Face-Off: Spider-Man 2 vs. X-Men 2

X2’s story pulled from the 1982 graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills. Mutant hater Colonel William Stryker is on a mission to eradicate those dastardly mutants, needless to say they don’t appreciate that very much. Wolverine and the rest of Professor X’s ‘precious X-Men’ find themselves in a reluctant alliance with Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants to settle this little dispute. It’s no secret you can link the theme of X-Men to very present and relevant real life prejudices, which makes for a powerful story. That fight for rights and survival against a common enemy was front and center here, and it was kick ass.

The action was plentiful in this sequel, sure enough. It’s wonderful seeing the powers these people have in effect, but it’s much more wonderful seeing Wolverine get pissed. The invasion of the school was short and sweet, but Wolverines protective rage was a thing of beauty. From there we get Pyro’s decimation of some squad cars and the money shot being Wolverine’s tango with Lady Deathstrike. When it comes down to it, X2 had a lot of breathers of thematic plot driven dialogue but when it gave us the goods it delivered.

William Stryker was one mean son of a bitch, and I love me a villain that is so delusional in his beliefs that he believes what he’s doing is for the better as far as humanity is concerned every step of the way. Brian Cox nailed the conviction of this character wonderfully, you could really feel his hatred for mutants in every line, and his admiration for what he created with Wolverine was a wonderful little contradiction and it added more depth. Bottom line, there is something scary about somebody like Stryker with so much blind, unflinching hatred for something he doesn’t understand. Think there’s not people really out in the world like this? Think again.

Hugh Jackman. Patrick Stewart. Ian McKellen. Halle Berry. James Marsden. Famke Janssen. Anna Paquin. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos. Alan Cumming.


An excellent, all star lineup here folks. Unfortunately a few of these stars went underused (looking at you James Marsden, sorry bud) and Halle Berry didn’t really have much to do. Nevertheless, all involved brought their A game, expecially Hugh Jackman, Brian Cox, and Ian McKellen, sir Ian just seemed to be once again having a blast with the role.

X-Men 2 was right on Spidey’s coat tails with an approval rating of 88%. Roger Ebert discredited the film with not living up to its potential and suffering from a plot hole or two, but praised Singers ability to incorporate an ensemble of characters to near perfection. Agreed Rog. The LA times deemed it better than the original, while Rolling Stone praised Hugh Jackman’s performance and took the time to admire the thematic elements of the film as a whole. Rotten Tomatoes has a spot on its list for X2 as the fifth greatest comic book film of all time.

Take great characters, mixed with thematic elements I can get behind, and you have a recipe for success. Which is just what this movie was, a success. It pulled off everything I just praised Spidey 2 for. Sure, some of the characters I wish would have gotten a bit more love, but what can you do when you have so many to work with? When all was said and done with this, it had hands down the best segway into a third film I’ve ever seen. Professor X’s speech to the president at the end was a thing of beauty, and don’t get me started on the Phoenix tease. The fact that Brett Ratner came along and f*cked it up isn’t X2’s fault.