#181 – X2: X-Men United (2003) – When the X-Men Truly Took Flight

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. I am Eric aka Mr. Honest, your host, and today we're talking about X2X Men United from 2003. I gotta say, watching this tonight reminded me of why I love doing this podcast. Movies like this, when they hit that sweet spot of nostalgia and excitement, they just light me up. Even last week's first, X Men, I mean, it's not that it was a bad movie, but this movie really found its flow for the mutants that are presented to us. And I thought, I think this story is far more engaging than the first one. And I do slightly remember the third one, but I think this one might take the cake. Compared to X Men 2000. It does feel like the moment the franchise said, okay, we've got our characters now let's go bigger, darker, and way more cinematic. And wow, they act, they delivered. I actually couldn't be more excited to come to the computer and hit record after watching this movie. It's so cool. And I really would. If you're a fan of the Avengers and you're not, like, considering me watching these, I don't know why you wouldn't, but maybe there's different people with different tastes in the world. I just want to say watch these movies if you're a fan of the mcu, because they are actually canon. Now to the mcu, the multiverse is wide open. We're covering these movies because there is confirmation that these movies will play a part, these characters will play a part in Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret Wars. We're going into an iconic era of Marvel, and if you can't see it yet, well, let these movies convince you. And I hope the last few movies convinced you, because I think we're on a pretty good run here in the MCU right now. And to come back to these masterpieces, okay, nothing's a masterpiece. Nothing's perfect. But just to come back to these movies knowing that they're leading into something new and powerful, even today, 22 years later, that's how important these movies are to people. And I feel that magic now more than ever. And I think more and more people are going to keep diving into X Men as the doomsday approaches. Marvel's proud to have the X Men. And I will say, after watching all of the X Men animated series and X Men 97 last year, this was before I brought the podcast back, I can see a huge difference in the way they present some of the same characters. And I won't say too much about that because Surprise. After we finish Loki on Wednesdays, we're going to move into x Men 97. And before we do that, I'm going to make the best recap episode I can of of the original X Men series that leads into 97. There are many seasons, I think close to upwards maybe of a hundred episodes there. It's a great show and it is on Disney plus. So if you're like interested in like getting into the animated X Men universe, you could even start watching that and it'll probably time out. It's three weeks. I mean we're, we're going to be talking about it very fairly soon. And I think it's the time, I think it's the time for the Marvel Maniac X Men era. So opening impressions. Let's start with that opening. Nightcrawler in the White House. This is one of the most iconic scenes from these movies. I remember it very well from when I was younger. I think it's maybe something they used in the trailers a lot. And just Nightcrawler's abilities are really cool. And honestly this opening scene is legendary. The teleporting, the tail swipes and that score driving the tension. It was like we were there. And it's not just cool action, it's world building through spectacle. We instantly understand Nightcrawler's powers and why mutants scare the world. And from there x2 never really slows down. Wolverine in his element in this movie, protecting the mansion. You almost can forget Wolverine's origins. And these not, I don't like calling them old movies, but they're older movies. It's actually really special watching him progress as Wolverine every movie. And I can't wait to kind of see that progression even more as we go through this X Men universe. And then there's the Magneto prison break. After seeing him in a cell of full on plastic, seeing what Mystique does to get him out is actually brilliant. She finds his guard from the prison that brings him his food. She gives him, I guess a ton of iron in pills. And then Magneto immediately is able to like kill this guy by pulling all the iron out of him and oh my God, I honestly think that might be one of the most painful deaths you could experience. That is horrible. Magneto is such an anti hero in this movie and I love how they embrace him and he's part of the team in a way, but obviously he has his own stakes and we see that at the end of the movie when you know, he could have saved Charles Xavier. His friend Eric could have saved his old friend Charles. Except no, he turned the project around. And Striker's son, the crazy looking, very well acted telekinetic who's just pretending to be a little girl in Professor Xavier's mind, which is like a little bit weird only because, I don't know, the guy is like very creepy looking and I don't know, he. There's some sort of element they added there to make you feel just really uneasy. Like him behind Professor X. I really was uncomfortable with what he was doing and how he was using Professor X. And I. I'll say one thing, I don't like how often Professor X was used really in this movie. For the whole movie he was pretty much under. I mean, not the whole movie, but it felt like a lot of the movie he was taken by Stryker and being mind controlled and that was driving the plot a lot. I mean, the fact that he can look into the world and get inside of everyone's mind at once, that would probably drive the population crazy. So even though they make peace with the President at the end of this movie, or we can assume that they did, the humans of Earth experienced something that was only and possibly could have only come from a mutant. And it was Charles being tricked by, by ironically, Magneto tricking the other. The other telekinetic that was controlling Ms. Charles Xavier. I almost called him Mixer Xavier. He made him turn on all the humans of the world. That is so Magneto. And he almost gets away with it. There's a lot of close calls and this movie's driving action, it just sticks like it's got a great beat. And it follows and I think it was longer than the first one in a better way. A moment I love in every X Men movie so far is Wolverine saying bub, because I think that's something he says in the comics and definitely in the animated show. He uses the word hey bub a lot. Love that. So let's talk a little bit more about like the action and emotional core to this movie. The best part, X2, isn't just action. It's heart and emotion. The attack on the X Mansion, genuinely tense. You did not expect it. You feel the fear. Another part is Mystique. She plays a huge role in this movie. And I really like how many times she tricked me. Like when she went to go kiss Wolverine in his tent. Oh my God. I was like, what is she doing to Scott? This is not right. The other kiss shared like 10 minutes previous. It was like out of passion and in the moment. But she Walks into his tent and starts, like, making out with him and, oh, it's Mystique. And like, oh, I was gonna, I was like, even thinking, like, what am I gonna say on the podcast about this? This is not great. Jean Gray is cheating on Scott Summers so openly. Well done. I mean, the Mystique fake outs are great. I don't know how, how fresh they'll remain. Even going back to X Men first class. Maybe we'll see how she hones in on those powers. And I will say, in the X Men animated series, I, I, again, I haven't read the comics, but Mystique is around, but she's really not part of the story much at all. Like, she's in some episodes, but she doesn't really play a very big role yet. They still, they're still making x men. 97 seasons that are going to be coming out. So I want to be caught up for that. So these movies are just the beginning. I'm not gonna promise we'll cover, like, the First Class series right away. I might want to escape back into Spider Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, maybe like a different movie. And then we'll bridge that going into the prequel Quad. I don't know what you call four movies. It's trilogy quadrilogy. The four First Class movies. Another arc that just simmers. The whole movie is Jean Gray seeing the team also forced with Magneto. Again, it's just the chef's kiss. I love superhero stories when most of the lines blur between good and bad. And this isn't just heroes fighting villains. It's all about survival and identity. And then we get to see Jean's sacrifice at Alkali Lake. Oh, my gosh. This is the most traumatic scene of the movie. This is like the main thing I remember about this movie. Even knowing that it's coming, it really hits the way she looks at Logan one last time before the water swallows her. Or it could have been Charles. I mean, you don't know who she was looking at. Not Charles. Scott Summers. You know, I think he gets a short end of the stick in this movie. And, you know, I'm going to be honest, the next movie, I think. I think if they, they really should bring that actor back because he's a great actor. The guy who plays him, I don't have his name at the top of my head, but I think he does a fantastic job as Cyclops. So I, I hope we get to see more of him in Doomsday. And I, I think that's happening, but, you know, I Don't want to look super into things. I want to be surprised by some things when I see this movie. And I mean, there's nothing like a superhero sacrifice. That's what made this movie so powerful, was the selflessness of Jean's sacrifice. And if you notice in the last frame of the movie, they do a little bit of foreshadowing to seeing like a bird in the water where she died. And I won't say much else because we're going to be talking about that next week. I just want to sit in this, sit in the energy of this movie for a moment. And it's very nostalgic for me because I was a kid when these movies came out. I wasn't watching them like I was watching like Spider Man. Spider man was like probably my favorite superhero movie for the longest time. I've seen that so many times. That's why I want to talk about it alone. They're bringing them back to theaters by the way, I think I. I think at the end of the next month or the month after that. So look into that. Your nearest theater, check the Spider man news. You might be able to go see Toby Maguire Spider man in theaters before It's Spider Man 2's 20th anniversary. Anyway, lets talk Legacy. Before the MCU X2 provided superhero movies and it showed that they could be character driven, emotional and worthy of the big screen. Without movies like this and Spider Man 2, it's hard to imagine Marvel Studios taking the leap that they did. I also noticed how this movie plants the Phoenix Saga seeds so naturally. Again, that final shot of the water, you just see very barely that faint Phoenix shape if you gotta be looking for it. I saw it because I was like, what is that? And then it hit me. I'm like, okay, the Phoenix, right? It's a promise for bigger things. Even if the Last Stand is famously divisive. I think another thing I really liked about this movie is there's so many heroes and mutants and whatnot that it kind of does remind me of like a pre MCU type movie, like a team up. And I think that's what the X Men in the MCU are gonna feel like when MCU takes over the whole franchise. It seems that'll happen after Doomsday. It's been strongly rumored, if not completely confirmed that the next saga after the Multiverse saga, meaning phases seven, eight and nine, will be the Mutant Saga. So I, if they do that, that's great. Hope we keep some of our newer heroes that we found. I like the new Avengers I love Fantastic Four. So the reboot of whatever universe. I think we'll just stay along for the ride and see what happens instead of worrying. I. I think we got some really special movies in the works right now. I mean, Spider man is literally being filmed for next summer, so we can kind of start getting excited for that. That's a long ways away, but that just makes me even more excited to cover more Marvel for you guys. If you have any suggestions and anything you'd want to hear me cover that I haven't yet, and I'd love to hear it. Marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com your your response may be read on the show. Unless you don't want it to. Just tell. Tell me in the email and yeah, it's open for fan theories, suggestions, anything. Okay, so where does this leave us in the Marvel universe of this marvel universe? X2 is the high point of the original trilogy for many fans. It's got action heart and team chemistry. That just works. And for me personally, it reminded me why I love these journeys because I get to share them with you and that's my favorite thing ever. It gets me excited. And I love this podcast and if you like our shorter format, I'd love to know it. Our good friend of the podcast, I'll call him at this point because he's been around since the beginning, Michael Finney, he was there since WandaVision, and he let me know a little bit of his, you know, input. And he likes the shorter episodes. That makes me happy to hear. I. I like doing them this way because I'd say maybe sometimes in my earlier episodes, I felt tasked with describing an entire movie to you that you just saw. And I'm explaining this a lot on the show, but I just like to let the audience into my process and also my process. That sounds kind of pretentious. You know, I just want people to know what I'm saying, what I'm thinking, and why they're shorter. If you like the longer episodes, you know, email me marvelmaniacpod Gmail.com Again, I'm open to the criticism. And sometimes we will make longer episodes. I don't imagine us not making a very long episode for Avengers Doomsday. However, as you saw, like I did with Fantastic Four, I. I split it up into like two episodes. So there's just a little bit to focus on. And then the next bit got some fan reactions. So I am pretty happy with where Marvel is right now. Watching Last Stand next week will be maybe a little hard because the movie's so divisive like said, but it's also got that nostalgia factor and I remember I think this was the only one I got to see in theaters up to that point. Love it or hate it, we're gonna go there and I'm excited to see how it hits after all these years and our library is growing, our buffer is strong, and I'm having the most fun I've ever had on this podcast, Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. Visit us at patreon.com marvelmaniac Every Saturday I post a minisode, anywhere from 2 and a half to 5 minutes. This is a quicker one this week, but I I cram a lot in it. I love doing these minisodes for the Patreon, especially knowing that you are going to be listening to them along with anyone else who wants to be on our Wall of Heroes. Then our about section. You subscribe to our Patreon, there's three different tiers. You can even follow it without paying any money and you'll get some free episodes every now and again, which I put out to everybody so patreon.com marvelmaniac and we have a tip jar in the comments. Never expected, always appreciated. For a third time. I really love this movie and I'm excited to talk to you about our next episode of Loki this upcoming Wednesday. We have a little bit to wait, but but it's worth it. We're in the best part of the show now and boy am I excited. Loki is very good. I like kind of switching it up, you know, Wednesday being the shows and Friday being the movies. There may be some series I take on later like Daredevil or Jessica Jones, and I might just do like two episodes a week of those because they're longer running shows and most likely if you're listening along, you're binging them. We'll figure that as when it comes I feel like there's a lot of I have a lot of plans and there's so many options on where we could go again. Your input gladly appreciated. Thanks again for listening. And until next time, Avengers Disassemble Should I have said X Men? X Men disassemble.