X-Men 2!!

[Enright3]

Has anyone seen the trailer for X-Men 2? It looks really cool.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/x2/02/

My question is, as a lad who's never read X-Men comics, does anyone have a source where I could learn more about the characters, the history, etc? My son knows all the characters. Unfortunately X-Men came out after I was an adult.

[Silentgoldfish]

www.marvel.com has biographies of most of their major characters.

[New & Improved Scott]

And www.uncannyxmen.net has an impressive listing of issue summaries.

[Dewey Cheatem Undhow]

Is there any way to save the trailers to the hard drive? Streaming them crashed my browser.

[Cardinal]

Right-click and chose "Save Target".

[Fibber McGee]

I don't think you can do that with the trailers on Apple.com.

Dewey, what browser do you use? I use Juno and quicktime movies crash it, so I watch QT movies using IE and it works fine.

[Cardinal]

You're right, it didn't work. Apologies. It tried to save some HTML file.

[Dreaming of Maria Callas]

If you know something of HTML, you can look at the page source and find the direct address of the .mov file.

UnuMondo

[Dewey Cheatem Undhow]

Naw, even the HTML doesn't work for some reason -- Apple has some kind of redirect thing, so if you save what's in the HTML, you only get that one frame that says "Click X to Begin."

Heck, I even tried browsing the IE cache. No go.

Actually, I take that back. I think I dug out the redirected location. For those of you having trouble, try saving this link (http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/0391736c636417/1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e8177dec64930b38a50a78d709/X2-tlrD_480.mov) to your hard drive.

[Dewey Cheatem Undhow]

Nope, that's not working either....Hmmm....

[Max Torque]

The easiest way is to get Quicktime Pro. Then you can save all them trailer-type dealies.

[Dreaming of Maria Callas]

Originally posted by Max Torque
The easiest way is to get Quicktime Pro. Then you can save all them trailer-type dealies.

Yeah but Quicktime Pro costs money. That's a problem.

(Using Linux, I've gotten used to not having to pay for software).

UnuMondo

[TearsOfGlass]

I really hope that this one will be better then the first. It looks good visual wise, but will there be a plot?

[Mothchunks]

I'm seeing Storm, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Kitty Pride, Iceman, Pyro, Rogue, Magneto, Prof X, Mystique, Deathstrike

No sign of Sabretooth or Toad.

[Orual]

Originally posted by Mothchunks
No sign of Sabretooth or Toad.

Well, umm ... didn't they die in the last movie?

[SC_Wolf]

Takes a lot more than that to kill Sabertooth.

[Fibber McGee]

Originally posted by SC_Wolf
Takes a lot more than that to kill Sabertooth.

That's the comics. Doesn't apply.

[RickJay]

Nonetheless, you did not actually see Sabretooth die, so he's still fair game to be brought back in a sequel.

[New & Improved Scott]

Sabretooth is not in the movie, nor is Toad.

They might be slated for a return further down the line, but not in X-2.

[Banger]

Originally posted by Silentgoldfish
www.marvel.com has biographies of most of their major characters.

The last time I checked the Marvel site, I was unable to find character biographies. I remember that they once had them (not just X-Men but all major Marvel characters), but since the site was revamped, I can't find them. Do you have a more specific link?

I'm looking forward to seeing Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. The trailer shows a little bit, but I want to see some teleportation. I fear that the movie will not include this.

*hopes that people realize that "Cumming" is Alan's last name*

[New & Improved Scott]

Originally posted by Banger
I'm looking forward to seeing Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. The trailer shows a little bit, but I want to see some teleportation. I fear that the movie will not include this.

*hopes that people realize that "Cumming" is Alan's last name*

www.apple.com/trailers

Teleporting all over the place, and kicking tail!

[Cataclysm]

I'm actually a bit worried about how Alan Cumming will be as Nightcrawler. Hopefully he'll be able to portray our favourite fuzzy blue elf in the way that he deserves.

...

And hopefully the blue paint on Nightcrawler that we've seen in promotional photos will look a lot more like fur in the movie. (And maybe... just *maybe* he'll also lose that homeless person outfit of his as well)

[d_redguy]

I'm looking forward to seeing Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler. The trailer shows a little bit, but I want to see some teleportation. I fear that the movie will not include this.
But he doesn't go *BAMF*!!

He needs to go *BAMF*!!

But I am jazzed for it. Really, really jazzed for it.

[Silentgoldfish]

Originally posted by Banger
The last time I checked the Marvel site, I was unable to find character biographies. I remember that they once had them (not just X-Men but all major Marvel characters), but since the site was revamped, I can't find them. Do you have a more specific link?

I hadn't been to Marvel since their latest revamp (I liked it better before!). They've chopped out most of the bios for some reason, they've got maybe a quarter of what they did before. Still, they've got all the major X-men, Spider-man and Daredevil. Marvel Bios (http://www.marvel.com/bios/index.htm)

Rant: dotcomics was so cool before! Get comics online! Sure they were free, but I was willing to pay, I even e-mailed them and told them if they started a subscription service and kept putting out the new issues of ultimate spider-man and x-men once a month I'd be more than happy to pay, but nooooo... Now they've only got previews of comics you can buy from a comic book store. :mad:

[Fibber McGee]

I agree about DotComics. They were really cool and if Marvel offered some sort of online DotComic subscription for some or all of their titles, I'd certainly pay.

I think one of the reasons they stopped putting every issue of Ultimate X-Men\Spider Man up on their website is because distributers felt it was eating into their profits on those titles, which is probably also why they don't offer an online subscription service that would cut out the middle man.

Buying comics at your local comic shop or (to an increasingly lesser degree) corner store is still the main way that comic are sold and comic companies make their money. Wouldn't want to rish upsetting the folks at Diamond.

Really though, I think online distribution is the future of comics and the sooner the major companies realize this, the better for the industry. For one thing, comics would probaly cost half what they do now if the expensive printing process were eliminated. If some fans prefer actually holding a comic in their hands, offer a format that can be printed out using one's printer.

[TPWombat]

Originally posted by Fibber McGee
That's the comics. Doesn't apply.
Hollywood is even less consistent than Marvel.

[Fibber McGee]

Originally posted by TPWombat
Hollywood is even less consistent than Marvel.

:dubious:

How so? Hollywood has no obligation to get anything right, just to get the thing on the screen and make money off of it. Rather than look at it as Hollywood getting so much wrong, I think we should be happy they got as much as they did right. Not that the film couldn't have been better, but it also could've been so much worse.

True we don't know that movie Sabretooth is dead, but he could be. That would be inconsistent with the comics, but the movie has no reason to remain totally consistent with the comics, only with any other movies featuring the same characters, from the same studio, that came before it.

So, if in X2 Wolverine can suddely fly and launch fireballs out of his ass and Professor X gets a sex change and marries Magneto, then you can complain about inconsitencies. Until then, don't even joke that Hollywood's X-Men are somehow less consistent than the joke of continuity that is Marvel's X-Men.

Plus, Sabretooth falls under the superhero franchise rule of villains, which basically states that any major villain who doesn't a useful purpose in future installments must die. Mystique and Magneto have a reason to continuing existing so they live, Toad doesn't so he dies. Sabretooth is a grey area as he may be dead, but they may bring him back in X3 to link him to Wolverine's origin. We'll have to wait and see on that one.

[Gozu Tashoya]

Viola. (http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/0391736c636417/1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e8177dec64930b38a50a78d709/X2-tlrD_m480.mov)
(Note: vBulletin randomly adds spaces to this URL. 'Copy shortcut' and paste it into your address bar and delete the %20 in "417/%201a1a" and the <br%20/> from "d709<br%20/>/X2-tlrD_m480.mov".)

Enjoy.

BTW, this is for the big version of the trailer. I mean, what's the point otherwise, right?

[Gozu Tashoya]

Oh, and you'll have to figure out some way to download the trailer (otherwise it'll just view it in your browser). A download program like GetRight'll do it for ya.

[Dewey Cheatem Undhow]

No, I think that's the same addy I linked to above. Doesn't work (I used Teleport Pro to try to get it). Downloading it just nets you a ~1kb file that tells Quicktime viewer to go fetch the rest off the web.

[SC_Wolf]

You know, no one's commented on the Iceman/Rogue kiss yet. What's her line from the first film? "The first boy I ever kissed ended up in a coma for three weeks."

My speculation: Bobby's using his mutant freezing powers to create a thin layer of ice over his lips and tongue. Normally, it'd melt right away from the heat of the lips pressed together, but with a mutant freezing power, bobby can be constantly renewing it, to keep from actually "touching" Rogue.

Can you imagine what that must feel like though?

[Banger]

D'oh!

Didn't realize it was a new trailer :p

I guess I should have actually clicked on the link to double check instead of assuming people were suddenly getting excited about the old trailer that came out awhile ago :D

[Silentgoldfish]

Originally posted by SC_Wolf
You know, no one's commented on the Iceman/Rogue kiss yet. What's her line from the first film? "The first boy I ever kissed ended up in a coma for three weeks."

My speculation: Bobby's using his mutant freezing powers to create a thin layer of ice over his lips and tongue. Normally, it'd melt right away from the heat of the lips pressed together, but with a mutant freezing power, bobby can be constantly renewing it, to keep from actually "touching" Rogue.

Can you imagine what that must feel like though?

Maybe she's just developed her powers, like in the comic? She does breath out freezing air like she temporarily absorbed his superpowers.

[El Elvis Rojo]

I just saw the new trailer today, and I'm getting a little more excited about this movie. The original screen shots of Nightcrawler had me worried, but the shots of him in action look really cool. I didn't hear any "BAMF", but I like the way his teleporting works.
I'm glad to see Iceman is actually going to get some play in this movie (I'm refering to screen time, but it could work with he and Rogue, too). I don't know why Cyclops is blasting Jean, but I have to admit, one thing I like with the movie is it doesn't give all this funny color force stuff the comics do. I admit, for the comics it works because you need to show what's happening, but I was really scared in the movie you'd always see red or purple everytime Jean or Magneto used their powers.
I like the way Hollywood is handling the storyline. It's obvious they need to make some changes in order to make it more appealing to non-comic book fanatics, and I think it works. I mean, shit, there are so many "alternate timeline" storylines out there, why everyone gets bent out of shape with the fact Wolverine's not short and shit like that really pisses me off. As for Sabertooth, I doubt he's dead, but he just may not serve any purpose for this movie, so why bother putting him in. They're adding a bunch more people to the storyline as it is, do they really need him? For example, Collosus aparently has a cameo, but I doubt he'll do anything but walk through his bedroom and change. It's being as consistant as it needs to so far as I can tell, we'll have to wait till after we see it to make a better conclusion.
The only inconsistancy issue I have is that they got a different girl to play Shadowcat. Although she was only a cameo in the first, the actress they had play her was CUTE!!!!!

[SC_Wolf]

Originally posted by Silentgoldfish
Maybe she's just developed her powers, like in the comic? She does breath out freezing air like she temporarily absorbed his superpowers.

She'd also breathe out condensed vapor if Bobby were using his powers to kiss her without touching her.

In the comics, has she actually gotten to the point where she can turn her power off and be touched normally? I haven't kept up with it in recent years, but up until the point I stopped, she still couldn't avoid the "send them into a coma" effect.

[Rabid_Squirrel]

Personally, I'm picking that Mystique has inflitrated the Mansion *again*...

[El Elvis Rojo]

I don't know if that's the mansion or Magneto's holding cell. I'm thinking it's more the latter. Plus, in the bit in the trailer where Jean's mind probing Nightcrawler, you see Magneto and Mystique hanging out with them. I'm guessing the two team up with the X-Men to rescue the Prof and kick this military guy's ass.

[Skeezix]

First off, muchas gracias to KKBattousai for the detective work. I managed to ferret out the direct URL for the first trailer, back when, but had no luck on my own this time around. I much prefer dloading the things, and watching them at me own convenience.

As to the trailer:
It does seem like they're cribbing a fair bit of the story from God Loves, Man Kills, and the Mutant Massacre story arc, though my memories of those are a trifle dim. And while I too wanna hear a good loud *BAMF* Kurt looks pretty damn cool anyway.

Charles was in what looked like some kind of mental damper, judging by the dialogue from that snippet. Interesting.

"Drop the knives and put your hands up!"
"I can't."
<snort> <chuckle>

As long as the humor doesn't get too campy, this one should be fun, I think.

We got a token "Bub" outta Logan in the first flick... wanna take bets on at least one "fuzzy elf" in this one?

[mblackwell]

Here you go. (http://a772.g.akamai.net/5/772/51/0391736c636417/1a1a1aaa2198c627970773d80669d84574a8d80d3cb12453c02589f25382f668c9329e0375e8177dec64930b38a50a78d709/X2-tlrD_m480.mov)

[mblackwell]

Crap!

Just go here: http://www.kaneda.freeserve.co.uk/trailers.html and scroll down to the correct link. Right-click on it and do a save as.

[Leaper]

What I found interesting was that we know from the first movie that Senator Kelly has been replaced by Mystique, and Kelly is giving information about the school in the trailer. Obviously, Magneto is willing to sacrifice a few mutants in order to clear away the group most likely able to stop him from doing things his way. And if bringing pressure on Xavier's students causes them to see humans from his point of view, all the better...

[ISiddiqui]

Damn... still no Gambit in this one... oh well, hoping for his entrance in X3.

[ISiddiqui]

Oh, and I believe that SABERTOOTH is still alive. Remember at the end of X-Men where the news report (which shows that Kelly is Mystique) says that Kelly's aide looked like he was 'mauled by a bear'? Sounds like Sabertooth to me.

[Fibber McGee]

Originally posted by ISiddiqui
Oh, and I believe that SABERTOOTH is still alive. Remember at the end of X-Men where the news report (which shows that Kelly is Mystique) says that Kelly's aide looked like he was 'mauled by a bear'? Sounds like Sabertooth to me.

Er . . . Mystique was posing as Gyrich in the beginning of the movie, so I think it's safe to say he was already dead at that point.

[Skeezix]

Leaper:

While I realize the inherent silliness in the subject at hand, and the fact that we're talking about a two or three minute trailer...

And the fact that hollywood blockbuster trailers fairly often contain scenes not actually in the theatrical release...

I think you're leaping to the wrong conclusion there. (Sorry, I know, but I couldn't stop m'self.)

The line of dialogue right before that is the Stryker (reverend, general?) character. He says "training center for mutants," and Kelly/Mystique responds, "...it's a school."

Meaning, I think, "It's not a terrorist training camp, you putz, it's only a private high school!" It comes across like the two (Stryker and Kelly) are having a meeting with the president, argueing opposite sides of the debate.

And on my fourth viewing (well, in my defense, I was showing the thing to the third person I told about it, not just watching the thing over and over all by my fanboy self) I spotted two mildly spoilerific bits:

1) There's a quick shot of Logan laying a liplock on Jean, indicating the "love triangle" sub-plot is sticking around.

2) The shot where Jean is reading Nightcrawler's mind. In the background, on the right, are Logan and Ororo, and, on the left, are Magneto and Mystique. So the team-up's pretty much a given, too.

[Leaper]

Skeezix: Hmm. You may be right. It still strikes me as possibly rather convenient for Magneto's plans. After all, he was willing to sacrifice Rogue during his last plot, and he may very well believe that once Stryker puts the X-Men out of the way, he can easily use Kelly/Mystique to put Stryker back down again... I guess we'll see.

BTW, Skeezix, you don't happen to have a stepbrother who works with Stephen King on a semi-regular basis, do you? If you do, then I actually know you...

[Gozu Tashoya]

Originally posted by Dewey Cheatem Undhow
No, I think that's the same addy I linked to above. Doesn't work (I used Teleport Pro to try to get it). Downloading it just nets you a ~1kb file that tells Quicktime viewer to go fetch the rest off the web.

I dunno, I have a ~22 MB file sitting on my desktop that says different. :D

(Hint: m480. It's all about the "m" with these QT trailers.)

That being said, mblackwell's link is probably a whole lot easier. Darkhorizons.net (or something like that) is a good site too.

[Tangent]

Can someone who reads the X-men comics answer something for me? I used to read one now and then, but not often. I remember several years ago reading a few issues involving Mystique and...

Possible major spoiler
she turned out to be the mother of one of the good guys. But I can't remember who! I want to say Nightcrawler was her son, but that may be way off base. Maybe it was someone younger. Does anybody know what I'm talking about and whose mother she is? I would greatly appreciate any info on this, in a spoiler box.

[Fibber McGee]

Tangent, you are correct.

[Tangent]

Cool. Thanks, Fibber.

[New & Improved Scott]

Some other Fun Facts about Mystique:

She is really old. She has been around and fully matured since the second world war.

She had a child, Graydon Creed, with Sabretooth. This happened before Sabretooth was forcebly taken into the Team X project.

There are rumours surrounding her possible lesbianism. She had a close, but undefined relationship with Irene Adler, aka Destiny, for may years.

She is also Rogue's foster mother. In the comics, when Rogue had her disaterous first kiss, she was living with Mystique and Destiny.

And she is indeed Kurt's mother, he was fathered by a german count who didn't know she was a mutant, but Kurt's birth shattered her illusion and she had to run away. She abandoned him, and he eventually ended up with the circus.

A good note on her family tree/relations can be found here: http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/article/showquestion.asp?faq=8&fldAuto=72

[Silentgoldfish]

I thought she'd had something to do with Rogue (in the comics for the spoiler wary).

[Skeezix]

[Complete and Utter Highjack]
Leaper: No step-brothers, and no connection to King. Can I ask just what prompted that connection to you? I'm insanely curious, now.
[/Complete and Utter Highjack]

I'd have taken this to email, but yours isn't public. If it's something you'd prefer not to discuss in public, feel free to drop me a line.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled mutant discourse, already in progress.

[Skeezix]

Highjack?

Yeesh, I must need more sleep than I've been getting.

[Leaper]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I had to answer Skeezix: It's just an identical nick. That's all. :)

To get back to the topic, I see the novelization and comic adaptation are out. Flipped very quickly through the comic. Looks WAY too short, not to mention sucky. Still looking forward!

[Skeezix]

Ooh, look, just like a Marvel character, it's back from the dead!

Leaper, was the comic a complete adaptation, the first in a series, or a "prequel?"

I recall when the first flick came out, there were comics available (actually, we got ours at the ticket booth, with the price of admission) that set up the backstory of the characters. It was... less than top shelf stuff. In fact, it dragged in the Silver Samurai, a character never even hinted at in the movie.

I also recall that, many moons ago, when Marvel released a movie adaptation, it was often done as a two or three part mini-series. Could that be why the book you saw was so short?

Weird, that, about the screen name.

[Gorgon Heap]

What are you people talking about no "BAMF"!?

There is too a BAMF!

I listened very carefully during the wild-neat-o trailer and when Nightcrawler leaps into the air doing a circle-kick to a bunch of guys he BAMFs out of there.

It was NEAT NEAT NEAT!!!

[shy guy]

To get back to the topic, I see the novelization and comic adaptation are out. Flipped very quickly through the comic. Looks WAY too short, not to mention sucky. I think that's just a fault of recent Marvel adaptations. Whatever your opinions of the Daredevil movie, the comic adaptation was one of the worst things I've read in a long time.

[dalovindj]

My favorite was the cops advancing on the mutants and the teen looking kid saying "You know all those awful and dangerous mutants you here about on the news?" :cops look at each other nervously: "Well I'm the worst one. . ." Followed by the kid fireballing a couple cops and their cars and a flash to Picard commenting about the kids showing off. Awesome. Who was that kid supposed to be?

DaLovin' Dj

[bouv]

I'm concerned about that cat licking Wolverine's claws at the end of the trialer. Aren't is claws so sharp that the poor kitty's tongue would be gone?

[Munch]

Originally posted by dalovindj
My favorite was the cops advancing on the mutants and the teen looking kid saying "You know all those awful and dangerous mutants you here about on the news?" :cops look at each other nervously: "Well I'm the worst one. . ." Followed by the kid fireballing a couple cops and their cars and a flash to Picard commenting about the kids showing off. Awesome. Who was that kid supposed to be?

DaLovin' Dj

I believe that's Pyro, a bad mutant who can manipulate existing fire (i.e. he can't create it, but he can turn a candle flame into Mt. Vesuvius).

[Alphagene]

Originally posted by Cataclysm
I'm actually a bit worried about how Alan Cumming will be as Nightcrawler. Hopefully he'll be able to portray our favourite fuzzy blue elf in the way that he deserves.
See, I'm not so worried about the fuzz, or lack thereof. I haven't been into the X-Comics recently but back when i did read 'em, including the Alan Davis Excalibur days, Herr Wagner was treated like a dashingly angular and fit buccaneer who just happened to be blue with a prehensile tail.

But AFAIK, his character was really designed to be externally grotesque and not the cute fuzzy elf that many fans later described him as. Sure he's noble, sensitive, and a class act all the way, but that plays even better when people are flat-out repulsed by his appearance. I like that facial tattoo thing he's got going on, too.