X2: X-Men United

Like its predecessor, X2: X-Men United is comprised of intelligently scripted science fantasy and the requisite amount of explosive battles and last-minute rescues. The film's production is exhaustively chronicled in Fox's two-disc package with 11 featurettes and two audio commentaries documenting different aspects of Bryan Singer's grand comic book sequel. The producers and screenwriters offer fun facts and anecdotes on one track, while Singer and cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel hold forth on another. Every significant crew member gets a say in at least one of the featurettes: The production designer guides us through one, the costume designer though another and editor/composer John Ottman discusses his unique bit of multitasking in yet another. All the major cast members appear in the supplements. Conspicuously absent, however, is X girl Storm, Halle Berry. Hugh Jackman, arguably the series' star as the steel-clawed, ass-kicking Wolverine, offers some insight into the actors' connection to the movie in Robert Meyer Burnett and Dave Park's key featurette, The Uncanny Second Issue of X-Men: Making X-2. Speaking about the fact that he was very pleased with the script for the sequel, Jackman notes that he was quite anxious when he first read it since he (and presumably the entire X crew, including Oscar winner Berry) was legally contracted to do the movie no matter how good, or awful, it might turn out to be. This package focuses quite a bit on Wolverine but also spotlights another figure quite prominently: Nightcrawler, a mutant blessed with powers of transport, played by Alan Cumming. Three featurettes and a special stunt rehearsal presentation are devoted to the blue-skinned, bat-like character. Cumming is clearly delighted by playing the part, but he seems a great deal less enthusiastic when discussing a marathon 10-hour full-body makeup session he underwent for one sequence. Although a newcomer to the ensemble, Cumming supplies the best single line in the entire package. When an interviewer asks him about his motivation for taking the role, he notes that he appreciated "the message that it's important to not just hate [other people] because they're different ... and also because I really wanted to fly through the air and kill people." --Ed Grant