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X2: X-Men United

Up front I'll say this is my favorite X-Men movie. I haven't looked into it enough to know if that's a hot take or not.

We get Nightcrawler in this one and he is awesome. The smoke effects going through walls in the White House holds up well, and the image of Nightcrawler is so startling that it's a perfect character to contrast with the human's apprehension to mutant freedom. He literally looks like a demon to them, unlike other characters who have powers but look perfectly normal.

The makeup reportedly took so long that Alan Cummings decided to pass on appearing in the third movie because the amount of time in the makeup chair wouldn't have been proportionate to the couple minutes of screen time he would have got in X3. Another standout character is Pyro, who's rebellious streak really balances his opposite personality with Ice Man.

The highlight of this movie for me is Babysitter Wolverine watching over the school while Stryker's group busts in and hijacks it. There's a couple great scenes there with Ice Man blowing on soda to make it frosty cool, and creating a giant ice wall, Colossus tearing through the place, and Logan's huge jump off the balcony. There's also the running gag of Logan stealing one of Scott's vehicles.

Speaking of Stryker, this is the first of a few times where we explore the Wolverine backstory. The adamantium bubbling looks cool, as does Lady Deathstrike and her 10 claws. I noticed with this and Sabre Tooth in the first movie that they try to have a counterpoint to Wolverine in both movies in terms of ability.

They did a lot of cool stuff with Cerebro and being able to manipulate Xavier's mind. I remember watching this in theaters and people being excited about the phoenix in the reflection of the water. More on Jean in the next one, I suppose.

Order: X-Men>X2:X-Men United>3>4>5>6>7>8>9>10>11>Dark Phoenix