X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Composed by John Powell

The second X-Men movie had teased telekinetic Jean Grey’s transition into the incredibly powerful Phoenix. Fans highly anticipated an adaptation of one of the comics’ greatest storytelling. Then Bryan Singer, who had been managing the franchise, ditched it when he got the chance to direct Superman Returns. Brett Rattner took his place and turned out a passable, but underwhelming sequel. The movie is closer to 100 minutes than two hours, a mistake when it heavily expands the cast of characters (and consequently gives a couple of them very unsatisfying pay-offs). The movie sees Jean Grey return as Phoenix. Though she wields much more power, her mental state is unstable and she’s convinced to join Magneto’s now much larger Brotherhood of Mutants. As if this isn’t bad enough, a scientist has developed a “cure” which can remove the X-gene from mutants and render them normal. The movie’s main problem is that it adapts one of the most epic stories from the comics and renders it small-scale, as Phoenix never comes close to dishing out the mayhem she did in the original tale (her moment of crossing the line is vaporizing a house instead of a planet, for example).

When Singer left, he took regular editing and composing buddy John Ottman with him. John Powell, one of the more successful graduates of Hans Zimmers’ Media Ventures, stepped into his place. As Ottman did with Michael Kamen’s work on the first film, Powell jettisoned his predecessor’s themes. While this continued to undermine the musical continuity, the end result is pretty worth it. Powell avoids the flaws of Kamen and Ottman’s entries, which had unrecognizable or underrepresented themes and stretches of tedium. The themes for this score are obvious and repeated, and there is nary a dull moment. Where Powell excels above the other composers is his action pieces. Kamen and Ottman failed to create true action highlights. Powell, on the other hand, goes all-out in this area, creating multiple layers of frenetic action with liberal quotes of the themes. Powell’s non-action music also manages to grip the listener’s attention, with obvious sustained thematic statements and interesting instrumentation for the moodier underscore.

X2: X-Men United (2003)

Composed by John Ottman

The first X-Men movie was a solid success. It was the sequel, however, that garnered true praise from critics and fans. It was even considered a major leap forward for superhero cinema, though it would be eclipsed shortly by Spider-Man 2. X2 focuses less on mutants battling each other (though there are still moments). Instead all mutants are targeted by Colonel William Stryker. Using Xavier’s mind-enhancing Cerebro, he plans to wipe out all mutants at once. As it turns out Stryker also has a connection with Wolverine’s past. The movie is pretty good. Many of the characters still don’t have a lot to do, but the full two hour running time allows for a bit more focus on figures besides Wolverine, Magneto, and Professor X. In particular there’s also a subplot about Jean Grey developing higher levels of power (portending her transition into Phoenix).

This time director Bryan Singer was able to bring his friend John Ottman onboard. Up to this point Ottman had done mostly horror and thriller scores (including Singer’s masterpiece Usual Suspects). This would be his first of several superhero movies. Many film score reviewers have actually criticized his efforts in this genre, finding his material lackluster and this primary themes underwhelming (more on the latter point in a bit). Personally there is some merit to these criticisms. Ottman is not just a composer, but an editor as well. Since Singer gave him both jobs on his movies, he was able to line up picture and score with incredible accuracy. On the plus side this allows the music to move smoothly with the action on screen. The downside is that Ottman sometimes seems so focused on this aspect that he fails to give his themes extended performances outside of the credits. Also, some of the material bridging the highlights isn’t particularly strong, focusing on basic underscore without much melody (“Magneto’s Old Tricks” in particular is awesome highs punctuated by dull lows).

X-Men (2000)

Composed by Michael Kamen

X-Men came out at an uncertain time of the superhero film genre. Up to that point most comic book movies had been critical and/or commercial flops. Marvel in particular was behind other comic book companies in getting its properties to the big screen, with only the widely panned Howard the Duck and the cult hit Blade to its name. Bryan Singer’s X-Men proved that Marvel could successfully transfer its popular characters to film, but preceded the true growth of the genre in cinema that was sparked by Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films, Batman Begins, and Iron Man. It’s a fine, even good film, but suffers from thin characterization for most of its cast. Some of the sequels would redeem some of the underdeveloped characters, particularly shape shifter Mystique.  It’s the first of a long-running film franchise that saw everything from legitimate masterpieces (Days of Future Past, Logan) to just plain good entries (X2: X-Men United) to decent entertainment (X-Men: Apocalypse) to absolute dreck (Origins: Wolverine, Dark Phoenix).

In the world of the X-Men mutants are emerging. Though they are the next step of human evolution, they are feared by society because of their wide array of super-powers. Led by telepath Professor X, the X-Men seek to help mutants control their powers and oppose both evil mutants and persecuting forces among normal humans. The plot kicks off when teenage girl Rogue, sporting energy and ability-sapping powers, almost kills her boyfriend during a make-out session. She runs away and finds herself with Logan/Wolverine (a star-making role for Hugh Jackman), a Canadian with partial amnesia who can grow claws out of his hands. They finds themselves sucked into a war between the X-Men (led by Patrick Stewart’s Professor X) and the militant Brotherhood (headed by Ian McKellen’s Magneto).