X2 *spoilers*

[Spatula]

9) At the beginning of the movie, and on the plane, Nightcrawler had no problem teleporting where he couldn't see (too accurately for my taste, actually). At the end, he was scared he would run into something when he was about to teleport through a door. Last time I checked, most people don't build walls on the other sides of doors.

I remember thinking during the opening scene, "Why doesn't he just teleport into the oval office, instead of working his way through roomfuls of agents with guns?" I've only seen the movie once so I could be wrong, but from my recollection Kurt never teleports through a closed door in that scene, which struck me as odd at the time. Every time he goes into a new room he teleports through an open doorway.

And with regard to there being walls on the other side, yeah there's small chance of that, but what if there's some furniture? A box? A person? Teleporting into someone else probably isn't much better than teleporting into a wall.

The dialogue between Storm and Nightcrawler was unbelievably lame though.

 

[Kai Lord]

Actually there was a moment in the film where I thought they did make a significant continuity blunder. When Mystique is at the White House computer looking for info on Cerebro isn't she perturbed not to be able to pull up info on its location, even though she had personally been there in the first film?

 

[Bagpuss]

Notice I said that Magneto *and* Mystique could have taken out the whole base by themselves. Their actions in the film prove that to be true.

Mystique *alone* manages to get in and turn off the water. In my opinion, the subsequent actions of the X-Men were superfluous at best---and could easily have been handled by Magneto and Mystie.

Magneto proved that he could dispatch the guards and bust in *and out* with only Mystiques help. Not using his comic book powers, just the ones he displayed in the base scenes.

ps. I *liked* the movie.

Guards yes but Cyclops would have turned Mystique and Magneto into mutant jelly if Jean hadn't been there. Magneto hand no idea how many mutants Stryker had under his control, he was just taking sensible procautions, by bringing some disposable X-Men along.

On another matter if you watch the first scene of the movie, you'll notice Nightcrawler has already scoped a lot of the Whitehouse going round on the tour, so he may have seen many of the corridors he appears to teleport round corners to.

As for the entrance into the oval office there is a reason they zoom in on the closed door and the spy-hole in it. Nightcrawler could get an idea of the room by looking back through that. Hence the pause between dispatching the guards outside and entering the oval office.

 

[Bagpuss]

Actually there was a moment in the film where I thought they did make a significant continuity blunder. When Mystique is at the White House computer looking for info on Cerebro isn't she perturbed not to be able to pull up info on its location, even though she had personally been there in the first film?

She was looking for the location of Cerebro 2, not the original Cerebro.

 

[Bagpuss]

Let's not confuse comic Magneto's range of abilities with movie Magneto's. He can't fly..

Actually he can fly. In the first film he flys towards the train he just ripped appart and then flys out of the head of the statue of liberty to the torch.

Still both he and Mystique would have been killed by Cyclops blast had not Jean saved them. So they couldn't have done it on their own.

 

[John Crichton]

John, check out the edit/update I made to my last post. I'm curious as to whether or not you agree.

Okay, comments below.

EDIT: I also think the X-Men are at their best without a Gandalf-figure leading them around by the nose. I loved the dynamic at the climax of X1 when Cyclops was in charge and trying to keep Wolverine in line.

X2 once again incapacitated Professor X to somewhat facilitate this, but then replaced him with Magneto! I loved the idea of the X-Men teaming up with former enemies, but they deferred to his leadership way too easily, and became borderline lackeys.

All that was left for them to do was fight their respective showdowns. Well, not totally, but the characters didn't come into their own the way I would have liked, or like they did in the first film.

Sweet, sweet flick, the few disappointing directorial decisions just came at some pretty pivotal moments.

The climax to X1 was pretty good for the Wolvie/Cyclops banter but I never actually felt that Scott was in charge there (even though he may have been). And it has been a bit since I have seen it but I actually don't recall much leading around by Prof. X in either of the films. I do like that he has had other things to deal with besides leading around the X-men as it would diminish their individuality and make it feel like less than a movie and more like a half-hour cartoon.

Also, the team-up with Magneto & Mystique worked for me. I never felt that Magneto was in charge as he needed the X-men to find the place and get there quickly. I didn't get the lacky vibe at all from the situation as they all had their reasons for going together - Magneto to save mutants from extinction, Wolvie for revenge/info, and the rest basically to save/stop Prof. X and rescue the kids. I actually kinda felt like they let Magneto come along just because he helped them. It just seemed like they all agreed to not kill each other for the time being and focus on something bigger than themselves.

And one final comparison to X1: I thought that this movie was better in all forms, character-wise and action-wise. There were no cringe-worthy lines and unlike the first one, this movie left me wanting more of what I already saw.

Also, on a general X-men note: I did not go into this movie with high-expectations. I was looking forward to it only because of the trailer. While I enjoyed the first movie, it did not make my mouth salivate for a sequel. So basically I saw a movie that really blew me away because I didn't think it would be that good (especially in comparison to my feeling about the first one). I hope that clears a few things up.

 

[satori01]

I personally liked the movie very much, and appreciated the expanded characters and expanded story arc. Frankly I find it the best of the comic hero genre,(which generally I am not a big fan of). William Stryker was played brillantly. I hate over the top villians, Stryker seemed belivable to me. Old school Brittish stage actors have acting economy down to a science. Stewart and Mcllean have the stage presence to not have to melodrama their scenes, which is so nice and refreshing. (Elijah "whinny frodo" Wood please take note)

Concerning the Jean Grey death sequence, it seems like she should be able to power the plane from the inside, however as the Phoenix plot arc seems to be implied, how can one have a phoenix rise from the ashes w/o any ashes?

The final evolutionary narration by the actress of Jean Grey seems to imply that she had some foreknowledge of what the transformation would require. Grey also had many vague missgivings for future catosrophe all of which may not have applied directly to the circumstances at hand. The Xavier "choice" speech might also imply that Xavier has some inkling as well of what she did.

 

[John Crichton]

The reason I am a bit critical of certain things is because for the most part the build up was so well done that it called attention to the less than spectacular resolution. I had an enormous amount of fun, but I couldn't help but feel a little bit teased when all was said and done.

This, I can see and agree with. I do have to say that while I do feel teased by the ending, that was the point of it (keep in mind that I have no idea what this Phoenix Saga thing is). At least it didn't undermine and diminish the rest of the film, at least for me. It actually added to it's feel because I knew that there was more to this world than just the film. These characters would continue to live and fight on. Many people have said that this film felt like "Wrath of Khan" done X-men style. While I won't go that far, it did borrow some well-done elements from it - ending where you know there is more to come, death and learning about oneself - for Khan the theme was old-age, with this movie a theme isn't so clear. But I guess that is the difference between a classic (Khan) and a really good film (X2).

Someone commented that the hole in the Blackbird summed up the film for him, for me it would be Collosus' cameo. Awesome, but give me more...

I agree with this as well.

If they wrap this whole thing up Return of the King style with one and only one more film, then a lot of my criticisms of X2 will be pacified. If they try to make the next one just a teaser for X4 I'll be very disappointed.

If the next film is as good as this one, complete with the promise of another film, I would be up for that. As long as they can keep the momentum going and keep feeding us new stories and characters, I'm there.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I figured Magneto laughing at Rogue was a small amount of psychological warfare on his part. Keep the Xmen tense around him, don't let them relax, keep them off guard so that when he needs to he can discard them.

Plus, the way he asked Pyro "What's your real name?" was a wonderful moment.

I also think that the whole Jean Grey death was handled well. She couldn't have used her powers to that extent inside the plane because 1) it would have screwed up the electronics as it did when she got an overload at the beginning and 2) the flames and energy might have hurt everyone else in the room. Perfectly reasonable.

I loved this movie, I didn't think that there were any plot holes at all. And Storm's line to Nightcrawler was, to me, an example of a character changing their mind about someone, having witnessed what they are really like over the course of time. Plus, she's a good leader, and good leaders know what to say to get their troops to do what's necessary!

Finally, the oh-so-subtle Phoenix in the water was far better than anything else. It tips off those in the know, it goes right past people that don't know, and if you catch it you might get curious. Any blatant Phoenix symbol in the snow would have been about as original as Jean's hand bursting through the water wreathed in flames.

 

[dravot]

Overall I was quite pleased with the movie. IMO, it was better than the first one, and a lot of fun to watch.

My only quibble with the movie was when Wolverine, Rogue, Bobby and Pyro left the school in the car (the official car of X2! ) and none of the gung ho army guys with guns and helicopters notices or shoots at them or follows them.