Mom (to Iceman) : Bobby (Iceman), So when did you find out you were a err...
Pyro : Mutant
Dad : You should realize that we thought Bobby was going to a school for gifted...
Rogue : Bobby is Gifted.
Mom : It’s not that... We still love you Bobby.. It’s just this mutant problem...
Wolverine : What problem?
Mom (to Iceman) : Bobby... Have you ever tried.. Not to be a Mutant?
Prequel
After the fight between the mutant groups ’X-Men’ lead by Prof. Charles Xavier ( Prof X - played by Patrick Stewart) hoping for a future where humans & mutants can peacefully co-exist & the ’Brotherhood’ lead by Magneto (played by Sir Ian McKellen) resulted in the defeat of the ’Brotherhood’, capture of Magneto & foiling of his devious plan to convert the entire humanity into mutants or otherwise destroy them.
Now the Brotherhood lies in tatters. Magneto is held in a Plastic Iron-free prison & life is back to normal at X-Mens hide-out Prof. Xavier’s school for Gifted (Mutant) children and peace reigns supreme... or so it seems until...
X-Men Fight back
Mr. President of USA gets attacked in the White House by a mutant who enters the premises as part of a tourist group & then drives the entire Presidential security nuts with his mutant power...
Enter ’Night Crawler’ (played by Alan Cumming)... a new super mutant. A Born Again Christian mutant from Munich, Germany. This former circus attraction possesses the unique gift of Teleportation. He could move himself, his clothing & things surrounding from one place to another in zippy. He leaves behind a cloud of smoke with a stench reminiscent of burning brimstone while teleporting. His teleportation is invariably accompanied by the muffled sound of imploding air rushing to fill the vacuum left where his body was.
SFX-wise this first scene of the movie is simply mind blowing & delightful to hard-core Sci-Fi fans. Reminded me of Matrix (Part 1) action scenes.
Alarmed by this attack which brought him near-death experience, Mr. President authorizes William Stryker (Brian Cox)a mad-cap human military scientist & the current director of Department of Defense to track & capture the mutants.
In the meanwhile Prof X. sends Storm (Halle Berry) & Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) to locate & capture Night Crawler in Boston. Prof X. & Cyclops (James Marsden) pay a visit to Magneto to check if he knows anything about the plot to start a war between humans & mutants. They get captured by Stryker’s men there.
And while a good number of X-Men are away from the school Stryker strikes the school in the middle of the night with full military might. We get too see another super mutant Colossus (Daniel Cudmore) who can turn his body into Steel briefly & runs away with most of the kids. Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) runs away with Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), Rogue (Anna Paquin) & Pyro (Aaron Stanford) to Iceman’s parents house in Boston. The close encounters with Stryker at school brings back some very old jumbled up memories in Wolverines mind.
More trouble awaits for Wolverines teams when Iceman’s brother alarmed by his brothers mutant powers dials 911 & calls the police. The pyro-technic battle between Pyro & the police squad reminded was a SFX fans delight. Followed by the scene of two fighter jets ambushing X-Men Jet when Storm & Jean try to run away after rescuing(?) Wolverine & gang.
In the meantime Mystique manages to sneak into Stryker’s office, finds his plans & helps Magneto escape from Prison. Magneto meets Wolverine’s team and reveals Stryker’s diabolic plan against all Mutants.
What are Stryker’s plans? Why does he hate mutants so much? Where is Stryker’s secret base? Who was responsible for attack on the President? Can Magneto be trusted? Is it one more of his games? Will X-Men fight united against Stryker for their very survival? Who will will? The humans or mutants? Will Wolverine finally find out who he was?
How long will the bon-homie of X-men & Brotherhood last? Will some mutants switch sides? Whom will Night-Crawler choose? X-Men or Brotherhood?
Whom will Dr. Jean Grey Choose? Cyclops or Wolverine? Or does she make some other unexpected choice? Will Rogue find the love of her life in Iceman? Will she overcome the curse of her mutant power to suck power from other mutants/humans on contact?
Watch the movie...
For Humans...
The movie has some fantastic SFX scenes. Especially the attack on Mr. President, Fight between Army commandos & Mutants in Prof. X’s school. Final climatic fight between mutants & Strykers men. The Storms, Chill and the other climatic changes brought about by Storm. Chilling effects on Iceman, Fiery antics of Fire-controlling Pyro who carries a Cigar-lighter of a weapon!! Mystiques ability to change form & mimic all & sundry. Lady DeathStrike’s (Kelly Hu) claw-to-claw Adamantium fight with Wolverine...Simply mind-blowing...
Not a movie to be watched for some brilliant oscar winning acting. But all the actors have done decent believable acting. Not much scope to show directorial talent, but the Director Bryan Singer has done a good job & has a story to tell even in this SFX razz-matazz. Direction has been tight till the very end where the film drags a bit around scenes that determine Stryker’s fate. The final scenes involving Stryker reminded me of Dharmendra papaji’s Hindi film climax... Wolverine played by Dharmendra & the Stryker by Amrish Puri
Sound effects were on par with the Visual SFX. A real treat for die-hard Sci-Fi fans like me. If you hate too much SFX stay away from this movie.
When I watched this movie the theater was full of kids (expected) and also lots of teenage girls (unexpected). My observations are confirmed by Exit polls that 44% of the audience was female!! Was it for manly Hot Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) or cool Iceman (Shawn Ashmore)? Rogue (Anna Paquin) is a delight as usual. Kelly Hu sizzles as Lady Death-Strike. But stunningly beautiful Rebecca Romijn Stamos never gets a chance to show herself except as the hideous bluish mutant Mystique.
Night Crawler (to Mystique): Excuse me... they say you can imitate anybody... even their voice!!
Mystique : Even their voice... (imitating Night Crawler’s voice)
Night Crawler : Then why not stay disguised all the time... you know... look like everybody else..
Mystique: Because we shouldn’t have to...
So what does Mr. President finally decide??....
’’See, we love — we love freedom. That’s what they didn’t understand. They hate things; we love things. They act out of hatred; we don’t seek revenge, we seek justice out of love.’’ —George W. Bush, Oklahoma City, Aug. 29, 2002