Short Take: X2: X-Men United

Live-action film adaptations of costumed-superhero comic books have been around since the 1940s. In the 21st century, they've become a mainstay of the popular culture. The best of the new millennium's breed is perhaps director Bryan Singer's X2: X-Men United, the second film in the X-Men franchise. The Marvel Comics property was created in 1963 by editor Stan Lee and cartoonist Jack Kirby. Over the years, there was considerable development and several key characters added by others, most notably comics scriptwriter Chris Claremont. The premise is that humanity has reached the next stage of evolution. A new subspecies, called mutants, is coming to the fore. The mutants have varied superhuman powers, and non-mutant humans view them with concern and often fear. Several mutants have embraced assimilation, and their leader is Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart), a wheelchair-bound benefactor who provides other mutants with a covert haven and school. Xavier's opposite number is Magneto (Ian McKellen), a former friend and ally who leads a revolutionary faction dedicated to mutant rule over the world. X2: X-Men United picks up where the initial X-Men film, also directed by Singer, ended. The story has the two groups joining forces to combat a military scientist (Brian Cox) committed to mutant genocide. Singer delivers a level of spectacle that not only ranks the first film's, but that of the comic books as well. Several scenes, such as Magneto's escape from prison, have a darkly magical grandeur. The more conventional action set pieces are also terrific. Singer has a gift for emotionally charged metonymy, and he uses it to give the quieter character scenes their distinction. X2: X-Men United's most powerful moment, built around the handling of a cigarette lighter, has no other action in it. Magneto recruits a troubled teenager to his cause, and Singer, using the lighter as both prop and trope, eloquently dramatizes the ability of a charismatic megalomaniac to sway the disaffected. The large cast also includes Shawn Ashmore, Halle Berry, Alan Cummings, Bruce Davison, Hugh Jackman, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and Aaron Stanford. The finely woven screenplay is credited to Michael Dougherty, Dan Harris, and David Hayter, working from a story by Hayter, Singer, and Zak Penn. John Ottman, who composed the film's score, also provided the crisp, mosaic-style editing.