| X2 | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Bryan Singer |
| Screenplay by | |
| Story by |
|
| Based on | |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Newton Thomas Sigel |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | John Ottman |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 134 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $110–125 million[2][3][4] |
| Box office | $407.7 million[2] |
X2 (also marketed with the subtitleX-Men United,[2][5] and internationally asX-Men 2)[6][7] is a 2003 Americansuperhero film based on theMarvel Comics superhero team theX-Men. Directed byBryan Singer and written byMichael Dougherty,Dan Harris andDavid Hayter, from a story by Singer, Hayter andZak Penn, it is the second installment in theX-Men film series, followingX-Men (2000). It stars anensemble cast includingPatrick Stewart,Hugh Jackman,Ian McKellen,Halle Berry,Famke Janssen,James Marsden,Rebecca Romijn-Stamos,Brian Cox,Alan Cumming,Bruce Davison,Shawn Ashmore,Aaron Stanford,Kelly Hu, andAnna Paquin. The plot, inspired by thegraphic novelGod Loves, Man Kills, concerns thegenocidal ColonelWilliam Stryker leading an assault onProfessor Xavier's school to build his own version of Xavier's mutant-tracking computer,Cerebro, in order to destroy every mutant on Earth and to save the human race from them, forcing the X-Men to team up with theBrotherhood of Mutants to stop Stryker and save the mutant race.
Development on the sequel began shortly after the first film was released on July 14, 2000, by20th Century Fox.David Hayter andZak Penn wrote separate scripts, combining what they felt to be the best elements of both scripts into one screenplay.Michael Dougherty andDan Harris were eventually hired to rewrite the work, and changed the characterizations ofBeast,Angel, andLady Deathstrike.Sentinels and theDanger Room were set to appear before being deleted because of budget concerns from Fox. The film's premise was influenced by the Marvel Comics storylinesReturn to Weapon X andGod Loves, Man Kills. Filming began in June 2002 and ended that November, mostly taking place atVancouver Film Studios, the largest North American production facility outside of Los Angeles.Production designerGuy Hendrix Dyas adapted similar designs byJohn Myhre from the previous film.
X2 was released in the United States on May 2, 2003, by20th Century Fox, and received positive reviews for its storyline, musical score, action sequences, and performances. The film grossed $407 million worldwide, making itthe ninth-highest-grossing film of 2003, and received eightSaturn Awards nominations. A sequel,X-Men: The Last Stand, was released on May 26, 2006.
At theWhite House, a teleportingmutantNightcrawler attacks thePresident of the United States; he is shot and retreats. Meanwhile,Logan explores an abandoned military installation at Alkali Lake inAlberta for clues to his past, but finds nothing.Jean Grey has been having premonitions and struggles to concentrate as her powers become increasingly difficult to control. Later, Logan returns toProfessor Xavier's school for mutants, and Xavier tracks Nightcrawler usingCerebro. Xavier andCyclops go to question the imprisonedMagneto about the attack, while Grey andStorm retrieve Nightcrawler. Military scientist ColonelWilliam Stryker approaches the President and receives approval to investigate Xavier's mansion for their ties to mutants after the recent attack. Stryker's forces invade the school and abduct some of the students.Colossus leads the remaining students to safety while Logan,Rogue,Iceman, andPyro escape. Stryker's assistantYuriko Oyama captures Cyclops and Xavier. During the attack, Logan confronts Stryker, who addresses him as "Wolverine" and appears to be aware of his past.
The shapeshifting mutant,Mystique, helps Magneto escape and finds Cerebro schematics. Logan, Rogue, Iceman, and Pyro visit Iceman's family in Boston. Iceman's brother calls the police after learning he's a mutant. Officers surround the house; one shoots Logan after feeling threatened. Pyro fights back against officers with his pyrokinesis before Storm, Grey, and Nightcrawler pick them up in their jet.
TheX-Jet is attacked by fighter jets and shot down while returning to the mansion, but Magneto saves them. He explains that Stryker built a second Cerebro to kill every mutant telepathically, using his mutant sonJason, who can control minds, to coerce Xavier. Stryker previously used Jason's powers on Nightcrawler to attack the White House to justify his excuse for invading Xavier's mansion. Magneto also tells Logan that Stryker graftedadamantium onto his bones and caused his amnesia. Grey discovers Stryker's underground base in a dam at Alkali Lake.
Disguised as Logan, Mystique infiltrates Stryker's base, letting mutants in while she and Magneto head to disable Cerebro before Xavier, brainwashed, can activate it. Storm and Nightcrawler rescue students, and Grey fights a mind-controlled Cyclops; their fight frees Cyclops but damages the dam, causing it to rupture. Logan finds Stryker in an adamantium smelting lab, recalling where he got his skeleton. Logan fights and kills Yuriko, then chases Stryker to a helicopter pad and chains him to the wheel. Magneto stops Cerebro and, with Mystique impersonating Stryker to command Jason, has Xavier redirect its powers on humans. They escape in Stryker's helicopter, and Pyro, swayed to Magneto, joins them. Nightcrawler teleports Storm inside Cerebro, where she creates a snowstorm to break Jason's concentration and free Xavier.
The X-Men flee the dam as water engulfs it, killing Stryker, but their X-Jet loses power and struggles to take off as floodwaters approach. Grey sneaks off, telepathically says goodbye, and holds back the water—raising the jet above it with flames erupting from her body—until she releases and the flood crashes down on her. The X-Men give Stryker's files to the President, with Xavier warning that humans and mutants must unite for peace. At the school, Xavier, Cyclops, and Logan remember Grey as Xavier begins a class. Meanwhile, aPhoenix-like shape rises from flooded Alkali Lake.
Additionally,Daniel Cudmore portrayedPeter Rasputin / Colossus: a mutant with the ability to turn his body into metal, the character's importance was reduced to a cameo,[18] Michael Reid MacKay portrayedJason 143, William Stryker's son who could create illusions. Keely Purvis portrayed the little girl whom Jason uses as an avatar when controlling Xavier.Cotter Smith portrayed US President McKenna, andTy Olsson portrayed Mitchell Laurio, the security guard for Magneto's prison cell.Cameo appearances includeKatie Stuart asKitty Pryde,Bryce Hodgson asArtie Maddicks, Kea Wong asJubilation Lee / Jubilee,Steve Bacic asDr. Hank McCoy and Shauna Kain asTheresa Rourke / Siryn.Gambit's cameo was shot, but the footage was not used in the final cut. Also in the final scene with Xavier, a girl is seen dressed in a Native American style jacket, as well as a blond-haired boy dressed in blue, played byLayke Anderson. In the film's DVD commentary, the two are identified asDanielle Moonstar andDouglas Ramsey.[17]Michael Dougherty andDan Harris, the film's writers, make cameo appearances as surgeons in Wolverine's flashbacks to his time atWeapon X.[19]Chiara Zanni, who voiced Jubilee inX-Men: Evolution (2000–2003), appears as a White House tour guide at the start of the film.
The financial and critical success ofX-Men (2000) persuaded20th Century Fox to immediately commission a sequel. Starting in November 2000,[20]Bryan Singer researched various storylines (one of them being theLegacy Virus) of theX-Men comic book series.[21] Singer wanted to study, "the human perspective, the kind of blind rage that feeds into warmongering andterrorism,"[22] citing a need for a "human villain".[20] Bryan and producerTom DeSanto envisionedX2 asthe film series' equivalent to theStar Wars franchise'sThe Empire Strikes Back (1980), in that the characters are "all split apart, and then dissected, and revelations occur that are significant... the romance comes to fruition and a lot of things happen".[23] ProducerAvi Arad announced a planned November 2002 theatrical release date,[24] whileDavid Hayter andZak Penn were hired to write separate scripts.[25] Hayter and Penn combined what they felt to be the best elements of both scripts into one screenplay.[26] Singer and Hayter worked on another script, finishing in October 2001.[27] Penn was partially hired when he convinced Singer to not adapt the "Dark Phoenix Saga" storyline for the film, feeling that the franchise's universe should be established much more before "going cosmic". Instead, in what he feels was his major contribution to the project, Penn based the film's outline onChris Claremont'sgraphic novelX-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (1982) before leaving to work on another film.[28]
Michael Dougherty andDan Harris were hired to rewrite Hayter and Penn's script in February 2002,[29] turning down the opportunity to writeUrban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005).[30] They turned in hundreds of drafts to Singer.[31]Angel andBeast appeared in early drafts, but were deleted because there were too many characters.[15] Dr. Hank McCoy can be seen on a television interview in one scene. Beast's appearance was to resembleJim Lee's 1991 artwork of the character in the seriesX-Men: Legacy.[15] Angel was to have been a mutant experiment by William Stryker, transforming into Archangel.[17] A reference to Dougherty's and Harris's efforts to include Angel remains in the form of an X-ray on display in one of Stryker's labs.[21]Tyler Mane was to reprise asSabretooth before the character was deleted.[32] In Hayter's script, the role eventually filled byLady Deathstrike was Anne Reynolds, a character who appears inGod Loves, Man Kills as Stryker's personal assistant/assassin. Singer changed her to Deathstrike, citing a need for "another kick-ass mutant".[20] There was to be more development onCyclops andProfessor X being brainwashed by Stryker. The scenes were shot, but Fox cut them out because of time length and story complications. Hayter was disappointed, feeling thatJames Marsden deserved more screentime.[17]
Rewrites were commissioned once more, specifically to giveHalle Berry more screen time. This was because of her recent popularity inMonster's Ball (2002), earning her theAcademy Award for Best Actress.[33] A budget cut meant that theSentinels and theDanger Room were dropped.[21]Guy Hendrix Dyas and a production crew had already constructed the Danger Room set. In the words of Dyas, "The control room [of the Danger Room] was a large propeller that actually rotated around the room so that you can sit up [in that control room] and travel around the subject who is in the middle of the control room. The idea for the traveling is that if it's a mutant has some kind of mind control powers they can't connect."[16]
ProducerLauren Shuler Donner had hoped to start filming in March 2002,[25] but production did not begin until June 17, 2002, inVancouver and ended by November.[5] Over sixty-four sets were used in thirty-eight different locations.[16] The film crew encountered problems when there was insufficient snow inKananaskis, Alberta for them to use for some scenes. A large amount offake snow was then applied.[34] The idea to haveJean Grey sacrifice herself at the end and to be resurrected in a third installment was highly secretive. Singer did not tellFamke Janssen until midway through filming.[35] While filming the scene where Xavier and Lehnsherr play chess, Stewart and McKellen had no clue how to play chess so a Canadian grandmaster was called on set for a day.[36] CinematographerNewton Thomas Sigel and two stunt drivers nearly died when filming the scene in whichPyro has a dispute withpolice officers.[11]James Bamford worked asHugh Jackman's stunt double for rehearsals until he suffered an injury; due to Bamford's looks, Singer asked him to play the role ofGambit for acameo appearance, but Gambit's scene was deleted from the film's final cut.[37] According to Alan Cumming, Singer began berating the cast which lead to Halle Berry saying to Singer "you can kiss my black ass".[38] Cumming would also later say that working on the film was a "bad experience".[39]
John Ottman composed thescore.[40] Ottman established a new title theme, as well as themes specifically forMagneto,Jean Grey,Nightcrawler,Mystique, andPyro.[41]
Singer and Sigel creditedRoad to Perdition (2002) as a visual influence. Though Sigel shot the firstX-Men inanamorphic format, he opted to shootX2 inSuper 35. Sigel felt the recent improvements in film stocks and optics increased the advantages of using spherical lenses, even if the blowup to anamorphic must be accomplished optically instead of digitally. Sigel noted, "If you think about it, every anamorphic lens is simply a spherical lens with an anamorphizer on it. They'll never be as good as the spherical lenses that they emulate."[42] Cameras that were used during filming included twoPanaflex Millenniums and a Millennium XL, as well as anAaton 35mm. Singer also usedzoom lenses more often than he did in his previous films, while Sigel used aFrazier lens specifically for dramatic moments.[42]
TheBlackbird was redesigned and increased in virtual size from 60 feet to 85 feet.[16]John Myhre served as theproduction designer on the first film, but Singer hiredGuy Hendrix Dyas forX2, which was his first film as a production designer.[43] For scenes involving Stryker's Alkali Base,Vancouver Film Studios, the largestsound stage in North America, was reserved.[15]
Visual effects supervisor Mike Fink was not satisfied with his work on the previous film, despite the fact it nearly received anAcademy Award nomination.[44] Up to 520 shots were created forX-Men, whileX2 commissioned roughly 800.[45] A newcomputer program was created byRhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) for thedogfighttornado scene.Cinesite was in charge of scenes concerningCerebro, enlisting a 20-man crew. The Alkali Lake Dam miniature was 25 feet (7.6 m) high and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide.[46] Cinesite created 300visual effects shots, focusing on character animation, while Rhythm and Hues created over 100.[47] Janssen would later admit that she was not a fan working with green screen on set of the film.[48]
The first cut ofX2 wasrated R by theMotion Picture Association of America, due to violent shots withLogan when Stryker's army storms theX-Mansion. A few seconds were cut to secure a PG-13 rating.[49]
The film premiered in London on April 24, 2003, and then had thewidest release ever, opening on May 2, 2003, in 93 markets, on 7,316 screens overseas and in 3,741 theaters in the United States and Canada.[50][51]
X2 opened May 2, 2003, accumulating $85.6 million on its opening weekend in 3,749 theaters in the United States and Canada. Overseas, it grossed $69.27 million in its first five days, including previews.[50] The film exceededHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in terms of number of screenings.[52]X2 would hold this record until the following year, when it was taken byShrek 2.[53] It surpassedStar Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones for having the highest opening weekend for a20th Century Fox film.[54] For two weeks, it stayed in the number 1 spot before being displaced byThe Matrix Reloaded.[55]X2,The Matrix Reloaded,Finding Nemo,Bruce Almighty andPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl all became the first five films to cross the $200-million mark at the box office in one summer season.[56] The film grossed $214.9 million in the United States and Canada, the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2003,[57] earning $192.8 million overseas, for a worldwide total of $407.7 million, theninth-highest-grossing film of 2003. It earned $107 million in its first five days when released on DVD.[35]
X2 received positive reviews,[58] with praise aimed at the acting, action, and story. The review-aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes reports that 85% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 247 reviews with an average score of 7.5/10. The website's consensus states: "Tightly scripted, solidly acted, and impressively ambitious,X2: X-Men United is bigger and better than its predecessor—and a benchmark for comic sequels in general."[59]Metacritic calculated aweighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on reviews from 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[60] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F.[61]
Roger Ebert was impressed by how Singer was able to handle so many characters in one film, but felt "the storyline did not live up to its potential". In addition, Ebert wrote that the film's closing was perfect for a future installment, givingX2 three out of four stars.[62]Kenneth Turan of theLos Angeles Times wrote that it was rare for a sequel to be better thanits predecessor. Turan observed that the film carried emotional themes that are present in the world today and commented that "the acting was better than usual [for asuperhero film]".[63]Peter Travers ofRolling Stone wrote thatHugh Jackman heavily improved his performance, concluding "X2 is asummer firecracker. It's also a tribute to outcasts, teens,gays,minorities, evenDixie Chicks."[64]Empire calledX2 the best comic book film of all time in 2006,[65] whileWizard named the film's ending as the 22nd greatestcliffhanger of all time.[66] In May 2007, Rotten Tomatoes listedX2 as the fifth greatestcomic book film of all time.[67]
Mick LaSalle of theSan Francisco Chronicle was critical of the storyline, special effects, and action scenes.[68]Joe Morgenstern ofThe Wall Street Journal specifically referred to the film as "fast-paced, slow-witted".[69]Stephen Hunter ofThe Washington Post wrote "Of the many comic book superhero movies, this is by far the lamest, the loudest, the longest".[70]Richard Corliss ofTime argued that Singer depended too much on seriousness and that he did not have enough sensibilities to communicate to an audience.[71]
The film won theSaturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. In addition,Bryan Singer (Direction),Dan Harris andMichael Dougherty (Writing), andJohn Ottman (Music) all received nominations. It also received nominations for its costumes, makeup, special effects and DVD release, amounting to a total of eight nominations.[72] The Political Film Society honoredX2 in the categories ofHuman Rights andPeace,[73] while the film was nominated for theHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form).[74]
Thefilm's score was composed byJohn Ottman, a regular collaborator with film directorBryan Singer.[40] The soundtrack albumX2: Original Motion Picture Score was released on April 29, 2003.[75] Ottman used a sample ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart'sRequiem as the basis for the music in scenes featuring Nightcrawler.[41] As well as the music on the album, tracks byConjure One and'N Sync also featured in the film.[76]
On July 19, 2012, La-La Land Records andFox Music issued an expanded version of Ottman's score, including the specially recorded version ofAlfred Newman's20th Century Fox fanfare incorporating Ottman's film theme.[41]
X2 was released onDVD in widescreen and fullscreen formats as well asVHS on November 25, 2003, by20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.[77] The two-disc DVD includes over three hours of special features.[78]X2 was also released onBlu-ray and additionally as a Blu-ray, DVD and digital-copy combination in 2011 with special features.[78] The film is included in the4KUltra HD Blu-ray setX-Men: 3-Film Collection, which was released on September 25, 2018.[79]
After the success of the second film in the franchise, a sequel titledX-Men: The Last Stand was released in 2006.
A video game titledX2: Wolverine's Revenge was released in April 2003 forPlayStation 2,GameCube,Windows,Xbox andGame Boy Advance. Patrick Stewart reprises his role as Professor X, while Hugh Jackman's likeness was featured on the cover as Wolverine.
Another game, titledX-Men: The Official Game, was released in May 2006 for PlayStation 2, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, Xbox,Xbox 360, Game Boy Advance andNintendo DS. The game bridges the time period betweenX2 andX-Men: The Last Stand and uses several voice actors from the film franchise.
