*X2: X-Men United* was INSANELY GOOD!!? 

Fun fact: Ian McKellen helped write the scene where Bobby comes out to his parents as a mutant. He drew on his own experiences coming out to his parents as a gay man.

The opening scene with Night Crawler is one of the best film scenes ever. Makes his power look so cool and definitely cements teleportation as one of the best powers to have to be honest. Only downside is having to be able to see where you’re going

Fun fact. The woman Mystique turned into when seducing the guard was Rebecca Romijn, the actress that's in the blue makeup.

Can we all just admit that Nightcrawler's introduced in this movie is one of, if the not the best character introductions ever

VKunia: "There's no way Jean is about to die!!!" Long-time X-Men fans: 🤣🤣🤣

Man. The amount of emotion in Scott's voice when he yells " *DON'T YOU SAY THAT!* " is heart wrenching. Phenomenal acting.

Cheesy.. I would argue that this X-Men movie delivers more weighty themes, violence and characterisation than a lot of modern Marvel films. The MCU is sometimes so concerned with being likeable that it refuses to challenge the audience. Compare Loki to Magneto. That being said not all X-Men films achieve these heights...

19:10 "How is that possible?" Healing is Wolverine's ability. The metal skeleton was grafted on later and his healing ability was the only reason he survived the procedure.

I loved the inclusion of Lady Deathstrike in this film. As a kid seeing someone I never thought would be shown on the big screen was really cool, even if her part was relatively small

"He just murdered this guy in front of a child." But that isn't just a child. That's Jake from Animorphs.

Take a shot every time she says "cheesy" or "2000s".

23:05 "Because we shouldn't have to." Best line in all X-Men stuff everywhere.

The girl who phased through the bed is Kitty Pryde. She's been one of the more popular characters since her debut, and there were (early stage) plans to give her a solo movie before Disney bought Fox. She's actually in all three films of the original trilogy (played by a different actress each time), but she really only became a significant character in the third film.

Fun fact: One of the writers for X2 is David Hayter, the main character "Snake" voice actor in the Metal Gear series (most of them anyway).

"He's like a comic relief character" ....HUH??? I mean, I seriously don't get how she... got that? He tries to kill the president, yells at them in German, then gets his perch struck by lightning so he falls. And that says... comic relief? I seriously don't understand.

1:23: The reason why the X-Men and Avengers haven’t crossed paths is because different studios owned the rights to different characters.

I'm still stunned people today find these early X-Men films "cheesy". As I said last video, that was the _last_ thing the creators intended: it had been a few years by then, but it was still a novelty to see the genre taken so seriously. It's especially ironic, considering the MCU is almost entirely a bunch of outright comedies.

This film holds up so well on the strengh of it's acting and writing.

21:30 That's a great question about why Nightcrawler didn't just teleport them out of the jet crashing! 1) The first problem is that Nightcrawler needs ( _strongly_ prefers) to *see* where he's teleporting to. Otherwise, he's rolling the dice with his life (and any others he's teleporting). This means he would (at minimum) need to teleport the whole group twice. Once to "roll the dice" on a less risky "teleport straight up a bit" and hope for the best. Then, teleport _again_ somewhere open enough that no group member winds up in a tree but also not anywhere near the soon-to-be plane wreck. 2) Teleporting just himself takes *energy* , but it's not too taxing by himself. What _really_ gets draining are 3 things: Doing it multiple times in succession could leave him winded. The longer the distance, the more it drains him. Lastly, the more people that teleport with him, the harder it gets - usually more than 1 or 2 is tough. While this scenario only has 2 back-to-back teleports, it would be maxing out the other factors. It's quite a number of people and the second teleport from air to ground would still be a good distance (assuming he teleports early enough to avoid the crash's potential explosion and keep his first teleport minimal). 3) The final aspect to all this is *momentum* - teleporting doesn't remove an object's momentum. This means Nightcrawler's time window would be _extremely_ constrained. On their first teleport, they'd still not have much momentum from the moment they exit the jet's flight deck. However, Nightcrawler would have less than a second to scope out a good spot on the ground for the second teleport and do it before they build up too much fall speed. There are scenarios where a more experienced Nightcrawler could probably pull it off. This movie's Nightcrawler has likely not had as much experience teleporting large groups. It's possible he gets struck by heavy fatigue between the first and second teleports. If they took too long and had too much fall speed, they'd likely still die (other than Wolverine). It's also possible for a scenario like Prof. X assisting him by boosting his mind by making him feel calm, confident, and like time was moving super slow, so that Nightcrawler could have optimal focus & reaction time. I think this movie's Nightcrawler could've done it with X-Men training but not with the background he had here.

Character: *Says a perfectly ordinary line* Vkunia: CHEESY

1:24 On that thought the 1990s Fox Marvel shows were all connected so X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, and Fantastic Four all took place within the same continuity The Marvel Animated Universe, or MAU known as Earth-92131 on the Marvel Datebase. These shows would often feature cameos in episodes for example in the Spider-Man: The Animated Series episode "The Mutant Agenda" Spider-Man finds out that he's going through a mutation so he ends up looking for an expert in the field of Mutants which brings him to Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters where he meets the X-Men from the 1990s show featuring the same designs and voice actors. Spider-Man also mentions The Avengers and Fantastic Four in a few episodes "You don't find the Fantastic four in the sewer or The Avengers, never have I seen the Avengers in a sewer or the Defenders... well maybe the Hulk" going through the sewers while he's looking for Lizard. There was also cameos as well from characters who didn't have there own shows like Daredevil, Captain America, and Captain Marvel to name a few who were just active in the background of the greater universe. The 1990s Fox shows were pretty much the MCU before the MCU even doing Into an Spider-Verse story arc before the Into the Spider-verse film. But yeah this show is the closest thing to an X-Men and Avengers Crossover outside of the comic books but one day maybe even in Phase 6 we could see an X-Men and X-Men crossover in the next Avenger's movie. You may be wondering why wasn't there an Avengers show, well you may be surprised by this but back in the 80s and 90s the X-Men were far more well known and popular than the Avengers which today is the opposite. This is also why Fox dived at the idea of an X-Men film and pretty much why no one picked up the rights of characters like Iron Man or the Avengers as they knew that no one would really care about them besides maybe the Hulk who had his own live action show in the 1970s which was a massive hit, Hulk's movie rights got picked up by Universal who made the 2003 Hulk movie simply because Hulk was a pretty well known character. It wasn't until Iron Man came out and Nick Fury mentioned the Avengers Initiative that the mainstream audience started to get interested in the Avengers and then came The Avengers film in 2012 which blew the door wild open turning The Avengers into a household name. So yeah summed up people were more interested in the X-Men than the Avengers until the MCU turned them into a household name and then we ended up with shows like The Avengers Earth's Mightiest Hero's which is amazing 100% recommend It.

This and X-Men Evolution are what finally got 10 year old me into superheroes and comics. While there are a lot superhero movies ahead of it on my list of favorites, X2 still holds up almost 20 years later

Still one of the best Superhero movies ever made. I feel like these days many people see this franchise as worse than the MCU movies, but when the X-Men movies are good... they are really good.

It really wasn't THAT cheesy. I think that mindset kept you from enjoying the movie much as you could have.

I really love this one just seeing Logan kill the guys in the mansion to save the mutant kids is a vibe . & i don’t care if Hugh Jackman is too tall or not it doesn’t matter he nailed Logan’s personality and I feel if an actor can get the true essence of the character down how they look doesn’t matter. Like there’s so many different kinds of Spider-Men, Peter, Miles & even the ones from the Future etc etc

Jean’s face when she sensed the approaching water, her sacrifice… This was Jean Grey done right. When her voiceover hit like Spock’s at the end of Wrath of Khan and then the hint of the Phoenix force appeared, it was one of best moments I’ve ever experienced in the cinema. This was before the MCU - the ramifications were mind blowing. I remember so clearly sitting in the theater, jaw in my lap thinking, “Oh my god, they’re going there. They’re going there!” The Phoenix. Shi’ar. Starjammers. Dark Phoenix. I thought they’d tell the story over a few movies. The promise and potential were beyond my wildest expectations at that point. Annnnnnd they effin whiffed it with X3. Poof, gone. Watching the end of X2 now makes me nostalgic for that moment and sad for how they botched it. Then they botched it again in Dark Phoenix by trying to cram the storyline into one incoherent film. Maybe Feige will do what he does best and play the long game. Tell the story of the X-Men with patience and EARN the Dark Phoenix story. Here’s hoping.

The X-Men universe is pretty hit-or-miss. The first movie was really good, especially for the time. X2, First Class, Days of Future Past and Logan are simply some of the best superhero movies ever made. But then... Origins, Dark Phoenix, and Apocalypse are among the worst. This was one of the good ones.

"Why hasn't there been a crossover?" Uh.... That's the world as it is *supposed* to be. That would be the world without lawyers and greed... The X-Men are part of The Marvel Universe. Carol Danvers is member of The X-Men. Quicksilver and Wanda are Magneto's kids. And speaking of Quicksilver... keep watching X-Men movies and then wait til you get to WandaVision... In the 90's Marvel was nearly bankrupt. They sold off the rights to a lot of their most popular characters to stay afloat. So Sony got Spider-Man and Universal got The Hulk and Fox got Daredevil and The X-Men. (Wesley Snipes' company originally had licensed Black Panther, but after a couple years of development and pre-production they decided they couldn't do it on an indie budget so they made Blade instead) Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor were *B-listers* that no one had bought yet, so Marvel was able to use them to create a pared-down version of their universe, without Spider-Man or the X-Men. They worked out a deal with Universal to make Hulk 2009 and eventually worked out a deal with Sony to include Spider-Man, and then Fox let go of Daredevil after their movies underperformed. But X-Men was one of Fox's only big cash cow franchises through the early 2000's and they were stingy with it. However, NOW Disney OWNS Fox. So all the fans are on pins and needs wondering HOW the X-Men will be brought into The MCU...

14:47 It also helps when the random character is being played by the same actress as Mystique!

It's funny that she didn't recognize Rebecca without the makeup and thought it was just another of Mystique's disguises. ;-)

The only thing that bugged me in this movie was that Wolverine didn't smell that it was Mystique that came into his tent. This ability was used for one of the best scenes in the first movie. Glad you're enjoying your X adventure!

1:23 "Why hasn't there been a crossover with the Avengers and the X-Men" Because the movie rights for X-Men belong to _Fox,_ and _Disney_ only acquired 21st Century Fox Company on March 20, 2019. Now that that's done, expect more mutants and X-Men in the MCU as well.

Vkunia: This movie is sooo cheesy with a smile also Vkunia: Uh oh there's a Storm brewing.....

@20:05, you notice that in the dreamscape Jason presents as a little girl. Maybe that is a reflection of his inner self. I always thought that was a hint that there were other things about his son that Stryker didn’t like. Also yes the X-Men throughout the years have been a stand in for issues of race, gender and sexuality

In the comics Mystique turns out to be Nightcrawler’s mother since she’s a bit older there.

The Xmen when created was pretty much a racism metaphor, over the years it has sort of morphed into a metaphor for sexuality at the time of the film, so yes, the 'have you tried not being a mutant' line was very much that.

What Rogue was wearing during the night raid was a night gown. They're a bit more old fashioned than pyjamas but very comfortable.

Fun fact: Nightcrawler is Mystique's son. Also fun fact: In the comics, Wolverine and Mystique both have a long history. They first met each other in Mexico in 1921. Both of them also worked as operatives for Stryker and another black ops mutant experimentation group called Weapon X.

X2, and then Spider-Man 2 a year after it, represented the height of good storytelling in superhero/comicbook movies at the time. Both still hold up quite well today, and are often considered to be among the best of the crop. Until the Dark Knight trilogy and the MCU, nothing came close.

If Lady Deathstrike is almost immortal like Wolverine imagine her being alive forever unable to move because of that metal inside her. And she was just programmed by Stryker.

Fun fact: Nightcrawler is the son of Mystiq in the comics

X2 probably has the most to say out of all the X-Men films. Especially the quite heartfelt scene with Bobby’s family.

There's something different about your mind, that during the opening cool action scene you're just sitting there going "Wasn't that Willy Wonka?"

Little noticed element of the visitation scene. When Stryker uses the serum to get Magneto to talk, his eyes change color to show he's under control. His eyes are still that color when Charles talks to him. That's why Erik is so amicable and cooperative.

You might have missed it at the very end of the movie because you looked away from the screen but you may have noticed a very large bird like Shadow moving through the water during Jean Gray's closing voice over. That foreshadows the next movie and also a storyline that so far they have attempted twice and screwed up both times

1:24 Because movie rights. In the 90's Marvel was in serious danger of going bankrupt (sounds crazy today, I know), so they sold movie rights to their heavy hitters like Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four (The Avengers weren't even close to being as big). Two of those had hugely successful series of films, so when Marvel established their own movie studio, the others weren't just gonna give those rights back. So we've had this quiet battle going on for the last decade where Marvel would try to devalue X-Men and FF comics or move them aside. Finally Disney got tired of this and just bought Fox, who had the movie rights, and now we're starting to have hints of X-Men showing up in the MCU. But the X-Men did crossover with Star Trek in the comics. 17:54 Yes, that was indeed a not-so-subtle metaphor. But the X-Men were always meant to represent whatever group is being discriminated at the time, so there's that. 19:09 His skull is coated in much harder metal. As for the healing part, he's healed worse and faster too. 23:00 It's neat the shot a scene with these two, cause Mystique is his mother. 33:10 Funny you should say that. Jean Grey dying and then undying has pretty much become a running joke of the X-Men.

The Wolverine backstory with Stryker is really well done and all the Nightcrawler scenes are epic. Glad you're enjoying 🤙

That moment where Magneto is telling Johnny/Pyro that he's a god among insects, he isn't trying to get to him, that's actually how he feels, he was trying to help Pyro see that too. Magneto is... a complicated character

This is the same person who said Captain Marvel was "'surprisingly great". Hmmm yeah when you clown X2 for "cheesiness" or being 2000s, I'm just gonna take your opinions with a grain of salt, darling.

Fun fact for you, the soldiers that Stryker commands in this raid on the mansion? HYDRA (same as the ones we see in Deadpool 1). Granted they're not affiliated with the MCU's version of HYDRA due to the Fox ownership, but they are a team of HYDRA soldiers all the same. I recall seeing some promotional shots of the troops with the HYDRA logo on their uniform shoulders.

18:00 You're spot on about the 'coming out' comparison. That's exactly what they were going for. I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer did a similar scene. "Have you tried NOT being the chosen one?" In both cases, it's just meant to show how silly a question that is 😆

I just noticed the appropriate book Magneto is reading when Stryker pays him a visit. "The Once and Future King."

Disney didn’t have the rights to the X Men until they bought Fox, which was fairly recent, so they couldn’t be in the MCU He didn’t turn the bullet to mist, the bullet only grazed him. It’s also not mist, it’s smoke. Sulfuric I think Kitty Pryde is the one who can phase (walk through stuff) It’s very much meant to evoke coming out. Funny thing about that, Bobby is gay in the comics, relatively recently. His healing factor pushed the bullet out. She could stop Nightcrawler by holding him in place. Not necessarily controlling his powers. She did it before when they found him in the church

X2 is the best of the franchise (though Days of the Future Past is close behind and Logan is a masterpiece). X2 is the Spiderman 2 and Blade 2 of the X-Men. The perfect Storm (pun intended) where everything just clicks right.

Fun Fact, the relationship Logan has with Rogue in these films is actually in the comics but with a completely different character, Jubilee. While Rogue is a much more, errr robust character...

The one scene where Logan injects Lady Deathstrike with adamantium - when she reverts for a few seconds from under mind control - I wish she had whispered "Logan" - and another part of his past is revealed. I would have filmed it that way.

I don’t think I need mutant powers to say this but I think it’s very likely you’re going to have a field day with the next movie, X-men III: The last stand when it comes to the memes.

This story was based on the graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills." Lady Deathstrike, Yukio, was once Logan's lover

Mystique's costume originally took hours to put on but eventually they found a much faster way I believe involving spray paint.

Wolverine the healer gets shot in the head and heals Vkunia “how is that possible”😂

11:35 Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat. Very popular character but she didn't get to do much in this trilogy. Considered the best of the original X-Men trilogy. If you think Bobby Drake's family is bad here, they're even worse in the Ultimate comics line. Unfortunately it's part of his background that his family is generally a small-minded middle American one who don't take kindly to mutants, even their son. The parallel is definitely intentional.

Nightcrawler is a fan favorite of the X-Men. It’d be cool to see his return with the MCU

I've always been struck by how liberally the ending of this movie borrows from that of "The Wrath of Khan" . . . right down to having Jean Grey deliver the closing narration in place of Professor X.

About the Mystique makeup..... I'm sure it took a little extra time, since she (Rebecca Romijn) is one of the planets most beautiful women, I'm sure (through no fault of their own) it was hard for the makeup artists to concentrate on their work...

How do you define "cheesy" Vkunia?

The X-Men comics go back to the 60's and it always had undertones of being an analog for various civil rights movements. So it's not an accident that it feels like Bobby is "coming out" to his parents.

XMen & Marvel used to be owned by different companies. Now that's changed so we'll be seeing movies & shows with both.

Jean the telepath and mind controller doesn’t let Kurt teleport after her Vkunia “what how can she control him”😂

Idk what you're on abt this movie being cheesy. At least it ain't as cringe as most mcu movies.

Best 10 mins in Cinema letting Wolverine Defend the School

Vkunia: Cheesy Me: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I prefer this to most of the MCU films, and it's not cheesy, even in a good way.

Just like the Raimi trilogy, the sequel improves on the first. The X-Men franchise was owned by Sony, so crossing over with the Avengers led to creative difficulty, much like it did with the rights to Spider-Man. The X-Men are expected to enter the MCU in some shape or form, with hints sprinkled here and there, but it probably won't be the most friendly of interactions; the X-Men and Avengers have worked together sure but they've also clashed a lot as well. That is not either guy who plays Willy Wonka, that is Alan Cumming, doing an amazing job as Nightcrawler too. Nightcrawler is among the fan favourite X-Men in comics, lots of layers to him, including being Mystique's son (and Rogue's adopted half-brother since Mystique was her adopted mother in the comics) and technically a demon The same can be said for Brian Cox's depiction of Colonel William Stryker, a huge recurring villain of the X-Men which leaned onto the human prejudice and fearmongering. The girl who can run through walls is called Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, another popular character, the man who turns into metal is supposed to be Colossus, but of course Deadpool has a more comic accurate look for him. It is very much meant to be depicted that way, the X-Men by design are meant to be allegory to segregation; racism, homophobia, intolerance, they are all themes which the X-Men reflect when rejected by society. Ironically too, Bobby does come out as gay much years later in the comics. The 'Female Wolverine' is known as Lady Deathstrike in the comics, in that canon her father created the process of bonding adamantium, which she had done to herself. In the comics thoough she isn't a mutant, just a genetically-modified cyborg. Well, define 'Okay'?

Collosus IS Definitely Awesome Vicky. Maybe my favorite X-Man.

I much preferred the comic/Animated series version of Rogue. The Rogue portrayed in these movies is more like Jubilee. Also in that scene where Logan gets shot in the head, how did the bullet penetrate his skull?. His bones are supposed to be indestructible.

When Logan goes into a berserker rage, he's a danger to everyone.

Great reaction. Despite everything Marvel and DC have done since, this and Spider Man 2 are a couple of the best comic movies ever made.

X Men was licensed to Fox and no deal could be worked out to portray them in Marvel movies. You couldnt even say the word mutant in a Marvel movie until... well, now that Disney owns everything, you're going to see X-men rebooted in the MCU

Vkunia: "Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy Cheesy" Broken record syndrome?

VKunia mentioned how cheezy the movies are and she's right in a way. The thing to remember is that no matter how cheezy they are, a lot of people loved them especially since these movies were the first live action X-Men movies ever made where the technology in movie making was advanced enough to make movies like this and people were/are really enjoying it. If any of you younger people want to see what some of us older people grew up with when it comes to superhero/comic movies then look up the old Spiderman movies from the 1970's, the Incredible Hulk tv series, Vkunia already watched the first Superman movie staring Christopher Reeve from 1978. Those are really cheezy.

This. Might be the BEST X Men movie. It's always been my favorite. I hope you enjoy it

Logan : "Have we got a weapon in this plane?!" Strom's breathe intensifies...

Every time you rant abt how this movie is cheesy (wtf...?), you grow another L

"Wolverine doesn't cry, this is the most amount of sadness and emotion any of them have seen" Me, "oh you dear sweet summer child, let me introduce you to the tale called Logan."

1:23 Because Marvel sold X-Men& Fantastic Four film rights to Twentieth Century Fox in 1994. So every X-men movie that you will now watch is made by Fox. In 2019 Disney bought Fox and now Marvel Studios has claimed the rights so crossover can happen in near future. BTW Marvel also sold Spider-Man to Sony but the studios are cooperating so we can have Spider-Man in the MCU.

If X-Men were Pokemon: Wolverine Type: Steel/Fighting Ability:Regenerate-Health slightly increases every turn. Move Set: Metal Claw (Steel), Close Combat (Fighting), Sword Dance (Fighting), and Outrage (Dragon). Storm Type: Flying/Electric Ability: Lightening Rod-Takes electric attacks and increases its special attack stats from electric attacks. Move Set: Thunder Cage (Electric), Fly (Flying) Whirl Wind (Flying), and Thunder Bolt (Electric). Beast Type: Dark Ability: Intimidate-Lowers opponents' attack stats upon entering battle. Move Set: Outrage (Dragon), Seismic Toss (Fighting), Dragon Claw (Dragon), and Crunch (Dark).

Back when less was more Now that Disney got the X-Men, everything will be overblown with CGI and memes

VKunia: What is his power? Nightcrawler: BAMF!

"He can't just teleport them all to the ground" - I didn't have the exact same thought - but at least for Rogue as she was already OUT of the crashing plane lol. He's like ooops - nope - back in you go!

You nailed the parallel between mutants and "coming out" at the turn of the century.

This was my favorite Xmen movie until First Class came out. (the third one is..... not my favorite) The way the MCU is going we could get Avengers v Xmen in some capacity

Nightcrawler is not played by Gene Wilder (RIP), but by Alan Cumming, who played Floop in the Spy Kids films. 8-9 hours to apply the Mystique makeup. The girl who can phase through things is Kitty Pryde a.k.a. Shadowcat. While a minor role in the first two films, later in the series, she'll be played by Elliot Page, back when he was Ellen Page.

In the comic mutants are in levels from 1 to 5 charls and Magnete are i think level 4 and jean is one of the few Level 5

Regarding the school assault scene - the girl who can phase through stuff is Shadowcat. The man of steel is Colossus, a Russian mutant. He doesn't look like a teenager because he's one of the 'grown-ups' not a student.

18:12 The X-Men comics were pretty much a reflection of what was going on at the time. Especially about people who were found different (people fighting for civil rights at the time the comics were written in 1963) and it can be translated to the LGBTQ community as well or anybody who was shunned because they find themselves being different in a community they feel they don't belong in. Hence... that scene.

The early 2000s called and just wanted to let you know that they were amazing lol. Love your work! Keep it up.

X-Men was one of the movies that really brought superhero movies back. Before that, there was really just the Superman and Batman movies. It really felt like they took the stories seriously in a way no one had before. And yeah, the effects might be a bit dated today, but I think they hold up okay ... but really, X2 was the third movie from the "current era" superhero films (behind X-Men and Spider-Man), so I'm willing to cut them some slack. Complete side note: That's a beautiful top you're wearing.

"He just keeps taking all of Scott's stuff." ....."scotty doesn't know. scotty doesn't know!"

It was awesome, but the bad thing is that they do not get back to that status until more than a decade later in Days of Future Past.

Stop calling everything cheesy ... because a) that is NOT "an argument" and b) [to quote The Princess Bride: *_I dont think it means what you think it means._* ]