X2
 

Did anyone else see X2 this weekend? And did you enjoy it as much as I did?

We had the added benefit of seeing the movie at a local drive-in which is located in a heavily Hispanic neighorhood. The Cinco de Mayo fireworks were going off right next to the screen for about 25 minutes...distracting, but excellent!

I'm a big Marvel comics fan, and I'm really glad to see all the recent superhero flicks featuring their characters. Stan Lee must be very gratified (not to mention very wealthy!).

This movie was so fucking awesome, I couldn't believe it! I don't really want to go into the plot specifics, because I don't want to spoil it for anybody. But action sequence at the beginning was breathtaking.

two thumbs up from Pete/Griff
 

I thought it was much better than the first one, since they didn't have to bring the audience up to speed on the background. They actually got me caring about the characters which is a huge step forward for "comic book" movies. I had one of those moments near the end of the movie where I was thinking, "I don't want this to end." I was an occasional X-Men reader, kinda makes me wish I was an addict who collected them. It was funny being middle aged man in the theatre with the high school kids.

I think the movie was great. Better than the first. My only real problem lies not with the movie, but elsewhere.

DC Comics.

These guys need to get their collective asses in gear. Marvel has been putting out movies left and right. Blade and the sequel. X-Men and the sequel. Daredevil. Spiderman, with a sequel due out next year. They're already working on a Punisher movie.

DC needs to come with their own franchises, and quick. I, for one, wouldn't mind a Green Lantern movie. A Justice League movie would be great too. (Jim Carrey...Logical choice for Plastic Man. Think about it.)

Back on topic...Spoilers ahead.

Some things I think will happen in the inevitable sequel to X2:

- Colossus will have a bigger role. Where we saw it, people applauded when he turned metal and threw the soldiers through the wall. I think if Bryan Singer manages to show Colossus and Wolverine performing the Fastball Special comic fans everywhere will nominate him for sainthood.

- Sentinels. Or at the very least, one Sentinel. Part CGI, part animatronic.

- The New Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, based at Asteroid M. Pyro joining up with Magneto seems like just the start of that story arc. It's a logical progression. Asteroid M would factor in because it would be such a huge event. It would be an excellent climax, as well as a way to bring Jean Grey from the Phoenix force. (No, that's not X-Men canon, but it would make sense.) It would also be a perfect return for Toad and Sabertooth.

yeah but with the way hollywood fucked up the batman franchise, can you really blame them for being wary?

but i agree about the green lantern thing. done right, it could be very cool.

~james

Until the X Men came out, I had hoped for the Fantastic Four, but in retrospect, aren't they really just Mutants themselves? I'm afraid Hollywood is going to look at it and say "it's been done."

Oh. Wait...that's never stopped them before, has it?

Big 10-4 on Green Lantern, though. My personal fave as a kiddie.

X2= crazy go nuts good

I give my approval to X2. Even better since I got to see it for free tonight. I don't know if I'll say it's better than the first but still pretty good.

Anyone see the previews to Hulk, I hadn't seen any until tonight and it seems to me that the The Hulk is very CGish. Hopefully it won't seem that way when I see the actual movie, I hate it when I can tell when something is real or not without being a picky SOB.

About the DC thing ...

What I would desperately LOVE to see a movie made of is The Watchmen.

When the graphic novel was THE hot thing to read there was a lot of discussion, including the usual rumors of the story having been optioned, script written, etc. I even recall seeing a few supposed "shooting scripts" at scifi cons for obscene amounts of money.

I agree on The Watchmen. This was one of my favorite comic series.

I also think DC shoul option the Sandman series - it could be very cool - I think Winona Ryder would make a good "Death" - though she has played a ton of Goth Chick roles.

I would love to see Hitman turned into a movie, too.

I think X2 was great.

I loved Jean Grey's Phoenix transition in the end. I loved Nightcrawlers attack sequence - much better than I expected. I was a little disappointed that Wolverine's origin was so cut and dried so quickly. I read so many issues where just a sliver of his background was revealed, I would have liked that a little more drawn out. I wish Colosus should have gotten more screen time, too. I like that they did not pull any punches with Wolverine slashing through soldiers - killing them ( the lack of blood kept the whole thing palatable ). I also like the very well done Magneto sequences.

Overall, I was really impressed. The alternate histories bugged the dork in me, but I was pretty happy - overall.

I agree about Hulk looking like a puppet. I think they should have gotten ILM to do the SFX with that movie. They seem to be the only company that can do truly seamless transitions between real characters as puppets and CG stuff.

overall, though, I liked that Hulk was not the TV Hulk. I like that is was more of the McFarlane take ( though green ) on the charactor. I really like that Hulk was given a massive amount of power - not like the TV hulk that just busted through walls and ran in slow motion.

I will reserve judgement on Hulk till I see more of it.