Initial release date: May 2, 2003
Studios: 20th Century Fox/Marvel Enterprises/The Conners' Company
Tagline: The time has come for those who are different to stand united
Plot: Stryker, a villainous former Arm commander, holds the key to Wolverine's past and the future of the X-Men. This threat re-ignites the call for a mutant registration act. Stryker starts a full-out assault on Professor Xavier's mansion and school. After escaping his plastic cell, Magneto proposes a partnership with Xavier and the X-Men to combat this new formidable enemy they both have in common.
Cast
Patrick Stewart - Xavier
Hugh Jackman - Logan/Wolverine
Ian McKellen - Eric Lehnsherr/Magneto
Halle Berry - Storm
Famke Janssen - Jean Grey
James Marsden - Cyclops
Anna Paquin - Rogue
Rebecca Romijn - Mystique
Brian Cox - William Stryker
Alan Cumming - Nightcrawler
Bruce Davison - Senator Kelly
Aaron Stanford - Pyro
Shawn Ashmore - Ice Man
Kelly Hu - Deathstrike
Katie Stuart - Kitty Pryde
Kea Wong - Jubilee
Cotter Smith - President McKenna
Writer(s): Michael Dougherty (Godzilla vs. Kong)
Dan Harris (X-Men: Apocalypse)
David Hayter (Watchmen)
Director: Bryan Singer
Rated PG-13 for sci-fi action/violence, some sexuality and brief language (134 minutes)
X2: X-Men United is the 2003 sequel to one of the best comic book fans released in the early 2000s. This sequel really delivers and is one of those rare sequels that's better than the first movie - which this time is hard to say since the first movie was really decent.
This sequel adds more characters and also delivers some tense sequences that can actually be exhilarating than the first movie. The entire scene where Stryker's men are at the mansion trying to get the mutants can be really tense at times.
X2 also dives into the Wolverine/Stryker story which is pretty much the main highlight of this movie. One of my favorite scenes in this one is when Magneto escapes out of his plastic cell. Just how it was shot, it makes the whole entire sequence look exhilarating.
So, X2: X-Men United is an excellent continuation of the series and is one of the best superhero sequels ever! Up next in the X-Men review series I will be taking a look at the third installment of the main trilogy - X-Men: The Last Stand - the sequel that received mixed reactions and is one of the movies in the series that I haven't seen!
Here are some fun tidbits about this awesome sequel!
Most of the extras playing frozen people were actually mimes, who are used to not moving.
The replica of the President's desk in the Oval Office was so detailed that it took two months to build.
Kelly Hu has only one line of dialogue in the entire movie.
Neil Patrick Harris auditioned for the role of Nightcrawler, but lost out to Alan Cumming, who speaks fluent German.
In an effort to keep the ending a secret, up until the movie came out, the novelization and the movie comic have different endings.
The characters Angel and Beast were part of the original script, but were dropped, as it was felt that there were too many characters, and saved for The Last Stand.
The script underwent re-writes to give Halle Berry more screentime, after she won an Oscar for Monster's Ball.
Following the success of the 2000 movie, 20th Century Fox granted Bryan Singer a $50 million budget increase for the sequel.
Wolverine's berserker rage, when the school is raided, had to be toned down to meet censor approval. His full blown rage is used in full bloody, R-rated, graphic glory in Logan.
Recouped its production budget more than three times over.
Nick Fury was intended to be in the movie but was scrapped due to licensing rights with Marvel.
The ice wall separating Wolverine and Stryker in their reunion in the mansion battle was real ice, and weighed 3500 lbs.
Starting in November 2000, Singer researched various storylines (one of them being the Legacy Virus) of the X-Men comic book series. Singer wanted to study "the human perspective, the kind of blind rage that feeds into warmongering and terrorism," citing a need for a "human villain."
The first cut of X2 was rated R by the MPAA, due to violent shots of Logan when Stryker's army storms the X-Mansion. A few seconds were cut to secure a PG-13 rating.
The sequel opened on May 2, 2003, earning $85.6 million on its opening weekend in 3,749 theaters in the US and Canada. The movie grossed $214.9 million domestic, the 6th highest grossing film of 2003 - worldwide total of $407.7 million.
After the success of the second movie in the franchise, a sequel titled X-Men: The Last Stand was released in 2006.
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