)

Magneto (Ian McKellen) is in prison and Professor Xavier’s (Patrick Stewart) school for mutants is thriving. While things appear to be going swimmingly, a new enemy lurks in the shadows, and he despises mutants. Colonel William Striker (Brian Cox) is on the prowl as he stalks the many mutants under the watchful eye of Professor X. X2: X-Men United depicts the team of X-Men as they are forced to team up with Magneto in order to stop the mutant race from extinction.

The superhero genre that X-Men had started just a few years prior was, well, young, and what Writer-Director Bryan Singer had to work with wasn’t much. That, however, doesn’t excuse the fact that much of X2: X-Men United feels incredibly redundant. What viewers had seen in the first installment of the franchise was something fresh in the superhero genre–a compelling story, relatable characters, and an overall enjoyable film. X2: X-Men United tries to be different by flipping the previous film’s story on its head, but that feels like lazy writing. Rather than one mutant trying to express to the world that all mutants are good, the lead antagonist tries to convince the world that all mutants are bad. Seriously? Singer and his team couldn’t have come up with anything a little more compelling? Honestly, I feel like I was duped, like I was cheated out of an original story, or at least an appropriate cinematic version of what Stan Lee created in the 1960’s.

Is the first installment of the franchise great? No, but it’s relevant in the grand scheme of superhero cinema, and it’s stood the test of time, even if some of the prequel films manage to change viewers’ opinion on the film to a degree. X2: X-Men United fails even to live up to the hype of its predecessor, and it ultimately fails to remain relevant to this day.

Even in superhero films I need there to be an emotional element that allows viewers to make connections to the characters on screen; X2: X-Men United fails to accomplish this. Once again, the acting is superb, and I truly believe that if there was any sort of emotion present in the script that the actors would have been able to convey it, but, like I previously mentioned, the writing for X2: X-Men United is lazy and poor. This film is a ripoff of the film that came before it, but worse than that the film takes a massive step backward. Not only does the story never truly become interesting, the lack of emotion takes away from the performances of great actors like Halle Berry (Orono Munroe/Storm) and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), never giving them a chance.

Boring is a harsh word to use to describe a film, but I think it’s a fair representation of what Singer’s X2: X-Men United is, and that’s an unfortunate way to describe any film that’s part of this series. With a depreciation in action, emotion, writing, and just about everything else in between, this is the worst film of the franchise–and it’s not even close. The only reason that I rank X2: X-Men United as generously as I do is because of the role it plays in the overall narrative of the Fox X-Men universe–because without it, you’ll find a large gap in the overall narrative (even bigger than the gap that already exists).

Directed by Bryan Singer.

Written by Zak Penn, David Hayter, Bryan Singer, Michael Dougherty, & Dan Harris.

Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Bruce Davison, Aaron Stanford, Shawn Ashmore, Kelly Hu, etc.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐½/10